The efficacy of developed materials on reading

What is it about?

This paper reports the results of an intervention program aimed at improving academic reading skills of foundation level students at a College of Technology in Oman. The study aimed at finding out whether the in-house materials were effective in helping tertiary level learners to perform better in reading in an examination setting. The study included an intervention with two experimental and two control groups (N = 84) selected from level 3 in the foundation program. The experimental groups were taught using context-specific in-house materials while the control groups were instructed using a prescribed textbook (Ready to Read Now) for one semester. Data were collected through four research instruments and, data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistical tests to determine whether there was any effect of the context-specific materials on the performance of the experimental groups in the post-test. The findings indicated statistically significant (p < .001) difference between the pre-test and the post-test for the experimental group. Based on the findings of the study, it can be concluded that in-house materials are more effective in helping English Foreign Language (EFL) tertiary level students to improve their academic reading skills than using commercially produced textbooks in (EFL) programs in the context of technological education in Oman.

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Why is it important?

We found the context-specific materials which we designed, produced and used with the experimental group effective in improving students' academic reading skills. This indicated that EFL teachers should not depend on commercially produced materials that have been written with no specific group of learners in focus.