the impact of post-reading group discussions in l1 and l2 on farhangian university students' l2 reading comprehension

The argument on the use of first language in the second/foreign language classes has long been popular in research on second language acquisition. this study was an attempt to examine the effects of post-reading group discussions in first and second languages on semnan farhangian university students l2 reading comprehension. to do so, a group of 18 undergraduate female students who had enrolled in an esp course were selected conveniently. they were randomly divided into three groups of six people. they read three english texts and made individual writings. the control group answered in writing without discussion; the second group discussed the texts in persian before writing, and the third group discussed the texts in english before composing the written works. the results revealed that group two had longer discussions and used more words per text, provided more details and insights into each of the texts, and provided greater evidence of knowledge and use of successful comprehension strategies in comparison with the other two groups, proposing that l1 group discussion had a positive impact on the students l2 reading comprehension. this study has implications for l2 reading instructors and efl students.