The Impact of KWL Strategy in Developing Palestinian Eleventh Graders' Reading Comprehension and their Attitudes Towards Learning English Language

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating the impact of KWL strategy (Know - Want to Know-Learned)in developing Palestinian eleventh graders' reading comprehension and their attitudes towards learning English language. The researchers adopted the experimental approach on a sample of (64) male students from the scientific stream at Al Manfalouti Secondary School for Boys, who were randomly selected from the population of (968) students enrolled in the scientific stream in the Middle-Area Directorate of Gaza, for the school year 2013-2014. The participants were divided into two equivalent groups: one as a control group which consists of (32) students and the other as an experimental one which consists of (32) students. The researchers used the KWL strategy in teaching the experimental group, while the traditional method was used in teaching the control one. The researchers used three instruments to achieve the study aims:1) a checklist for teachers to determine the five most important reading comprehension skills, 2) a pre and post reading comprehension test, and 3) a pre and post attitude scale towards English language. The experiment lasted for six weeks (2 lessons per week) in which the researchers implemented the study tools on both the control and experimental groups to investigate the effect of KWL strategy. The study results indicated that there were significant differences in the mean scores of the experimental group and that of the control group in the post reading comprehension achievement test in favor of the experimental group attributed to the effectiveness of KWL strategy. Additionally, the study results revealed that there were statistically significant differences in the mean scores of the experimental group and that of the control group in the post application of the attitude scale towards learning English in favor of the experimental group attributed to the effectiveness of KWL strategy. In the light of those findings, the study recommended that curriculum designers and decision makers should consider strategies such as KWL strategy to activate students' prior knowledge while building the curriculum activities. The study also recommended that Palestinian English language supervisors should hold training courses to motivate the use of innovative strategies like KWL strategy to develop teacher's abilities in teaching English.