Abstract
Abstract To create skillful readers, dialogic teaching has become a considerable teaching pedagogy for common understanding of reading texts. Considering it, this study aimed to examine the effects of dialogic teaching pedagogy (DTP) on students’ reading comprehension and dialogic interactions. A quasi-experimental, non-equivalent pretest–posttest design was employed since random assignment could not be applicable. 94 sixth-grade EFL students were included in intact classes. The intact groups were selected based on their pre-test reading comprehension test, which also was used as a baseline for the study. The sections were randomly assigned to control (n = 46) and experimental (n = 48) groups. A high reliability of instruments was confirmed with the alpha coefficient: Pre-test α = 0.853 and Post-test α = 0.850. It was also piloted with a similar population and background. The reading comprehension test score was computed following the 16-week intervention. Data had also been collected from interviews and structured observations. The experimental group achieved a higher mean reading comprehension score (M = 17.56) compared to the control group (M = 14.37). This difference was significant (t = 6.947, df = 93, P < 0.001), which means DTP (Dialogic Teaching Pedagogy) supported students in understanding what they read. The effect size (Cohen’s d = 0.716) was also high, showing that this teaching method had a major impact on reading skills. Similar findings were recorded with qualitative results, indicating that DTP considerably boosted learners’ reading and interactions. Thus, it is recommended that DTP should be adopted as an alternative pedagogy to enhance students’ reading comprehension and their interaction in ELT instructions.