The Effects of an Integrated Reading Approach on Students’ Reading Comprehension The Case of Grade 11 Students at Alamura Secondary School in Hawassa

Abstract

The study aimed to examine the effects of an integrated reading approach on students’ readingcomprehension. For this purpose, first, the researchers conveniently selected 40 grade 11 students fromAlamura Secondary School in Hawassa. Next, they divided them into experimental and comparison groups,with 20 students in each group. Before the intervention, both groups took a reading comprehension pre-test.The experimental group received training on extensive and intensive reading and was taught through theirintegration, while the comparison group continued learning with a conventional reading approach. Theexperimental group had access to extensive reading materials for eight weeks and was encouraged to readoutside of class. They kept reading logs to track their progress. After the intervention, both groups took areading comprehension post-test, and the data distribution was checked and found to be normally distributed,allowing the use of independent- and paired-sample t-tests. The results showed that the experimental groupperformed better than the comparison group, and the difference was statistically significant (p-value = 0.001for independent-samples t-test and p-value = 0.000 for paired-samples t-test). The findings suggest studentsto engage in integrated reading, and EFL teachers to integrate extensive reading into conventional readingclasses. The finding also suggests schools allocate time for integrated reading and syllabus designers andmaterial writers to consider incorporating extensive reading into the curriculum. Additionally, furtherresearch is needed to confirm these results.