چكيده
The present study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of utilizing think-aloud protocol on reading comprehension of Iranian intermediate impulsive vs. reflective learners. For this purpose firstly, Nelson Language Proficiency Test was administered among 120 intermediate students in Nooe Eram and Sepidar language institutes in Iran, Tabriz, in order to homogenize the participants. Secondly, Nelson Reading Proficiency Test was distributed among the 90 participants, who had scored the acceptable mean (M= 37.04), as a pre-test. 90 participants were randomly assigned into two experimental and control groups. The participants in experimental group filled up Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 and Kember Reflectivity questionnaires. The students in experimental group received eight sessions of treatment instructing overall strategies in reading comprehension and think-aloud protocol in particular, while the subjects in control group received the traditional approach in reading comprehension with no strategy training. Post-test in reading comprehension was administered among the participants in experimental and control group. According to the descriptive statistics and independent sample t-test, which were run on the data obtained from the pre and post-tests, it was clearly observed that the experimental group scored significantly high mean in comparison to the control group. In other words, employing think-aloud protocol had positive impact on reading comprehension of learners. Also it was shown that, reflective learners outperformed the impulsive learners, in reading comprehension ability. Finding of the present study might help the language instructors and educators in employing think-aloud protocol as a promising approach in reading comprehension.
Key words: Think-aloud protocol Reflective learners, Impulsive learners, reading strategy.
