Contributions of the deixis clarified to the reading comprehension competence of the 6th graders

Abstract

Deixis are generally expressed as words or phrases whose meaning changes depending on who is talking, who is listening, where and when it is spoken (I, you, here, there, yesterday etc.). Foreign language learners have difficulties in decoding deixis in reading and listening skills. Therefore, this study aims at discussing how well the 6th graders are able to comprehend deixis in a written discourse. In order to collect data, twenty-two students have divided into two groups with even numbers as control and experimental groups. The 6th graders in experimental group have been given three different written texts in which deixis are clarified in parenthesis just after the use deictic words whereas the 6th graders in control group have been given the same three different written texts without identified deixis. The data have been collected through the reading comprehension questions after each text used in both groups. The findings have been analyzed by the SPSS 22 version program and t-test. As a result, the analysis indicates that there is a significant difference between the graders in both groups. The 6th graders in the experimental group seem more successful in reading comprehension than those in the control group because of the deictic words clarified.