محمد محمدی

Inspired by Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory (SCT), the current study intended to investigate the effect of summary training (i.e., oral and written) on intermediate EFL learners’ reading comprehension in different conditions (i.e., individual and collaborative). Data collection tools and procedures encompassed PET test, First Certificate in English (FCE) reading pre-test, and post-test. First, to ensure that the instruments, scoring, as well as summary training procedures were reliable, the researchers conducted a pilot test. During the main study, 120 Iranian EFL intermediate male and female learners aged from 16-18 were considered as the main participants. Learners were divided into 6 groups (i.e., three individual and three collaborative conditions). Furthermore, each condition included three groups with oral summary, written summary groups, and no summary group. A post-test followed the treatment that lasted for 6 sessions. A series of ANOVA with follow up pair-wise comparisons and a series of independent-samples t-tests indicated that: (1) summary training, especially the oral one, was more effective in enhancing the EFL learners’ reading comprehension, and (2) members of the collaborative groups outperformed the members of the individual groups regarding their reading comprehension development. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed concerning enhancing the EFL learners’ reading comprehension.

INTRODUCTION: In recent years, the community-oriented approach has been proposed as one of the approaches used in crisis management. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the factors affecting community-oriented crisis management in Iran. METHODS: Initially, the subject of the study was defined and initial exploratory and library studies were conducted. Subsequently, the relevant factors and components were identified through the Delphi method and a researcher-made questionnaire and were then provided to the experts to give their opinions. These factors and components underwent analysis by statistical methods after that the qualitative and quantitative corrective opinions of the experts were received. Finally, the experts' consensus was reached regarding the appropriateness of the model, components, and the combination of factors. The study population in this section consisted of 28 academics and professionals familiar with the subject selected using a judgmental sampling method. Subsequently, to test the model, a researcher-made questionnaire was distributed among 353 selected individuals of the local community of South Khorasan Province, Iran, who were selected by random clustering method. The collected data in this section were analyzed in Smart PLS software (version 3) using confirmatory factor analysis. FINDINGS: The research findings included the validation of the model through the Delphi method and the test of the final model through confirmatory factor analysis. CONCLUSION: The results showed that four categories of preventive, preparatory, confronting, and reconstructive factors were effective on community-oriented crisis management, among which, preparatory factors with an impact factor of 33.5 had the greatest impact on community-oriented crisis management.