An Account of Iranian EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension in a Culture-Based Instructional Environment: Does Gender Play a Role?

Abstract

One of the major issues in language learning classrooms is familiarity with the cultural perspective of reading materials. Learners' insufficient knowledge of the target culture of language brings about some difficulties to understand the target reading materials. Consequently, learners' motivation to learn the new language would be diminished. Thus, the current study aimed to investigate the impact of teaching cultural materials on improving Iranian EFL learners’ reading comprehension across two genders. To this end, 150 upper-intermediate male (n = 75) and female (n = 75) EFL learners out of 250, were selected through administering an Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT). The participants of each gender were randomly assigned into three equal groups: group A (Target Culture = TC), group B (Source Culture = SC), and group C (Culture-Free = CF). Then, a reading comprehension pretest was administered to assess the participants’ reading comprehension at the beginning of the course. After the pretest, the researchers practiced the treatment on the three groups. Each group received reading comprehension materials that reflected a particular culture. During the treatment, some reading passages related to American and English culture (for group A), Persian culture (for group B), and culture-free materials (for group C), were taught. Finally, a posttest of reading comprehension was administered after the treatment. The results showed that teaching culturally oriented materials improved the Iranian EFL learners’ reading comprehension better. Furthermore, the findings demonstrated that there was no significant difference between male and female learners’ reading comprehension posttest. In light of the findings, a number of conclusions are drawn and several implications are put forward.