exploring the effect of creativity and creative teaching on reading comprehension skills of iranian intermediate efl learners in private language institute

The way that reading skill or reading comprehension is taught is of primary importance in efl classes. giving the feeling of pleasure to the learners as one of the most important functions of creativity can be considered in an fl/sl learning context. everyone has the capability to think and behave creatively, and then it is the teachers’ role to foster creativity. this study aims at evaluating the creativity effect on reading comprehension skill of iranian intermediate efl learners, and on reading performance of different age and gender groups, as well as finding a correlation between efl learners’ creativity and their reading comprehension. a quantitative method with a post-test design was used to collect research data through toefl reading test and a creativity questionnaire. the creativity as the treatment and independent variable was applied to the experimental group of the learners for four months. according to the results, creativity effect on reading comprehension skill, and correlation between two variables were statistically significant. furthermore, the results showed no statistically significant difference between age and gender sub-groups’ reading comprehension. consequently, age and gender were not considered factors affecting reading comprehension of efl learners in a creative instructional environment. the findings suggested that the reading comprehension teaching practices should be accompanied with creativity-fostering activities and techniques as a prerequisite in the classrooms.