Reciprocal Teaching Strategy and Reading Comprehension among Indonesian EFL Undergraduate Students from Narrative Text Instruction

Abstract

Abstract

Reading comprehension remains a persistent challenge for Indonesian EFL learners, particularly when engaging with narrative texts that demand both literal understanding and interpretative skills. This study investigates the effect of the Reciprocal Teaching (RT) strategy on reading comprehension achievement among Indonesian EFL undergraduate students using narrative text instruction. Employing a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design, the research involved 62 undergraduate students enrolled in an English reading course at a university in Indonesia. The experimental group (n = 31) received instruction using the RT strategy—encompassing predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing—while the control group (n = 31) was taught using conventional reading methods. Data were collected through reading comprehension tests and analyzed using independent sample t-tests and paired sample t-tests. The findings revealed a statistically significant improvement in reading comprehension scores among students in the experimental group compared to the control group (p < 0.001), with a large effect size (Cohen's d = 1.04). The RT strategy demonstrated particular effectiveness in enhancing students' inferential comprehension and their ability to identify narrative text structures. These results affirm that Reciprocal Teaching constitutes an effective pedagogical approach for improving reading comprehension of narrative texts in Indonesian higher education contexts. The study recommends the integration of RT into EFL reading curricula and suggests avenues for further research on strategy-based reading instruction.

Keywords: Reciprocal Teaching, reading comprehension, narrative text, EFL learners, Indonesian higher education, metacognitive strategies