Transactional distance as an instrumental concept affects the learning process, particularly in distant education. This quasi-experimental study aims to implement problem-based learning (PBL) in EFL online education and investigate its impact on transactional distance and comprehension ability. Two groups of participants from the basic level participated in this study. One participated as an experimental group (N = 40) and the other as a control group (N = 40). The participants’ language proficiency was checked by the Ket English Test (KET). These two groups followed PBL and lecture-based methods respectively. These two groups accomplished pre-testing and post-testing on Transactional Distance Scale (RSTD) by Paul, Swart, Zhang, and MacLeod, (2015) and a reading comprehension test constructed by the researcher. Based on multivariate and one-way analysis of variance, the findings showed that the experimental group had a low level of transactional distance and a high level of comprehension ability. Practitioners should draw their attention to constructivists’ methods of teaching if they want to provoke deep meaningful learning in EFL educational contexts. The results of this study can demonstrate that it is possible to bring about changes in EFL educational settings to promote language learning and class is the main place where the change can occur. پرونده مقاله

To cultivate effective reading, all teaching practices must develop higher-order processing, which involves enhancing reading comprehension and its components of vocabulary, grammar, and text structure. This quasi-experimental research aimed at implementing problem-based learning (PBL) with hard scaffolds in a general English course in the Iranian EFL context to investigate its impact on the participants’ reading comprehension. Two intact groups of elementary students, one as the experimental group (N = 40) and one as the control group (N =40) whose homogeneity in language proficiency was checked through the Key English Test (KET) were selected. The experimental group underwent the PBL method with hard scaffolds and the control group received a mainstream reading instruction method. The two groups completed pre-and posttests of reading comprehension. The results of the study, based on multivariate analysis of covariance, indicated that the PBL group with hard scaffolds outperformed the control group in reading comprehension, including its components of vocabulary, grammar, and text structure. The results of the study suggest that practitioners could pay special attention to the PBL method in EFL educational contexts to enhance students’ higher order processing, vocabulary and grammar learning, and text structure knowledge. پرونده مقاله