Volume 7-6 October 2011.

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Title
Effects of Intensive Reading on the Mastery of Grammar in Iranian Junior High School Students

Author
Mahdi Rajaee Nia (M.A.)
University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran

Biodata
Mahdi Rajayee Nia is an M.A. student in TEFL at Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran. His research interests include language learning attitudes, language belief, and SLA.

Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the kinds of effects that reading in a second language has on the grammatical knowledge and language performance of Iranian junior high school students studying to learn a foreign language. Firstly, two classes were chosen, one of them was considered as the controlled group and the other as the experimental group. At the beginning of the course both groups were given a pretest to see if they are the same level. Then, after exposing the experimental group to specific reading materials, a post-test was run. The findings show that the experimental group outperformed the controlled group. In other words, the group receiving the treatment performed significantly better than the controlled group. The informal interview with the students in the penultimate session also suggested that after the course the students in the experimental group had positive attitudes towards learning grammar.

Keywords: grammatical mastery, junior high school students, intensive reading,