LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 13:9 September 2013
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Does Cultural Knowledge Matter?
Investigating the Effect of Cultural Knowledge on Reading Comprehension of Iranian EFL Learners

Seyed Jalal Abdolmanafi Rokni
Golestan University, Iran

Ali Hajilari
Golestan Payam Noor University, Iran

Abstract

As teaching culture is an important parameter in learning a foreign language, the present study aimed to explore the effect of cultural knowledge on reading comprehension of EFL learners. For this purpose, 60 EFL learners from three classes were randomly divided into three groups, a control group and two experimental groups. They were male and female pre-intermediate learners studying in an institute in Aliabad, northern Iran. The control group did not receive any special treatment, whereas one experimental group received texts of British culture (BC) and another experimental group received texts of Persian culture as well as British one (P-BC) for eight sessions. The data were analyzed via ANOVA. The findings indicated that the learners in the P-BC group outperformed the ones in the other two groups in the posttest. Further, the findings displayed that learners from the BC group did better than the ones in the control group.

Keywords: cultural knowledge; reading comprehension; culture; EFL learners

Introduction

As cultural knowledge may motivate the EFL learners to be more activated and understand the text better, the role it can play in reading comprehension of EFL learners was the main aim of the present study. The way people behave and live refers to the culture of their society. Thus, the EFL learners should be aware of the culture of the new language as it affects the learning of new language (Demir, 2012).

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Assistant Professor Seyed Jalal Abdolmanafi Rokni
Department of English Language and Literature
Golestan University
Iran
j.abdolmanafi@gmail.com

Lecturer Ali Hajilari
Department of English Language and Literature
Golestan Payam Noor University
Iran
hajilariali@yahoo.com
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