The Effects of Prereading Activities on The Tenth-Graders Achievement in Reading Comprehension in Tulkarem District

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of prereading activities on Tenth Graders' reading comprehension in Tulkarem district. The population of the study consisted of all the Tenth Graders in the public schools of Tulkarem Directorate of Education in the academic year 1999/2000. The sample of the study which was selected according to pre-determined criteria consisted of (294) students divided into 4 male and 4 female sections. Three male and three female sections were assigned to the three experimental groups, while the remaining two male and female sections were assigned to the control group. This study attempted to answer the following questions: 1- Is there any significant differences at (α = 0.05) in the students' achievement between first and second applications for the verbal, previewing and the graphic activities groups? 2- Is there any significant differences at (α = 0.05) in the students' achievement between first and second applications for the control group? 3- Is there any significant differences at (α = 0.05) in the students' achievement on the first application due to gender, group and interaction between gender and group? 4- Is there any significant differences at (α = 0.05) in the students' achievement on the second application due to gender, group and interaction between gender and group? To answer the questions of the study, the researcher selected an appropriate reading passage, prepared the required prereading activities, and constructed a reading comprehension achievement test after reviewing several studies and adopted the positive points from them. Each experimental group was taught according to one of the three prereading activities (verbal, previewing and graphic) while the control group was taught without using any prereading activities. Afterwards, students in all groups were asked to answer the questions of the reading achievement test. The results were analyzed using two way analysis of variance, paired t-test, and Sheffee Post-Hoc test. The findings of the study indicated significant differences in favor of the experimental groups taught using the prereading activities, and also indicated that there is stability of achievement between the first and second application. The findings also revealed significant differences in the reading achievement test scores attributed to sex and no significant differences attributed to the interaction of sex with activity. In the light of the findings, the researcher recommended that teachers should give more attention to the prereading stage by using appropriate prereading activities. He also recommended further research to investigate the effects of other prereading activities on the students' reading comprehension skill.