Imaginative versus Non-Imaginative Texts for Lower-Secondary EFL Reading Comprehension: A Quasi-Experiment
Abstract
Reading comprehension remains challenging for many lower-secondary EFL learners, creating a need for texts that support active meaning construction. This study asked whether, under a shared four-meeting reading sequence, a Grade 8 class using imaginative texts would achieve higher posttest reading-comprehension scores than a class using non-imaginative texts. Imaginative texts were operationalized as story-based texts intended to evoke mental imagery and engagement with represented events and situations; the comparison texts were not categorized as imaginative. A nonequivalent pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design involved 42 students, with 21 students in each intact class. Both groups received topic activation, individual reading, vocabulary clarification, comprehension questions, and retelling. Pretest scores were low (experimental M = 40.38, SD = 5.62; control M = 40.95, SD = 12.77), and no statistically detectable between-group difference was found, t(40) = -0.18, p = .858; this result does not establish equivalence. At posttest, the experimental group (M = 75.29, SD = 12.93) outperformed the control group (M = 56.57, SD = 12.83) on raw posttest scores, t(40) = 4.49, p < .001, Cohen's d = 1.39. Fifteen experimental students (71.43%) versus three control students (14.29%) reached the good or very good categories. The findings suggest a context-specific advantage for imaginative texts within structured EFL reading instruction, while the intact-class design, brief intervention, repeated test form, and incomplete psychometric documentation limit causal and generalizable claims.
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.31004/jele.v11i5.3174
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