The Effect of Using RAP Strategy on Developing Reading Comprehension Skills for Seventh Graders in Gaza Governorates The Effect of Using RAP Strategy on Developing Reading Comprehension Skills for Seventh Graders in Gaza Governorates

This research aimed to investigate the effect of employing the RAP as a strategy to develop the reading comprehension skills among seventh graders in Gaza governorates. For the purpose of the study, the quasi-experimental approach was used on a sample of (80) female students from Rafah Martyrs' Preparatory Girls' School divided into two equivalent groups. The experimental group included (44) female students, while the control one included (36) female students. The tools of data collection were a checklist of reading comprehension skills and reading comprehension test. To analyze the collected data, t-test was conducted. Furthermore, to examine the effectiveness of RAP strategy in developing reading comprehension skills, the effect size was measured. The results indicated that there were statistically significant differences at ( 0.05 ≥ (in the mean scores of the reading comprehension skills in favor of the experimental group. In light of these results, the researchers recommended that English teachers use RAP strategy to develop reading comprehension skills for students.

The main question of the research is: What is the Effect of using RAP strategy on developing reading comprehension skills for seventh graders in Gaza Governorates? The sub-questions of this research are as follows: 1. Are there statistically significant differences at ( 0.05 ≥ (between the mean scores the experimental group gets on the post-test of reading comprehension skills and that of the control group? 2. Are there statistically significant differences at ( 0.05 ≥ ) between the mean scores the experimental group gets on the pre-test of reading comprehension skills and their mean scores on the post-test of reading comprehension skills? Hypotheses of the research 1. There are statistically significant differences at ( 0.05 ≥ (between the mean scores the experimental group gets on the post-reading comprehension skills and that of the control group. 2. There are statistically significant differences at ( 0.05 ≥ ) between the mean scores the experimental group gets on the pre-test of reading comprehension skills and their mean scores on the post-test of reading comprehension skills.

Significance of the research
This study explored the impact of using RAP strategy on developing 7 th graders' reading comprehension skills. The importance of the current investigation relies on the benefit that the study may provide for the students, English teachers and supervisors. In more details, the significance of the current investigation can be summarized as follow: It may encourage English teachers to make classroom teaching effective via RAP strategy, It may help seventh graders to develop their reading comprehension skills, It may stimulate supervisors' interest in conducting training courses for their teachers to enhance the use of RAP strategy in their classes. Scope of the research 1. This study was conducted in Rafah Governmental schools. 2. This study was conducted on a sample of female seventh graders. 3. The study was took place during the first semester of the academic school year (2019-2020). Definition of operational Terms RAP strategy: is a group of systematic and sequenced steps and procedures found in the teacher's guide. Reading comprehension: is an interactive mental activity between seventh graders and the reading texts. It is evaluated by the total score that students achieved in the test of reading comprehension.

Definition of Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension is defined as the ability of students to read, recognize, and understand the text. It also reflects the author's purpose for writing the text (Ramos, 2018). Kuhail (2017) also defines reading comprehension as extracting meaning from the written text. Furthermore, Yunitasari (2015) asserts that reading comprehension as a purpose of reading is not just for reading but to understand the message that the writer wants to convey. Moreover, Al Salmi (2011) conceives reading comprehension as the outcome of what meaning a text carries and what the reader brings to a written text through the reading process. Therefore, the researchers concluded that comprehension occurs due to the interaction between the knowledge that a reader already has and a text.

Goals of Reading Comprehension in English in Palestine
In (2015), the Palestinian Ministry of Education, listed specific objectives for grade seven to be achieved. Therefore, the reading texts were consciously and accurately selected to tackle various genres on global and local levels. In the same vein, other factors were considered when choosing the reading comprehension passages namely; the learners' age and level. In this regard, the Ministry of Education (2015) pointed out the following objectives: -Answering questions that require facts, judgment, and evaluation.
-Reading aloud to guarantee the correct intonation and pronunciation.
-Determining nouns referred to by pronouns.
-Making questions out of the reading texts.
-Making a summary of the reading texts.
-Guessing about reading texts.
-Drawing conclusions and interpretations based on reading texts.
-Recognizing the concept of synonyms and antonyms of vocabulary in a reading text.
-Identifying the main concepts and the secondary notions in a text.
-Understanding rhetorical structures and their indications.
-Inferring the meaning of new vocabulary from the given context.
-Skimming to get the general meaning of a text or graphs.
-Classifying information into facts and opinions.
-Deducing the writers' attitude and tone.
-Scanning for specific information in a text.
-Explaining information displayed in tables and graphics.
-Reflecting on texts by personal opinion and evaluation.
-Identifying the text's time, place, topic, people. etc.
-Synthesizing as well as extracting data from various texts. (English Language Curriculum, 2015. p. 31)

The Reading Comprehension Levels
Reading comprehension is a mental process through which readers use their minds to understand a reading text. So, it requires certain mental abilities to conclude meaning from a text. This means that readers are expected to extract ideas at various levels. Lynskey and Stillie (2000) classified the levels of reading comprehension into five categories: 1. Literal level: At this level, teachers ask their learners to extract information that is explicitly stated on the page. Also, the students can answer questions directly from the text and comprehending the direct meaning of a reading text 2.Reorganization level: This level is related to information classification, data collection, and organization. 3.Inferential level: In this level, students should read carefully to decipher what meaning is hidden between lines. 4.Evaluation level: In this level, students should be able to determine what is an opinion and what is a fact.
. 5 Appreciative level: Here, the students react to a passage with a realization of its language, usage, and emotion.
Furthermore, Weih (2018) presents four levels of reading comprehension: literal, inferential, application, and evaluation . 1. Literal level: In this level, students grasp the direct denotation of a reading text. It is related to the direct and easy questions. Collage, (2004) explains that in the literal level of reading comprehension, teachers may ask; what did the writer say? It means that students or readers can remember the needed information to answer such a question without understanding the deep meaning of a paragraph. Teachers can also ask their students to read the reading texts for facts, numbers, and dates. Students may memorize such numbers. However, students do not know the real inference of such facts, in case they are out of that text. The reading subskills in the literal level are predicting, scanning, determining the general ideas of a text, extracting specific information from a menu, advertisement, calendar, schedule, tickets...etc.) 2. Inferential level: At this level, students understand the writer's message that he wants to convey through the text. In this regard, Collage (2004) emphasizes that in the interpretive level, students are expected to answer what is meant by what is said. Students are also ready to explain the implication and indication of the numbers and facts which they have already memorized in the literal level. 3. Application-level: At this level, students can understand and grasp the data included in the text and relate it to other situations. In other words, the students analyze or synthesize the given information. 4. Evaluation level: It means to read what is beyond the lines. In other words, students can classify knowledge and information in a text into facts and opinions. Additionally, in this level students are expected to judge the logic of the text. It is worth mentioning that the critical level occurs in two stages i.e. understanding what is the reading text implies. Here, it is divided into three sections; what a text says (restatement), what a text does (description) and what a text means (interpretation). Accordingly, the researchers list the following reading comprehension levels: By recognizing what is beyond the text and connecting between ideas, students should be able to: -Realize the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary.
-Understand the information illustrated in the charts.
-summarize a reading text.
-Analyze the text's components such as setting, theme, character. etc .
-Make implications about a reading text .
-raise awareness of semantic fields. 3.The Evaluation level: This level deals with assessing and judging the knowledge and information given in a text in terms of value, quality, and appropriateness. At this level, students should be able to determine what is an opinion and what is a fact, and the subskills of this level are: -Answering inferential, judgment and evaluation questions.
-Distinguishing between the main idea and the supporting details.
-Relating text to facts, experience, opinion, or evaluation. -Recognizing rhetorical segments and their purposes. 4.The creative level: This level goes beyond understanding the direct meaning of a text to overcome the surface meaning drawn by words structured on-page. Accordingly, students are expected to create and generate new ideas and concepts. The subskills of this level include the following: -Generating questions about a reading text . -Inferring mood and authors' attitude or tone .
-Extracting and synthesizing information from different sources. Schumaker, Dentón and Deshler (1984) explain that RAP is intended to assist understudies by concentrating on the most significant data in a section and to improve understudies' review of primary thoughts and explicit realities. Besides, Dalimunthe(2017) characterizes RAP procedure as a straightforward technique that is effortlessly fused into the existing educational plan without removing time from basic substance guidance. This three-advance procedure (read, ask, reword) can improve the perusing understanding of understudies with and without handicaps and it is very adaptable. It may very well be utilized for basic, center, and secondary school understudies across a wide range of substance regions.

Definition of RAP Strategy
Mufida (2015 ) states that the RAP procedure expects understudies to be involved in the perusing of materials by addressing and rewording their knowledge of the material. RAP is a threeadvance procedure: Read a passage; ask yourself, "What are the principle thought and two subtleties?" and put it into your own words. RAP is a technique that can assist in recognizing and remembering what they've been perusing. Specialists see that the RAP system is used to assist understudies with understanding and recollect what they peruse, as indicated in the past depiction, and can assist learning in preparing for homeroom work. It also instructs understudies to look at fundamental thoughts and realities from their materials of understanding. What's more, a perusing appreciation system requests that understudies discover primary thoughts and subtleties from each passage that is perused and afterward to summarize orally that data. Likewise, this methodology can be utilized showing perusing appreciation for essential, preliminary, optional, and college understudies.

The pros and cons of RAP Strategy
Like any other teaching strategy, RAP has its own pros and cons in teaching the skills of reading comprehension. In this regard, Mufida (2015) and Mentari (2018) report the following benefits: increase the chance of students' work or cooperative work, motivate the students to search for details, involve students, explain directly to understand. However, in terms of the disadvantage of the RAP strategy, Mentari (2018) says that it takes a long time to set up its activities and material.

Previous studies
Mentari (2018) explored the implementation of (RAP) strategy for improving reading comprehension for first grade of SMAN 15. A quantitative approach was followed. The respondents of this study were (33) students. The instrument was a test of reading comprehension. The study findings clarified that students' reading comprehension was upgraded after the researchers used (RAP) strategy in teaching reading comprehension. In light of the findings, the researchers recommended the teachers to use (RAP) strategy in their teaching.
In the same context, a study by Chinijani (2017) tested the effectiveness of (RAP) strategy on enhancing Iranian EFL learners reading comprehension. The study adopted the quasiexperimental design as a research approach. The sample consisted of (60) male students. The tool of the study was the reading comprehension test. The study's findings showed significant differences in favor of the experimental group.
Similarly, Dalimunthe (2017) investigated the impact of using (RAP) strategy on developing reading comprehension for students. The researchers used an experimental design. The sample consisted of (80) students of two classes. The experimental group consisted of (40) students and the control group consisted of (40) students. The researchers used (RAP) strategy in teaching the experimental group and the ordinary method in teaching the control one. The researchers used 20 items of multiple-choice tests for collecting data. The researchers conducted the t-test, the findings of which indicated significant differences in the reading comprehension skills in favor of the experimental group.
Additionally, a study by Tiala (2017) aimed to improve reading skills of second graders at MTSN Belopa through using (RAP) strategy. The study adopted action research. Thirty-five students participated in the study. The instruments of the study were an observation checklist and a reading comprehension achievement test. The findings indicated that the (RAP) strategy was effective in improving reading skills. Furthermore, the finding of the observation checklist indicated that the students were more creative in the classroom when using (RAP) strategy.
In the same vein, Mufida (2015) explored the effectiveness of (RAP) strategy in improving reading comprehension among the first graders of SMAN 1 Rejotangan. The researchers used an experimental design. The sample consisted of (31) students, (11) males and (20) females. The tool of the study was a reading comprehension test. The results emphasized the differences in mean scores of the pre and post-test in favor of the post-test. Finally, the researchers recommended future researchers to use these findings as an additional reference and as a consideration in conducting future research.
A further study by Yunitasari (2015) explored the effectiveness of employing the (RAP) as a strategy on enhancing the skills of reading comprehension among 8 th graders' at SMPN 15 Yogyakarta. The research design was action research. The sample consisted of (36) eighth graders. The instruments of the study were observation cards, interviews, and tests. The types of data were quantitative and qualitative. The quantitative data were obtained from tests and the qualitative data were collected through classroom observation and interviews. The findings of the study revealed that the students' reading comprehension skills were improved through using (RAP) strategy. Besides, there were differences in the mean scores between post-test and pre-test in favor of the post-test.
Moreover, Blume (2010) explored the effectiveness of employing the (RAP) on enhancing skills of reading comprehension among disabled learners. An experimental design was used. The sample of the study consisted of three fourth grade students from the Midwest. The tool of the study was ten comprehension questions (5) literal comprehension questions and (5) inferential. The findings indicated that (RAP) strategy had little effect on literal comprehension, improved learners' inferential reading comprehension and reading comprehension developed two months after (RAP) was discontinued.

Commentary on previous studies
Most of the previous studies above focused on developing and improving reading comprehension. Some of these studies adopted the experimental design such as Dalimunthe's (2017), Blume's (2010), and Chinijani's (2017). Other studies used action research such as Yunitasari's (2015) and Tiala's (2017). The dependent variable in all studies is reading comprehension but in the current study, the reading comprehension skills are the dependent variable. The independent variable in all the other studies is the strategy of Read Ask Paraphrase, also the current study chose the strategy of (RAP). The results of all studies indicated a significant effect of RAP strategy on developing and improving reading comprehension. The current study benefits from the previous studies in writing the definitions of the study, rationale of the study, and literature review. The population of the above-mentioned studies is different. In Blume's (2010) the population was fourth-graders and in Yunitasari's (2015) was eighth-graders but in the current study, it is Palestinian seventh graders.

The Research design
This research followed the quasi-experimental design, which requires (2) groups. The experimental group and the control group. The researchers used RAP strategy to teach the experimental group while they used traditional method to teach the control group.

The sample of the research
The respondents of the two groups consisted of (80) students, the experimental group was of (44) female learners while the control group was of (36) female learners. The sample was chosen randomly from Rafah Martyrs' Preparatory school for girls. All groups of the students were within an equal level of culture, financial level, and social class. Also, the sample of students was homogeneous in their level of achievement based on their marks in the final-second term exam of the school year (2018-2019). It is worth mentioning that all school classes were divided according to their achievement in the courses. Therefore, the participants in this study were alike regarding the level of the English language. Additionally, the variable of age was also controlled among the respondents before the intervention of the current study.

Instrumentation
To attain the aims of the research, a checklist of the reading comprehension skills and a pre-post achievement test were prepared.

First: A checklist of reading comprehension skills
Steps to build the list A checklist of the reading comprehension skills was organized as follows: 1. reviewing all studies that have dealt with the skills of reading comprehension and the theoretical framework of studies. 2. The researchers identified and classified the skills of reading comprehension into four levels and (20) skills. Table (2) displays the list of skills in the first form .

Table (2) A list of reading comprehension skills (first form) Literal Level. -
Reading familiar vocabularies in a correct pronunciation. 1.

3.
Scanning for exact information from the reading texts.
Eliciting level -Deducing meaning of unfamiliar words from context. 7.
Interpreting information presented in diagrammatic display. 8.
Summarizing a reading text. 9.
Analyzing components of text such as setting, theme, character. etc. .
Developing awareness of synonyms and antonyms. 12.
Developing awareness of semantic fields (word mapping).
Distinguishing main idea from supporting details. 15.
Relating text to facts, opinion, experience or evaluation. 16.
Recognizing rhetorical markers and their functions. 17.

Creative level -
Generating questions about a reading text . 18.
Inferring mood and authors' attitude or tone . 19.
Extracting and synthesize information from different sources 20.
The checklist of reading comprehension skills was given to a sample of teachers chosen randomly, including personal information such as gender, qualification, experience, and years of teaching seventh grade. Then, the most significant reading comprehension skills were selected, based on their relative weight. So, the ones with more than (80%) were included in the checklist. Accordingly, (9) reading comprehension skills out of the (20) have got more than (80%). Table (3) indicates the ratios of teacher responses. The previous table shows that (11) reading comprehension skills, having the numbers (1,4,8,9,10,12,13,15,16,19,20) are slightly important for seventh graders. The skills in the final form consist of (9) skills to be evaluated through a pre-post achievement test as in table (4).

The Effect of Using RAP Strategy on Developing Reading Comprehension Skills for Seventh Graders in Gaza Governorates
Mohammed El-Nahhal, Walid Amer, Ezzo Afana Relating text to facts, experience, opinion, or evaluation. 8.

Creation level. -
Generating questions about a reading text . 9.

Second: A reading comprehension test
The researchers set up the achievement test to be implemented pre and post the intervention aiming at evaluating the students' level in terms of reading comprehension skills.

The goals of using the achievement test
The test investigated the effect of RAP strategy on enhancing 7 th graders reading comprehension skills.

The items of the test
The test included two reading comprehension passages. The selected passages were chosen from Students' Book 2016 of grade seven (English for Palestine 7A). The 1 st passage discusses animal magic. It is available in Unit 3, period 3 page 22 of English for the Palestine curriculum. The second passage discusses the goal. It is available in Unit 6, period 3 page 42. Students had not taken this text in their schools yet.

The pilot study
The researchers applied it on (33) students from Rabaa El-Adwea Preparatory school for girls, considering that the ones who participated in the pilot study were not targeted in the experiment. The findings of the pilot study were statistically analyzed for the validity and reliability of the test.   (5) shows that the correlation of each item is significant at (0.01) except item (8). Upon that, it is showed that the test items are valid to be adopted in this research.  The researchers measured the difficulty coefficient, they found that all the items of the test were acceptable except for item (8) in the fourth skill. The items of the test became (39) divided into nine skills.

Discrimination coefficient for reading comprehension test
The researcher calculated the discrimination coefficient according the following equation: Discrimination Coefficient = No. of the correct items of the high achievers -No. of the correct items of low achievers No. of high achievers

622
The researchers measured the discrimination coefficient, they found that all the items of the test were acceptable with the exception of item (8) in the fourth skill. The items of the test became (39) divided into nine skills.

Controlling the variables
The researchers controlled intervening variables before the study to confirm the findings' accuracy. According to table (9) there were no significant differences at (0.05) among the mean scores the experimental group got on the pretest of reading comprehension skills and that of their counterparts in the control group. This proves that the two groups are equivalent regarding the reading comprehension skills.

Results of the research 1. Answering the first question which states :
Are there statistically significant differences at ( 05 .

≥ (between the means scores in reading comprehension skills in the post-test that the experimental group and the control group get?
To answer the first question, the researchers tested the following hypothesis: There are no statistically significant differences at ( 05 . ≥ (between the means scores in reading comprehension skills in the post-test among the experimental group and the control group. To investigate this hypothesis, t-test independent sample was used to explore the differences between the experimental group and the control group. The (t) value in table (10) equals (12.996), and the same table shows that it is significant at level (0.01). As a result, the null hypothesis was rejected and the alternative hypothesis was accepted. It means that there are significant differences at ( 0.05 ≥ (in means scores among the experimental group and the control group in the post test in favor of the experimental group. To specify the effect size of the teaching strategy on developing reading comprehension skills for the sample of the study, the researchers computed (2) using the following formula: (Afana, 2016: p.217) The formula of (d) value ( Afana, 2016:p.201).  The value of "2 " , " t", and "d" value presented in table (12) show the large effect size of the use of (RAP) strategy on improving the reading comprehension skills.

Answering the second question which states :
Are there significant differences at ( 05 . ≥ ) in mean scores between the pre-test and post-test of the experimental group? To answer this question, the researchers tested following hypothesis: There are no statistically significant differences at ( 05 . ≥ ) in mean scores between the pre-test and post-test of the experimental group? To investigate this hypothesis, the t-test paired sample was used as in table (13). Table (13) shows that the computed (t) value for the mean scores of the reading comprehension test equals (19.306) and that it is significant at level (0.01). As a result, the null hypothesis was rejected and the alternative hypothesis was accepted. This means that there are significant differences at ( 0.05 ≥ (in mean scores between the pre-test and the post-test in favor of the post-test.

Findings:
-The result of the first hypothesis revealed that there were statistically significant differences at ( 0.05 ≥ (in means scores between the experimental group and control group in favor of the experimental group.
-The result of the second hypothesis revealed that there were statistically significant differences at ( 0.05 ≥ (in mean scores between the pre-test and the post-test of the experimental group in favor of the post-test.

Limitations of the research:
The findings of the research are generalized considering the following limitations: 1.The research adopted quasi-experimental approach. 2.The research excluded male learners and dealt with female learners only. 3. The research dealt only with two passages and not all comprehension skills were investigated.

Interpretation of the results related to question number one.
The first question investigated if there were statistically significant differences at ( 0.05 ≥ ( in the mean scores in reading comprehension skills in the post-test between the experimental group and the control group. The answer to the first question indicates that there were significant differences at (α= 0.01) in favor of the group who learned through RAP strategy. This is attributed to the clarity and simplicity of RAP strategy in teaching reading comprehension. Moreover, RAP strategy has some useful characteristics such as increasing the chance of students' work or cooperative work, motivates the students to search for details, involve students, and explain directly to understand. Finally, it's concluded that these findings agree with some of the previous studies such as Dalimunthe's (2017), Blume's (2010), Chinijani's (2017), Yunitasari's (2015), Tiala's (2017) and Mufida's (2015) which confirmed that the use of RAP strategy enhances and develops students' reading comprehension skills. Concerning' value and '  2 ' value displayed in a table (12), it is noticed that the effect size of the (RAP) strategy was large on reading comprehension skills.

Interpretation of the results related to question number two.
The second question investigated if there were statistically significant differences at ( 05 . ≥ ) in mean scores between the pre-test and the post-test of the experimental group. The answer to the second question indicated that there were statistically significant differences at ( 0.05 ≥ (in mean scores between the pre-test and the post-test of the experimental group in favor of the post-test. This is attributed to the effective impact of using the RAP strategy in teaching reading comprehension. Moreover, students worked in groups to answer questions and felt confident in the classroom.

Recommendations
Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations are suggested: 1.For English teachers: -use the RAP strategy to create an appropriate environment of learning.
-play the role of a facilitator, guide, and supporter to aid students to obtain the skills of the language.
-To embrace modern strategies that increase the students' contribution.

For course designers:
-To maximize the time of the English language classes to help teachers to focus on the quality of learning.
-To augment the Teacher's Guide with recent strategies that improve the reading comprehension skills among students.

For further studies
The researchers present the following topics for future research: -The effectiveness of using the RAP strategy on improving speaking skills.
-Conducting studies using other new strategies to develop reading comprehension.
-Carrying out similar studies to the present study to examine other levels of school .

Conclusion
The aim of this study was to explore of the impact of using RAP strategy on developing 7 th graders' reading comprehension skills. The quasi-experimental design was used in the study. There were two equivalent groups (the experimental group and the control group) to achieve the aim of the study..
The sample of the study consisted of (80) students who were chosen randomly from Rafah Martyrs Preparatory 'Girls' school in Rafah city. The experimental group consisted of forty-four students and the control group consisted of thirty-six students. It was proved that the two groups are equivalent. Four tools were used to collect data: a checklist of reading comprehension skills and reading comprehension test (pre and post-test). Finally, the researchers concluded the following results: -The result of the first hypothesis revealed that there were statistically significant differences at ( 0.05 ≥ (in means scores between the experimental group and control group in favor of the experimental group.
-The result of the second hypothesis revealed that there were statistically significant differences at ( 0.05 ≥ (in mean scores between the pre-test and the post-test of the experimental group in favor of the post-test.