The Effectiveness of the Functional Reading Strategy in Developing Literary Text Analysis and Persuasive Expression Skills among Fifth-Grade Literary Students

Abstract

The current research aimed to identify the effectiveness of the Applicative Reading Strategy in developing literary text analysis and persuasive expression among fifth-grade literary stream students. To achieve this aim, the researcher formulated two null hypotheses concerning the differences between the mean scores of the experimental and control groups on the post-tests at a significance level of (0.05).

The researcher adopted the experimental method with a quasi-experimental design of two equivalent groups (pre-test/post-test). Al-Muthanna Preparatory School for Boys, affiliated with the General Directorate of Education in Baghdad/Al-Rusafa First, was selected purposively as the application site. The sample consisted of (62) students equally distributed between two sections; by random drawing, one section was assigned as the experimental group taught according to the strategy, while the other was assigned as the control group taught conventionally. The two groups were equated on five variables. The researcher prepared two instruments: a literary text analysis test of (30) items distributed across six analytical levels, and a persuasive expression test of three persuasive situations corrected through a five-criterion analytical rubric. The validity and reliability of both instruments were established with acceptable coefficients.

The statistical analysis revealed the superiority of the experimental group over the control group with statistically significant differences on the literary text analysis test (t = 9.42) and the persuasive expression test (t = 10.16), with a very large effect size (η² = 0.597 and 0.633 respectively).

The research recommended employing the Applicative Reading Strategy in teaching all branches of Arabic language at the preparatory stage; issuing an operational guide containing daily lesson plans and ten model lessons to be distributed to teachers; holding short training courses for teachers of the literary stream within the annual professional development program; adopting the analytical five-criterion rubric in evaluating persuasive expression; supplementing the Literature and Composition textbooks with a "From Text to Production" applicative activity at the end of each text; and incorporating use-oriented analytical questions in formal examinations at no less than 30% of the total mark.