The effect of inter-cultural background knowledge on Iranian learners' reading skills
Subject Areas : Research in Curriculum Planning
Farhad
Ghorbandordinejad
1
(1استادیار گروه زبان انگلیسی دانشگاه شهید رجایی، تهران، ایران)
Zahra
Bayat
2
(2کارشناس ارشد رشته آموزش زبان انگلیسی، دانشگاه شهید رجایی، تهران، ایران)
Keywords: Students, inter-cultural background knowledge, mental design, culture, Reading,
Abstract :
The recent research was considered the effect of inter-cultural background knowledge on Iranian learners' reading skills. The population included all the girls’ students (5000 students) in Sabzevar English Institutes. By using simple probability sampling 60 girls’ students selected by Morgan’s random numbers. The research instruments included Nelson placement pretest (Flower and Coe, 1976), five reading texts about cultural topics to do during the experiment term and a research- made reading posttest as a main posttest. The posttest reliability was determined 82% by Cranach alpha and its validity was confirmed by English teaching professors. Independent T test and MANOVA variance analysis were used by using SPSS 19. The research results showed that the meaningful effect of inter-cultural background knowledge ( t(58)= -8.511) p˂0.08) in the students’ reading. Knowing about some sub-cultures in English language countries like etiquette and keeping pet have a meaningful effect on reading texts related to sub- cultures and finally the inter-cultural background knowledge from the English languages holidays was considered in the next level.
Soleimanpouromran Mahboubeh, Yarmohammadian Mohammad H., Keshtiaray Narges,) 2013(, Integrated Approach; a Suitable Approach for Designing and Developing an Environmental Literacy Curriculum in Higher Education System. International Journal of Psychology and Behavioral Research. Vol [2], No6 ,pp 315-324. [persian]
Abbasi, M., Ahmadi, G. & Lotfi, Ahmadreza. (2009). Teaching and learning problems of English course among high school students in Isfahan from the view of their teachers in education, Educational Planning, 22. [Persian].
Afghari, A. & Nokhah, S. (1995). The effect of cultural knowledge as the organizer on reading comprehension ability. Isfahan University Branch of Foreign Languages. [Persian].
American folklore. (2012). I'm coming down now: An Albert Ghost Story. Retrieved June, 30, 2012, from www.americanfolklore.net/folklore/2011/02/im_coming_down_now.html.
American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed). Washington, DC: Author.
Alptekin, C. (2006). Cultural familiarity in inferential and literal comprehension in L2 reading. System, 34, 494-508.
Bilgileri, M. (2012). The effect of background knowledge and cultural nativization on reading comprehension and vocabulary inference. Journal of Education and Instructional Studies in the World. 2 (4), 188-198.
Brown, D. (1994). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Regents.
Carrell, P. L. (1987). Content and formal schemata in ESL reading. TESOL Quarterly, 21, 461–481.
Celce-Murcia, M. (2001). Teaching English as a Second Foreign Language. 3rd ed. New York: Heinle and Heinle Pblishers, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc.
Chang, Y. (2007). The cross-cultural background knowledge in the EFL reading comprehension. Unpublished manuscript, Chia-Nan University of Pharmacy and Science, at Taiwan.
Chastain, K. (2002). Developing Second Language Skills (3rd ed). San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.
Chen, C. (2008). The effect of background knowledge and previews on elementary native Mandarin-speaking English language learners' reading comprehension. Unpublished doctorial dissertation. Florida State University.
Dehghan, F. & Sadighi, F. (2011). On the cultural schema and Iranian EFL learners' reading performance: a case of local and global items. Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics, 15 (2), 97-108.
Demir, Y. (2012). The effect of background knowledge and cultural nativization on reading comprehension and vocabulary inference. Journal of Educational and Instructional studies, 2(4), 188-198.
Dornyei, Z. (2011). Research Methods in Applied Linguistics.10rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press.
Driscoll, Liz. (2004). Reading Extra: A resource book of multi-level skills activities. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
Farhady, H. (2005). Techniques for Effective Reading. Tehran: Rahnama Press.
Fasold, R., & Linton, J. (2006). An Introduction to Language and Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Fowler,W. & Coe, N. (1976). Nelson English Language Tests. Australia: Bulter and Tanner Ltd.
Erten, I.H., & Razi, S. (2009). The effects of cultural familiarity on reading comprehension. Reading in a Foreign Language, 21 (1), 66-77.
Ghaniabadi, S., & Alavi, N. (2012). The impact of teaching culture on reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge in Iranian EFL learners. Unpublished masters' thesis, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar, Iran.
Ghazanfari, M., & Foroughi, F. (2010). The effect of schema activation and schema-theory-based pre-reading activities on enhancing EFL readers' comprehension. Unpublished masters' thesis, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar, Iran.
Gurkan, S. (2012). The effects of cultural familiarity and reading activities on L2 reading comprehension. Social and Behavioral Sciences, 55, 1196-1206.
Hadson, G. (2002). Essential Introductory Linguistics. Michigan: Blackwell Publishers, Inc.
Harmer, J. (2007). How to teach English. England: Pearson Education Limited.
Hartman, P., & Mentel,, J. (2002). Interaction Access Reading/Writing. 4th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Contemporary.
Hills, M.D. (2002). Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck's Values Orientation Theory. International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology, 8 (1), 1-14.
Hill, Y.Z., & Lin, O.L. (2012). Is there any interaction between background knowledge and language proficiency that affects TOEFL iBT reading performance? TOEFL iBT Research Report, 12 (22), 1-42.
Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture Consequences. International Differences in Work-Related Values. London: Sage Publications.
Huang, Q. (2009). Background knowledge and reading teaching. Asian Social Science. 5 (5), 138-1542.
Izadi, S., Hashemi, S. & Zadeharabi, H. (2013). Comparison of self-efficacy and academic performance of bilingual and monolingual elementary school students, Research in Educational Planning, 17. [Persian].
Kouhi, D. & Hosseini Asl, M. (2013). The effect of awareness raising activities on students' reading comprehension: the case of culturally-bound materials. The National Conference of Language, Literature and Translation, Shiraz.
Kramsch, C. (1998). Language and Culture. New York: Oxford university press.
Littlemore, J. (2003). The effect of cultural background on metaphor interpretation. Metaphor and Symbol, 18 (4), 273-288.
Lin, W. (2013). A study on cross-cultural barriers in reading of English. Unpublished manuscript, English Department of Foshan university of China.
Lin, Z. (2002). Discovering EFL learners' perception of prior knowledge and its roles in reading comprehension. Journal of research in Reading, 25 (2), 172-190.
Mackey, A. & M.Gass, S. (2005). Second Language Research. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Markstein, L. (1994). Developing Reading Skills. 2nd ed. New York: Heinle and Heinle Pblishers, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc.
Meshkat, M. (2009). Academic Writing: A Practical Guide for Graduate Students. Tehran: Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University Press.
Nejati, R. & Ashrafi, H.R. (2010). Statisticts Made Simple (SPSS19). Tehran: Shahid Rajaee Teaching Training University.
Nguen, T. (2012). The impact of background knowledge and the constraint on reading comprehension of Vietnamese learners of English as a second language. Unpublished masters' thesis, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.
Nieto, S. (2010). Language, culture, and Teaching. New York: Routledge.
Pallant, J. (2013). SPSS Survival Manual: A step by step guide to data analysis using IBM SPSS. 5th ed. New York: Mc Graw Hill. S
Pollap, T. (2010). The relationship between American cultural background knowledge and the English proficiency of Thai students majoring in English. Unpublished masters' thesis, at Srinakharinwirot University.
Pulido, D. (2004). The effect of cultural familiarity on incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading. The Reading Matrix, 4 (2), 20-53.
Rajabi, P. (2009). Cultural orientation and reading comprehension models: the case of Iranian rural and urban studies. Novitas-ROYAL, 3(1), 75-82.
Richards, J., & Schmidt, R. (2002). Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics. 3rd ed. London: Pearson Education limited.
Rivers, W.M. (1981). Teaching Foreign-Language Skills (2nd ed). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Ruthemsley, M. (2011). The effect of cultural background on comprehension of English tests by second language learners of English. Unpublished masters' thesis, University of Limpopo.
Ryan, S. (2012). Bringing cultural background knowledge to the surface to better understand cross-cultural conflict in specific contexts. Intercultural Communication Studies, 97 (58), 214-235.
Sharafi, F., & Barati, H. (2010). The effect of Iranian EFL learners' cultural knowledge on their performance on cloze tests. Unpublished manuscript, Azad University of NajafAbad and University of Isfahan.
Shaghasemi, E., & Heisey, D.R. (2009). The cross-cultural schemata of Iranian-American people toward each other: a qualitative approach. Intercultural Communications Studies, 10 (8), 143-160.
Tavakoli, M., Shirinbakhsh, S., & Rezazadeh, M. (2013). Effect of cultural adaptation on EFL reading comprehension: the role of narrative notarization and foreign language attitude. World Applied Sciences Journal, 21 (11), 1596-2013.
Wikipedia. (2013). Cultural Schema Theory. Retrieved June, 28, 2012, from www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cultural_schema_theory.html
Xiaqin, Z. (2005). Schema theory and reading comprehension. Unpublished manuscript, Shandong Radio and TV University.
Yamasaki, M. (2010). Strategies to compensate for cultural background knowledge deficiency in L2 reading. Unpublished manuscript.