Mediation as a post-reading task for EFL adolescents’ literal and inferential comprehension

Abstract

This study examined the effects of mediation as a post-reading task on literal and inferential comprehension among adolescent learners of English as a foreign language. Mediation involves learners collaboratively constructing the meaning of a text. It was hypothesized that learners’ communication about what they had read would facilitate the reorganization of text content. Twenty 9th-grade students read narrative and expository passages in conditions with and without the mediation task. Literal and inferential comprehension were assessed using a written recall test and inferential questions. Results indicated that the effect of the mediation task on literal comprehension was stronger for narrative texts than for expository texts. Students comprehended causal antecedents and themes in narrative reading and showed better performance only for causal antecedents in expository reading. Verbal protocols obtained during the mediation task revealed meta-comments used by students to communicate text content. The study discusses pedagogical implications for collaborative reading instruction from a sociocultural perspective.