An Account of Iranian EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension in a Culture-Based Instructional Environment: Does Gender Play a Role?
Subject Areas : Research in English Language PedagogyEhsan Namaziandost 1 , Sajad Shafiee 2
1 - Department of English, Faculty of Humanities, Shahrekord Branch, Islamic Azad
University, Shahrekord, Iran
2 - Department of English, Faculty of Humanities, Shahrekord Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shahrekord, Iran
Keywords: Target Culture, Cultural Knowledge, gender, Source Culture, L2 Readers, reading comprehension,
Abstract :
One of the major issues in language learning classrooms is familiarity with the cultural perspective of reading materials. Learners' insufficient knowledge of the target culture of language brings about some difficulties to understand the target reading materials. Consequently, learners' motivation to learn the new language would be diminished. Thus, the current study aimed to investigate the impact of teaching cultural materials on improving Iranian EFL learners’ reading comprehension across two genders. To this end, 150 upper-intermediate male (n = 75) and female (n = 75) EFL learners out of 250, were selected through administering an Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT). The participants of each gender were randomly assigned into three equal groups: group A (Target Culture = TC), group B (Source Culture = SC), and group C (Culture-Free = CF). Then, a reading comprehension pretest was administered to assess the participants’ reading comprehension at the beginning of the course. After the pretest, the researchers practiced the treatment on the three groups. Each group received reading comprehension materials that reflected a particular culture. During the treatment, some reading passages related to American and English culture (for group A), Persian culture (for group B), and culture-free materials (for group C), were taught. Finally, a posttest of reading comprehension was administered after the treatment. The results showed that teaching culturally oriented materials improved the Iranian EFL learners’ reading comprehension better. Furthermore, the findings demonstrated that there was no significant difference between male and female learners’ reading comprehension posttest. In light of the findings, a number of conclusions are drawn and several implications are put forward.
Alijanian, F., Mobini, F., & Ghasemi, P. (2019). The correlation between Iranian EFL learners’ intercultural sensitivity, vocabulary knowledge, and English language proficiency. Issues in Language Teaching, 8(2), 109-135. https://doi.org/ 10.22054/ilt.2020.49017.450.
Alptekin, C. (2006). Cultural familiarity in inferential and literal comprehension in L2 reading. System, 34(4), 494-508. 10.1016/j.system.2006.05.003.
Al-Shumaimeri, Y. (2006). The effects of content familiarity and language ability on reading comprehension performance of low- and high-ability Saudi tertiary students studying English as a foreign language. Educational Sciences & Islamic Studies, 18(2), 1–19.
An, Sh. (2013). Schema theory in reading. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 3(1), 130-134.
Anderson, N. J. (2008). Active skills for reading 2: Student's book. Heinle Elt.
Bakhtiarvand, M., & Adinevand, S. (2011). Is listening comprehension influenced by the cultural knowledge of the learners? A case study of Iranian EFL pre-intermediate learners. RELC Journal, 42(2), 111-124.
Barron, B., & Bell, P. (2015). Learning environments in and out of school. In D. C. Berliner & R. C. Calfee (Eds.), Handbook of educational psychology (pp. 323–336). Routledge.
Bedford, D. A. (1981). Aspects of the relationship of cultural information to motivation and achievement in foreign language acquisition. Hispania, 64(4), 584-588.
Bereiter, C., & Scardamalia, M. (2014). Knowledge building and knowledge creation: One concept, two hills to climb. In S. C. Tan, H. J. So, J. Yeo (Eds.), Knowledge creation in education (pp. 35–52). Springer.
Birsch, J. R. (2011). Multisensory teaching of basic language skills. Paul H. Brookes Publishing Company.
Coles, M., & Hall, C. (2002). Gendered readings: Learning from children’s reading choices. Journal of Research in Reading, 25(1), 96–108. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9817.00161.
Ebrahimi, B., & Weisi, H. (2019). Genre variation in the introduction of scientific papers in Iranian and international computer science journals. Issues in Language Teaching (ILT), 8(2), 51-82. https://journals.atu.ac.ir/article_10965_b6dccdfc380ee0eb7671bc8f333b4227.pdf.
Elbro, C., & Buch-Iversen, I. (2013). Activation of background knowledge for inference making: Effects on reading comprehension. Scientific Studies of Reading, 17(6), 435-452. doi:10.1080/10888438.2013.774005.
Farhadi, H., Jafarpur, A., & Birjandi, P. (1994). Testing language skills from theory to practice. SAMT.
Farnia, M., & Gerami, S. (2019). A comparative study of reading comprehension texts in touchstone series: A social-semiotic perspective. Research in English Language Pedagogy, 7(2), 313-335. doi: 10.30486/relp.2019.665891.
Ghonchepour, M., Pakzad Moghaddam, M., Kalantari Khandani, E., & Farrokhi Barfe, M. (2020). A socio-demographic study of attitude/motivation in learning English as a foreign language. Research in English Language Pedagogy, 8(1), 71-100. doi: 10.30486/relp.2019.669078.
Hassan Salumy, A., & Kadhim Bairmani, H. (2016). The impact of culture on EFL college students' comprehension of reading text. Journal of Kerbala University, 14(1), 120-132.
Johnson, P. (1982). Effects on reading comprehension of building background knowledge. TESOL Quarterly, 16(4), 503-515. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.2307/3586468.
Lee, L., & Gundersen, E., (2014). Select reading. Oxford University Press.
Liu, Y. C. (2015). The perception of cultural familiarity and background knowledge on reading comprehension for intermediate EFL students. International Journal of Language and Literature, 3(1), 71-75. http://ijll-net.com/journals/ijll/Vol_3_No_1_June_2015/9.pdf.
Logan, S., & Johnson, R. (2009). Gender differences in reading ability and attitude: Examining where these differences lie. Journal of Research in Reading, 32(2), 199-214. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9817.2008.01389.x.
Mohammad Hosseinpur, R., & Mousavi, Z. (2021). Politeness in Instagram: The employment of gratitude speech act by male and female English and Persian users. Research in English Language Pedagogy, 9(1), 1-23. https://doi.org/ 10.30486/relp.2020.1897275.1197.
Namaziandost, E., Shafiee, S., & Rahimi Esfahani, F. (2020). The impact of cultural familiarity on vocabulary learning through reading among Iranian upper-intermediate male and female EFL learners. Iranian Journal of Learning and Memory, 3(9), 53-64. https://doi.org/10.22034/iepa.2020.237879.1183.
Oda, A. H., & Abdul-Kadhim, M. R. (2017). The relationship between gender and reading comprehension at the college level. Journal of Basrah Research the Humanities sciences, 42(6), 426-442.
Rangriz, S., & Harati, M. (2017).The relationship between language and culture. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Language Research, 4(6), 209-213. http://www.jallr.com/index.php/JALLR/article/view/677.
Rezaei, O., Barati, H., & Youhanaee, M. (2012). The effect of content familiarity & test format on Iranian EFL test takers’ performance on test of reading comprehension. International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature, 1(4), 1-14. http://www.journals.aiac.org.au/index.php/IJALEL/article/view/737.
Sasaki, K., Yoshinori, J., & Gakuin, A. (1991). Effects of cultural familiarity on reading comprehension. Language Learning Journal, 33(3), 183-95.
Saslow, J., & Ascher, A., (2011). Top notch series. Pearson Longman.
Shirzadi, D. (2015). The effects of cultural knowledge on Iranian EFL students’ reading comprehension across male and female learners. Journal of Languages and Culture, 6(4), https://doi.org/24-29. 10.5897/JLC2014.0271.
Solheim, O. (2011). The impact of reading self-efficacy and task value on reading comprehension scores in different item formats. Reading Psychology, 32(1), 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1080/02702710903256601.
Sotoudehnama, E., & Asadian, M. (2011). Effect of gender-oriented content familiarity and test type on reading comprehension. The Journal of Teaching Language Skills (JTLS), 3(2), 155-178. https://doi.org/10.22099/jtls.2012.388.
Tarchi, C. (2010). Reading comprehension of informative texts in secondary school: A focus on direct and indirect effects of reader’s prior knowledge. Learning and Individual Differences, 20(5), 415-420. https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.lindif.2010.04.002.
Tavakoli, M., Shirinbakhsh, S., & Rezazadeh, M. (2013). Effect of cultural adaptation on EFL reading comprehension: the role of narrative nativization and foreign language attitude. World Applied Sciences Journal, 21(11), 1587-1596. https://doi.org/10.5829/idosi.wasj.2013.21.11.1492.
Tseng, Y. (2002). A lesson in culture. ELT Journal,56(1), 11-21.
Yang, X. (2017). Cultural background on reading comprehension in junior high school. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 8(2), 370-374.
Zeynali, S. (2012). Exploring the gender effect on EFL learners’ learning strategies. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2(8), 1614-1620.
Zhan, C. (2016). The importance of culture factor in foreign language teaching. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 6(3), 581-585.