A comparative analisis of the effects of three prereading activity types on the reading comprensión of fourth-semester students of Spanish in an Engl…

2009

Reading texts with historical and socio-political content in a foreign language (FL) is usually a challenge for second language (L2) students. The obstacles encountered by the students should be of concern to language instructors and coordinators. Lack of background knowledge causes the reader to abandon the activity with a sense of disappointment and frustration. This quantitative semester long study examined and compared the effects of two different types of pre-reading activities on the reading comprehension of college students of Spanish fourth semester when reading texts about socio-political and historical issues. The pre-reading activities are guided cooperative versus textbook-based…