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Abstract The current age has many changes in all fields of life. The rate of these changes is very great. As a result of these changes, educators should pay more attention to education. Learning the English language is considered one of the most important requirements of this age. As reading and listening are very important skills, so more attention should be paid for developing the EFL reading comprehension and the listening skills. There is a necessary need to change the traditional classroom to improve learning and social relations among classmates. According to Sweet & Snow, (2003) reading is one of the four language skills. It constitutes an integral part of any language curriculum. It is the most important skill for most students of English throughout the world – reading helps students learn to think in English, enlarge their English vocabulary, improve their writing and prepare them to study in English – speaking country. It’s also a good way to find out about new ideas, facts, and experiences and to practice English in a non – English speaking country. Reading has a great importance for most students of English throughout the world. So reading teachers should pay more attention to this skill and help students attain full understanding of the reading texts and develop their reading skills. The Rand Reading group redirected the conceptualization of literacy from the view of reading as an individual, product-oriented process to a socially constructed, language-mediated process. Therefore, meaning-making processes should be examined in the light of international, collaborative activities that result in the co-construction of meaning between and among readers and not just as the product of a single reader’s individual process. from this perspective, there are some theories that embody a reconceptualization of reading in its current view, specifically in a second language (L2), an area that traditionally describes reading mainly as the product of cognitive and linguistic processes based on individual reading and not as an interpersonal, collaborative activity (Grabe, 2009; Hinkel, 2006; Hudson, 2007; Sweet & Snow, 2002). A Sociocultural Perspective of Reading: Currently, L2 reading is viewed as an interactive process based on first language (L1) reading theories (Birch, 2007; Grabe, 2009; Grabe & Stoller, 2011, 2013). Interaction is characterized in two ways. It can refer to a reader’s simultaneous use of lower-level identification skills and higher-level comprehension strategies. It can also refer to the interplay of the reader with a text that activates specific individual schemata such as content knowledge of topics, scripts, perspectives, and the first language (L1) on the one hand, and formal knowledge of text features ranging from sound-symbol relationships to discourse organization on the other hand. Therefore, the basis for a different focus is Vygotskyan sociocultural theory (SCT), which helps characterize reading comprehension as a result of another kind of interaction—one that occurs when two readers jointly construct meaning. The shift towards a view that reading comprehension emerges as an outcome of the interaction among participants leads us to consider how reading is related to two important tenets of Vygotskyan SCT: mediation and the zone of proximal development (ZPD) . Listening has always been a crucial part of interaction. It is not just hearing the other side, but through the message, having an agreement or giving the right answer with the aid of grammatical and pragmatic knowledge understanding the speakers’ accent or pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and grasping meaning (Yavuz et al, 2015). Listening is one of the most vital skills in language. It enables language learners to receive input and facilitates the emergence of other language skills (Vandergrift & Goh, 2012). Listening is a crucial means of acquiring second or foreign languages, not just a skill in language performance (Carter & Nunan, 2001). Listening, as a key skill in language for its vital role in language acquisition and learning, has been a cornerstone of many theories (Flowerdew &Miller, 2005). The role of listening is significant in language learning, but it is still an area where learners feel most powerless and disappointed (Taghinezhad & Bazyar, 2015). Ghaderpanahi (2012) asserted that among the four language skills, listening is the slightest accurate one, so it is the hardest skill to acquire. It is a very complex process and most learners have serious problems in using it (Vandergrift & Goh, 2012). Bingol, et al., (2014) stated that there are some potential problems in language learning classes including cultural differences, accent, unfamiliar vocabulary of physical conditions, lack of concentration, length, and speed of the listening. Brown (2011) adds inability to control the speed, inability in word repetition, having limited vocabulary, inability in recognizing the signals, lack of contextual knowledge, listeners’ lack of concentration in a foreign language, and some wrong learning habits: text, task, speaker, and listener as additional causes to listening problems Kurita,(2012) mentioned that the development of listening skill helps learners to succeed in language learning to enhance comprehensible input. Since learners’ self-reliance in listening will be increased, they will be motivated to have access to spoken English such as conversations with native speakers. The process of listening moves through the first three steps-receiving, attending, and understanding in sequence. Responding and remembering may or may not follow, as it might be desirable for listeners to respond immediately or to remember the message in order to respond at a later time. 1.2. Background of the Problem: Out of the researcher’s experience as a teacher of EFL, it is noticed that secondary school students depend, in their reading, on the teacher, dictionary and the text’s explicitly stated ideas. Rarely do they read beyond the lines or infer, predict or judge a piece of reading. They rarely set the purpose of the written text, visualize, question, clarify, get the message, distinguish between literal and implied meanings, comprehend the main idea, write complete sentences, or use details in writing. It is also noticed that there are some problems, which face students when they are listening. Such problems are speed of delivery, new terminology and concepts, difficulties in concentrating, and problems related to physical environment. In other words, secondary school students lack reading comprehension and listening skills. To document the problem, the researcher conducted a pilot study through administering reading comprehension and listening skills tests, prepared by the researcher, to a random sample of first year secondary school students. This pilot study aimed to measure students reading comprehension and listening skills. The results of the study indicated the weakness of students reading comprehension and listening skills in the English language classrooms. The majority of the students (about 70%) could not analyze or evaluate what they read. They could not make predictions, draw inferences, summarize the text, understand the message, distinguish between the literal and implied meanings, recognize contradictions or reconstruct the structure and the meaning of ideas expressed by others. Because of these problems, the researcher suggests the interactive approach to help the learners develop their reading and listening skills. This approach is based on the interaction between the students during the learning process. The approach has many strategies and activities that will be used in this research. They are different from following the recording of a text or reading it without interacting with a partner (Anderson, 2009; Commander & de Guerrero 2013). 1.3. Statement of the problem: The problem of the current research lies in the weakness of secondary school students in reading comprehension and listening skills. So the researcher attempted to investigate the effectiveness of the interactive approach in developing the EFL reading comprehension and listening skills for first year secondary school students. 1.4. Questions of the research: The present research attempted to answer the following main question: What is the effectiveness of the interactive approach in developing the reading comprehension and listening skills among first year secondary school students? Out of this main question, the following sub-questions were stated: 1) What are the reading comprehension and listening skills that first year secondary school students should possess? 2) How far is the interactive approach effective in developing EFL first year secondary school students ’ overall reading comprehension and listening skills? 3) How far is the interactive approach effective in developing first Year secondary school students’ reading comprehension levels: a) Literal level. b) Inferential level. 4) How far is the interactive approach effective in developing first year secondary school students’ listening sub skills? 1.5. Aim of the research: The present research aimed at developing the reading comprehension (literal and inferential levels ) and listening skills for the first year secondary school students via using the interactive approach. 1.6. Significance of the research: This research could be significant to: 1. Students: as it could help in: A. developing students’ reading comprehension skills. B. developing the listening skills. 2. Teachers: as it could help in: A. providing teachers with a new methodology to enhance their teaching skills. B. enabling teachers to use this new methodology to develop the reading comprehension skills and the listening skills of their students. 3. Curriculum and/or program designers: as it could help in: A. providing a new methodology to enhance the educational process. 1.7. Participants of the research: The participants of this research were sixty four first year secondary school students from Betebs secondary school, Shebin El-kom city in the first term of the academic year (2019-2020). Their ages ranged between fifteen and sixteen years old. They were divided into two groups: one group served as the control group and the other served as the experimental group. Both groups were pre-tested using the instruments of the research. Then, they were post-tested after experimentation. 1.8. Delimitations of the research: This research was delimited to: 1- Some EFL reading comprehension skills including the literal and inferential levels of comprehension and the skills contained in each level. 2- Some listening sub skills that are suitable for first year secondary school students. 3- Sixty four first year secondary school students in Betebs secondary school. 4- The first semester of the academic year 2019 – 2020. 1.9. Instruments and Materials of the Research: The present research made use of the following instruments: 1- A reading comprehension skills checklist to determine the most important reading comprehension skills necessary and relevant for first year secondary school students. 2- A listening skills checklist to determine the most important listening skills necessary and relevant for first year secondary school students. 3- A pre-post reading comprehension skills test that was prepared by the researcher. 4- A pre-post listening skills test that was prepared by the researcher. 5- A teacher’s guide to be used in the study experiment. 6- The interactive approach that used to develop the EFL reading comprehension and listening skills. 1.10. Variables of the research: The independent variable of this research was represented in using the interactive approach, while the dependent variables were represented in first year secondary school student s’ reading comprehension skills (literal and inferential) and their listening sub skills. 1.11. Design of the research: The present research adopted the pre-post test quasi-experimental design. There were two groups (the control group and the experimental group).The two groups were tested before conducting the experiment. During the experiment, the experimental group was taught using the interactive approach, whereas the control group was taught using the current method. At the end of the experiment, the two groups were posttested. 1.12. Operational Definition of Terms 1. The Interactive Approach The researcher operationally defines it as the dynamic nature of the interplay between learners and their peers, their teachers and others with whom they interact. It is a successful teaching approach in which small teams, each with students of different levels of ability, use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject. Each student is responsible not only for improving his or her own understanding of the given material but also for helping other students or group members achieve it. It is all about instructing the students in a way that they are actively involved with their own learning process. There are different ways to create an involvement like this most of the time through teacher-student interaction, student-student interaction, the use of audio, visuals, video and hands-on demonstrations and exercises. The students are engaged in an activity or task that will make them think and analyze 9 the information being taught. It may occur at every stage or level of a lesson, from getting the students engaged in the topic, through actively and consciously taking part in discovering language and rules, to free and active production. . 2. The Reading Comprehension Skills: The researcher operationally defines reading comprehension as the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with the written language. Reading comprehension is the ability to understand what we read where words have context and texts have meaning. Reading comprehension skills allow us to read proficiently, learn effectively and conceptualize. 3. The Listening skill: The researcher operationally defines it as: a skill which involves not only receiving sounds in a passive way but also listening occupies an active and immediate analysis of the streams of sounds. |