EFL Learners’ Levels of Comprehension Across Text Structures: A Comparison of Literal and Inferential Comprehension of Descriptive and Enumerative Expository Texts

• Published in: Journal of psycholinguistic research 2016-12, Vol.45 (6), p.1499-1513
• Main Authors: Saadatnia, Mahmood, Ketabi, Saeed, Tavakoli, Mansoor
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Cognitive Psychology; Comprehension - physiology; English (Second Language); English as a second language; English Language Learners; Evaluators; Expository Writing; Female; Foreign Countries; Humans; Inferences; Instructional Materials; Iran; Knowledge; Language; Language Teachers; Learning - physiology; Literature Reviews; Male; Material Development; Multilingualism; Multiple Choice Tests; Prior Learning; Psycholinguistics; Psychology; Reading; Reading Comprehension; Reading Research; Reading Tests; Second Language Instruction; Second Language Learning; Short Term Memory; Text Structure; Thinking - physiology; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0090-6905; 1573-6555
• DOI: 10.1007/s10936-016-9414-6

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between text structure and two levels of reading comprehension, namely literal and inferential, in Iranian EFL learners. Studies have generally found that learners perform differently after they have read different text structures (Amiri et al. in Proc Soc Behav Sci 66:402–409, 2012 ). The text structures in focus were descriptive and enumerative expository texts. One hundred eighty upper-intermediate EFL learners were assigned four reading passages, two including descriptive and the other two enumerative text structure, followed by both literal and inferential multiple-choice items. A number of paired-samples t tests were run to provide answers to the research questions of this study. The results indicated that the participants meaningfully outperformed on the descriptive texts at both levels of literal and inferential comprehension. The findings also revealed that in both text structures of description and enumeration, literal comprehension significantly outweighed inferential comprehension. Implications were made for L2 materials developers, language teachers, and language testers regarding the consideration of text typical features in their practice.