THE IMPACT OF IRANIAN LEARNERS’ AWARENESS OF VOCABULARY LEARNING STRATEGIES ON READING COMPREHENSION AMONG PRE-INTERMEDIATE EFL LEARNERS

The present study investigated the effect of learners’ awareness of vocabulary learning strategies on reading comprehension. To achieve this purpose, a language proficiency test of Nelson ( Fowler & Coe, 1976) was administered to 120 Islamic Azad University students of Dareshahr and ultimately 60 homogeneous students whose scores were above the mean were selected and randomly assigned to control group and experimental group. Both groups worked on the equivalent reading passages. The subjects in experimental group were also instructed in awareness raising and the use of vocabulary learning strategies following Oxford (1990) while the subjects in control group received conventional teaching vocabulary training without any treatment for a whole academic winter semester, 2008. The result of the post-test showed that raising learners’ awareness of vocabulary learning strategies had positive impact on reading comprehension of students. The findings of this study also indicated that metacognitive, cognitive and social strategies are the most frequent strategies employed by students in experimental group. The results of the study suggested material designers may produce lessons based on strategy-instruction especially on cognitive, metacognitive and social strategies ( p<.05). The results revealed that integration of the above strategies into the classroom instructional plan and regular class activities help pre-intermediate EFL students more effectively.