the effectiveness of an interactive -reading program on developing the reading skills and the empathic feelings of prospective teachers of english

The present study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of a proposed interactive-reading program on developing the reading skills and the empathic feelings of prospective teachers of English.  The sample of the study was a group of 70 male and female prospective teachers of English who were divided into two equal groups (n=35): experimental and control.  The experimental subjects were taught the proposed program; meanwhile, the control subjects were taught the traditional reading course.  For data collection, the present researcher designed and made use of two research instruments: The Test of Reading Skills, and The Inventory of Empathy Feelings. These two instruments were used as pre- and post-tests.

Research findings revealed that there were statistically significant differences between the means of the scores of the experimental subjects and those of the control subjects in the post-test, regarding both reading skills and empathic feelings, in favor of the former.

Finally, researchers, course designers, and teachers were recommended to focus on the affective, as well as the cognitive, impacts of reading on foreign language learning.