Designing an instructional model according to bales's theory and testing its impact on reading comprehension and developing university students' metacognitive and communicative skills

The problem of this study exemplifies the poor achievement of the prescribed population in reading comprehension which is attributed to the traditional method applied by teachers of English in the non departmental courses. Accordingly, the first aim of the current study is to design an instructional model in the light of Bales's social interaction theory to teach English Educational Texts. The second aim is to test the impact of the designed instructional model on reading comprehension and developing students' metacognition and interpersonal communication skills. Three null hypotheses have been set concerning this aim. The third aim is to find out the statistically significant correlation between the three independent variables. The population includes all the second year students in the morning and evening classes in the Department of Education and Psychology/ College of Education/ University of Mosul for the academic year 2010- 2011. Students in the morning classes have been chosen intentionally as a sample of the study. They have been divided into two groups. The experimental group includes 36 students: 23 males and 13 females. The control group includes 35 students: 16 males and 19 females. The sample as a whole consists of 71 students: 39 males and 32 females. Both groups were made equivalent in respect of all factors, except for the exposure to the independent variable. Three instruments have been prepared by the researcher and administered to the sample of the study, viz. reading comprehension test, metacognition test, and interpersonal communication skills scale. The results of the study revealed the impact of the DIM in improving the three dependent variables.