The Effect of Teaching Lado’s Concepts of Culture on Iranian EFL Learners’Descriptive Writing

Subject Areas : Journal of Educational Psychology

Ramin Rahimy ¹ , Rosita Atabaki ²

1 - Department Of English Language, Assistant Professor, Islamic Azad University, Tonekabon Branch-Iran.
2 - Department Of English Language, M.A Candidate, Islamic Azad University, Tonekabon Branch-Iran

Received: 2012-04-09 Accepted : 2012-08-15 Published : 2012-11-21

Keywords: culture, Cohesion, Cultural Concepts, second language writing, Teaching Descriptive Writing, Coherence,

Abstract :

                The present study aimed to investigate the effect of teaching Lado’s concepts of culture on Iranian EFL learners’ description writing. The main question of this study attempted to answer was whether teaching Lado’s concepts of culture might enhance higher ability of description writing in Iranian learners of English at university level. To answer this question, 60 sophomore undergraduate translator trainees were selected via administrating the Oxford Placement (OPT). Then, they were divided into two groups of 30 and were randomly assigned to an experimental and a control group. A pretest of descriptive writing was administered to both groups, after that, the experimental group was taught five categories of Lado’s cultural concepts including transportation system, educational system, sport, customs and festivals, and ritual behaviors for 10 sessions while there was no treatment of the concepts to the control group. A posttest of descriptive writing was then administered to both groups and data were analyzed via calculating an independent sample t-test and ANCOVA coefficients. The results indicated that Iranian EFL learners in the experimental group received higher scores in description writing after being treated with 10 sessions of Lado’s concepts of culture.