This research study investigates the impact of three sorts of simplification of reading comprehension passages through translating, paraphrasing and elaborating new words and expressions on the Iranian language teaching freshmen's reading comprehension ability. In phase one six English reading pas- sages in one of three types- (a) translated, (b) paraphrased, (c) elaborated words and expressions- were offered to 90 male and female subjects categorized in three groups for three consecutive ses- sions. The ANOVA statistical findings unraveled that paraphrasing had the significant meaningful impact on the subjects' reading comprehension ability. In phase two 180 students were divided into two sexes (i.e., males and females) in six thirty-subject groups to be exposed to the three aforemen- tioned reading comprehension approaches for six sessions. Comprehension was assessed by reading comprehension questions (10 items) and a twenty-item M/C test for each of the three abovemen- tioned passage types. The test data were analyzed through a 2X3 ANOVA Factorial design along with post hoc analyses. The results revealed that the female subjects benefited from paraphrasing more than the males while the males outperformed their counterparts in the realm of translated pas- sages. Elaboration helped the both sexes more or less to the same degree. Accordingly, the educa- tional materials developers and designers are considerably recommended to take this issue into con- sideration which may count as the ultimate objective of EFL reading instruction. تفاصيل المقالة

Metadiscourse is a widely used term in current discourse analysis and language education, referring to an interesting, and relatively new approach to conceptualizing interaction between text producers and their texts and between text producers and users. Despite the growing importance of the term, however, it is often understood in different ways and used to refer to different aspects of language use. In the present study the metadiscourse markers used in texts developed by non-native (Iranians) and the ones written by native (Americans) speakers are contrastively analyzed. The framework of this research was Ken Hyland's model (2005) proposed as interactional and interactive resources. The purpose of this study was to see whether interactional metadiscouse markers are different and/or similar in texts developed by non-native (Iranians) and native (Americans) speakers and to what extent these interactional metadiscourse markers are different and/or similar. Moreover, this study also aimed at investigating whether interactive metadiscourse markers are different and/or similar in texts developed by non-native (Iranians) and native (Americans) speakers, and to what extent these interactive matadiscourse markers are different and/or similar. The data collection procedure was carefully performed and the raw data submitted to SPSS (version 17.0) program to calculate the required statistical analysis in order to address the research questions and hypotheses of the study. The results of the research revealed that the interactive metadiscourse markers were not statistically different in texts developed by non-natives (Iranians) and native (Americans). But the interactional metadiscourse markers were statistically different in texts developed by non-native (Iranians) and native (Americans). Thus interactional metadiscourse markers were not statistically similar in both texts. تفاصيل المقالة