Abstract:
The objectives of this study were to compare Mathayomsuksa 2 students reading comprehension ability before and after being taught by integrating SQ4R-based lesson plans with the use of authentic texts in English, and to investigate the students satisfactions towards such teaching method. The study was carried out with 38 Matthayomsuksa 2 students at Thoengwithayakom School, Chiang Rai. They were purposively selected. The study employed a one group pretestposttest design. The research instruments were four SQ4R-based lesson plans for reading authentic texts, a 40-item reading comprehension test, a self-designed questionnaire on students satisfactions towards learning to read authentic text through SQ4R-based lessons, and a focus group interview. For quantitative data analysis, means, standard deviation and a dependent t-test were used. The interview data was analyzed by means of content analysis. The results of the study revealed that the students posttest mean scores in reading comprehension were higher than those of the pretest at the .01 level of statistical significance. Thus, the students reading comprehension ability significantly increased after learning through the SQ4R-based lesson plans integrated with the use of authentic texts. The findings from the questionnaire indicated that the students overall satisfactions towards the lessons was at a high level. The students had positive attitudes towards the lessons, particularly the opportunity to improve their vocabulary knowledge which was in line with their increased vocabulary scores in the posttest. The lessons increased their motivation and confidence in reading as well as enabled them to apply the gained knowledge to read authentic texts in English for real-life purposes. "