the effect of online strategy-based instruction on iranian efl learners' reading comprehension during the covid-19 pandemic

The current study set out to investigate the effect of online strategy-based instruction (sbi) on reading comprehension ability of iranian efl learners. to fulfill the purposes of this study, 40 intermediate efl learners were selected and randomly assigned to two groups including a control and an experimental one. subsequently a questionnaire and a reading comprehension test were administered to the two groups as pretests. then both groups underwent the same amount of teaching time (10 sessions) using a course book. the students in the experimental group also received the instruction of six reading strategies consisting of making connections, predicting, questioning, monitoring, visualizing, and summarizing. finally, the two questionnaires and the reading comprehension test were administered as the posttests to both groups and the scores were compared using mancova. the populations of the study were iranian efl learners. the sampling was based on a convenience sampling procedure. the participants were ranged from 15 to 30 in terms of age studying in an institute. in one online group teaching reading skills are based on sbi and in another online group the instruction is without strategies in a normal way. they were placed in the relevant groups after taking a t-test. the scores of the test must be in a same range and there must not be any significant differences in their scores. the results of data analyses revealed that sbi significantly affected reading comprehension of foreign language learners. teachers are encouraged to employ sbi to enhance learners’ reading comprehension.