The Function of "Reciprocal Teaching" Strategy on Improving Arabic language Comprehension Among non-Arabic Undergraduate Students

Comprehension is a mental process and its goal is to achieve the meaning of the text. This process is intertwined with several other sub-processes through which the reader understands the meaning and interprets the material according to their cognitive background and experiences. To improve comprehension skills, one must pay attention to the strategies used in language teaching and learning, because teaching methods are shaped by teaching strategies. The goal of the "reciprocal teaching" strategy is to develop the "comprehension" skills of Arabic learners, including students. Research is trying to find the answer to this question. To what extent has the application of the Reciprocal Teaching strategy been effective in improving the comprehension skills of Arabic language learners? This research has been done in a quasi-experimental way and in the process, pre-test and posttest have been used. The statistical population includes 60 female students of Imam Sadegh (AS) University of Tehran in the academic year 1397-1398 who are randomly divided into experimental and control groups. Each group consisted of 30 students, then the strategy of "reciprocal teaching" was implemented in the experimental group and the traditional method was implemented in the control group. After reviewing the data using appropriate statistical methods and SPSS statistical software, the results showed that the members of the experimental group (who studied according to the reciprocal teaching strategy) scored better than the members of the control group (who studied according to the traditional method). Suggestions for future research have been made, including the use of the reciprocal teaching strategy in teaching comprehension of specialized Arabic texts to non-Arabic speakers.