Impacts of Culture-Embedded Texts on EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension

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Year-Number: 2019-30
Language : null
Konu : ELT
Number of pages: 319-326
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Abstract

Günümüz küreselleşmiş etkileşiminde tekrarlayan bir fenomen olan okuma metinlerinin kültürler arası yanlış anlaşılması, herhangi bir iletişim eyleminin başarısını büyük ölçüde baltalamaktadır. Bu araştırma, İranli İngilizce öğrencilerin okuduğunu anlama üzerindeki etkilerini bulmak amacıyla, yerel kültür ve hedef kültür metinlerinin öğrencilerin okuduğunu anlama üzerindeki etkisini bulmak amacıyla araştırıldı. Bu amaçla, 30 ikinci sınıf İranlı öğrencisine beş çift yerli ve hedef kültür metni verilmiştir. Eşleştirilmiş örneklem t-testi ve takip görüşmelerinin sonuçları, sadece kültürel varyansın, öğrencilerin okuma metinlerini anlamalarını değiştirmede bir faktör olmadığını, aynı zamanda katılımcıların yüzde 66,7’ sinin de tercih edildiğini ortaya koymuştur. Araştırmanın bulguları, farklı kültürlerin tanıtılması ve İngilizce öğrencilerine farklı kültürlerin çok boyutlu bir resmini vermesi yoluyla kültürlerarası farkındalık duygusunun yaratılması gerektiği biçiminde yorumlanabilir.

Keywords

Abstract

Intercultural misunderstanding of reading texts, a recurrent phenomenon in present-day globalized interaction, greatly undermines the success of any communication act. To address this problem in Iranian English as a foreign language (TEFL) context, the present research focused on including texts on learners’ native culture alongside the target culture to find out their impacts on learners’ reading comprehension. For this purpose, 30 second-year Iranian EFL learners were given five pairs of native- and target-culture texts. The results of the paired-samples t-test and follow-up interviews revealed that not only cultural variance is not a factor in altering learners’ comprehension of the reading passages, but it is also preferred by 66.7 percent of the participants. The findings of the research may imply that a better sense of intercultural awareness should be created in EFL learners through introducing different cultures and giving EFL learners a more multi-dimensional picture of different cultures. Keywords: Iranian EFL learners, reading comprehension, globalized interaction, intercultural competence

Keywords


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