Impact of Mediation Types on Iranian EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension Strategies

Abstract

The sociocultural theory holds the idea that knowledge to be acquired should be mediated. It underscores the presence of mediation as a crucial factor in internalization of abilities. Given this, the present research was an attempt to examine the effect of mediation on learners' reading comprehension strategy in light of 2 approaches of response-based (RB) mediation (Vygotsky) and task-based (TB) mediation (Bruner) to intervention. To this end, the Reading section of the <em>First Certificate in English</em> (2010) and 1 cognitive and metacognitive questionnaire (Phakiti, 2003) were administered to 104 Iranian lower-intermediate EFL learners who were selected by convenience sampling. The questionnaire was given to the participants before and after the mediation session. MANOVA results revealed that not only had the learners' monitoring metacognitive strategies changed by interventions, but also the participants in the TB mediation group outperformed those in the RB mediation group.