Improving Iranian EFL Young Learners’ Reading Comprehension Skills: Collaborative and Individual Reading in Focus

This study aimed to inquire about EFL reading sessions across Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) and Individual Reading (IR) among young EFL learners. In essence, the researcher’s goal was to investigate how reading sessions using CSR and reading aloud across individual and collaborative activities promote EFL learners’ reading comprehension skills. To this end, 2 Iranian EFL teachers from a primary school in Tehran, and 16 Iranian second-graders studying at a primary school in Tehran, were randomly selected as participants. Then, using teachers' reflective journals, participants' observations, and face-to-face interviews with teachers, the needed data were elicited and descriptively analyzed. The obtained results showed that reading sessions using CSR and reading aloud strategy across individual and collaborative activities promote learners' reading comprehension skills more than IR reading sessions. Moreover, teacher-student interactions (TSI) and student-student interactions (SSI) proved beneficial in improving the participants' reading comprehension skills.