START Reading Comprehension Skills for Undergraduate Students: An Empirical Study

This study aimed to scrutinize the effect of the Students and Teachers Actively Reading Test (START) framework on Al al-Bayt undergraduate students' reading comprehension. The study pursued a quasi-experimental design that involved two cohorts: intervention and control. The intervention cohort included 33 students and the control cohort contained 34 students. These students came from various backgrounds and reading levels but were all enrolled in English (101) during the 2nd term of the 2019-2020 school year. To collect data, the researchers developed both an educational program depending on the START framework and a pre-posttest. The tools were presented to a jury of 10 referees to prove their validity. They were also piloted to prove their stability. The instructional program encouraged the teacher to use scaffolding techniques and reading strategies to instruct the students. Data were extracted according to the statistical packages program (SPSS). Based on the statistical analysis, the pre-posttest showed significant discrepancies among the participants of the two groups