The present study was conducted to examine empirically and systematically the effect of explicit instruction of Comprehension strategies on EFL learners‟ Reading anxiety and Reading Comprehension in Iranian high schools. To this end, two intact classes (65 students) participated in this study as members of control and experimental groups. The experimental group underwent 10 sessions of Reading strategies training based on McNamara, Ozuro, Best, and O‟ Reilly's (2007) 4-pronged Comprehension Strategy Framework. Data were collected through the employment of Saito, Garza, and Horwitz's (1999) Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS) and Preliminary English Test (PET) multiple-choice Reading Comprehension tests. All the students filled the FLRAS questionnaire and took the Reading Comprehension test two times, once as a pre-test one week before the beginning of instruction and the other as a post-test one week after the instructional treatment. After the post-test, a group of 7 students who received instruction participated in the focus group interview. T-tests were used to analyze the obtained statistical data. It was revealed that explicit Reading strategy instruction was quite beneficial in improving EFL high school students' Comprehension and reducing their anxiety level, while Reading anxiety and Reading Comprehension were negatively correlated. The results of the interview with the focus group revealed the positive effect of strategy training on learners' Reading Comprehension and alleviating Reading anxiety. This study rendered some educational implications for materials developers and instructors to invest on Reading as a fundamental skill in education.

The purpose of this research is to investigate Iranian English teachers’ perception of teaching Reading Comprehension and Reading Comprehension strategies and their use which can be influenced by individual factors such as gender and teachers’ teaching experience. To serve this purpose, 78 EFL teachers were selected in a stratified manner from West and East Azerbaijan’s language institutes and schools in the second semester of the academic year 2021. This sample included 54 females (=22 experienced, 17 developing, and 15 novices) and 24 males (=1 highly experienced, 6 developing, and 7 novice). To collect the research data, the first three sections of a five-point Likert scale standardized questionnaire was employed to tap teachers’ perception of Reading Comprehension and the importance of Reading strategies. The obtained data were analyzed through Two-Way between Groups Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to investigate the significant main and interaction effects of teachers’ gender and their teaching experience on their perception of teaching Reading Comprehension and Reading strategies. The results showed that the gender and teaching experience had no significant main or interaction effect on their understanding of the way Reading Comprehension should be taught or the paramount of Reading Comprehension strategies. Moreover, the findings unraveled some uncertainties in teachers’ perceptions of Reading Comprehension skills and misconceptions regarding the significance of Reading Comprehension strategies. The findings are pedagogical significant and will be discussed in length.