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Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) Volume 17. Number 1, March 2026 Pp.379-396
Faculty of Education
Nakhon Si Thammarat Rajabhat University, Thailand
Task-based instruction is widely accepted as an effective teaching method, as it helps improve communicative competence via meaningful tasks. This study investigated effects of a task-based oral presentation on reading comprehension of Thai undergraduate English student teachers majoring in English in the Faculty of Education. Participants were 28 second-year students (16 high reading proficiency and 12 low reading proficiency students). They were selected by the convenience sampling method. The instruments were pre- and post-reading comprehension tests. The scores from the two tests were compared after a 10-week task-based oral presentation. The results from the Paired-sample t-test indicated that the oral presentation task significantly improved the students’ reading comprehension. An Independent Sample t-test was further employed to compare the pre- and post-test scores between the high- and low-proficiency groups. The results revealed that the high proficiency group significantly outperformed the low reading proficiency group. Additionally, in the pre-reading comprehension test, two significant differences at the 0.01 level were found in reading for topics and reading for details. In contrast, a significant difference at the 0.05 level was found in the meaning in contexts. In the post-test, however, a significant difference at the 0.01 level was found only in reading for details. Implementing a task-based oral presentation in a reading class is suggested to help improve students’ reading comprehension, especially among students with low reading proficiency
Thaweemueang, W. & Chumworatayee, T. (2026). Effects of a Task-based Oral Presentation on Thai Undergraduate English Student Teachers’ Reading Comprehension. Arab World English Journal, 17(1): 379-396
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Weerasak Thaweemueang is an assistant professor and full-time lecturer in the English Program, Faculty of Education, Nakhon Si Thammarat Rajabhat University, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in English Language Teaching at Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand. His main interests are task-based instruction and reading strategy instruction.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-7814-8143
Tipamas Chumworatayee is an associate professor teaching both post and undergraduate courses at the Language Institute, Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand. She obtained her PhD from the Department of Reading, College of Education, Texas Woman’s University, Texas, USA. Her main interests include ELT methodology, ELT teacher training, EFL reading-strategy instruction, and EFL reading-strategy awareness-raising. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-7187-0388