The effects of student teams’ achievement division on Ethiopian EFL secondary school students’ reading comprehension and social skills development

Abstract

This paper aimed at investigating the effects of the Student Teams Achievement Division (STAD) technique on improving reading comprehension and social skills among eleventh grade EFL students. In the study, a quasi- experimental design was employed by involving two intact groups which were randomly selected from 13 grade 11 sections at Kobbo Senior Secondary School, and were, gain,  randomly assigned into experimental and control groups. The experimental group received reading skills instruction using the STAD technique over an eight-week period while the control group was taught the skills by following the conventional instructional methods as presented in the students; textbook. Data were collected through pre- and post-tests, along with pre- and post-intervention social skills questionnaires. Results of the post-test and post-intervention questionnaire revealed that students in the experimental group exhibited significantly higher reading comprehension skills (in terms of making predictions, scanning, making inferences, guessing meanings of unfamiliar words, identification of antonyms and synonyms, and identifying main ideas) and improved social skills (in the skills of leadership, decision making, trust building, turn taking, active listening and conflict management skills) compared to their peers in the comparison group. These findings suggest useful implications for EFL curriculum design and teacher training.