Purpose: This study aims to systematically investigate the impact of teaching summarizing and inferencing strategies on the reading anxiety of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners in an EFL context.
Design/methodology/approach: Ninety intermediate female EFL learners, aged 19 to 27, attending English classes at Tehran University Language Center, participated in this study. They took a piloted sample of the Priliminary English Test (PET) as a proficiency test. The classes were instructed by the same teacher, with the only difference being the treatment: the summarizing strategy group followed Zafarani and Kabgani's model (2014), while the inferencing strategy group followed Hall and Barnes's Model (2017). The Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale was administered to both experimental groups as a posttest after the treatment period.
Findings: Analysis using the Mann-Whitney U test revealed that the administration of a summarizing strategy led to a greater reduction in reading anxiety among EFL learners compared to the inferencing group. These findings suggest that EFL teachers may benefit from incorporating summarizing strategies to alleviate reading anxiety among learners.
Originality: This study contributes to the existing literature by providing empirical evidence of the effectiveness of summarizing strategies in reducing reading anxiety in the EFL context. It offers insights for EFL teachers to consider a broader range of strategies to address learners' anxiety issues, thereby enhancing the overall reading comprehension experience.
