The Role of Contextualized Storytelling in Helping Jordanian University Students Develop Their Reading Skills

Abstract

This paper aims at investigating the role of storytelling in helping the Jordanian university students develop their reading skills. It also aims at contrasting the effects of reading based on contextualized storytelling with reading based on dual-code model, text-only and multi-sensory approach reading to investigate the performance differences in reading comprehension and word recall. The participants were 30 first year undergraduate university students, who study English language and Translation at Isra University located in Amman, Jordan. They included 15 males and 15 females. The data were collected from a word recall test, an activity of story retelling in addition to a short questionnaire. The data were analyzed quantitively in the light of the research questions. The findings revealed that there is no significant difference between the mean scores of the three groups: two experimental groups and one control group) in term of the word recall test and the proposition. The multi-sensory approach is considered more effective intervention than Dual-Code Model and text-only reading in EFL learners’ overall reading comprehension was not proved in this study.