experiential learning: how it can have effect on iranian efl learners’ language growth and personal development

The present study was carried out in a reading comprehension class to determine the effect of experiential learning on a group of iranian efl learners language growth and personal development. a group of male and female sophomore learners of english (n=30) participated in the study, whose homogeneity was ensured at the beginning. the investigation was carried out during two phases. after receiving the treatment in the form of experiential learning in the first phase of the study, all of the participants were given a questionnaire, the content of which was about this type of learning. the purpose was to collect their comments about experiential learning and to see which types of experiential activities were more popular among the participants. in the second phase of the study, they were randomly divided into two groups who were exposed to different methods of teaching, content-based traditional method and experience-based method. then they were given a reading test, the result of which indicated which method of teaching was more successful. the quantitative analysis of the data with regard to the questionnaires revealed that most of the students showed a positive feeling towards experiential learning. the findings of the study also indicated that those who received experience-based method of teaching significantly outperformed the other group.