Exophoric and Endophoric Awareness

Abstract

This research aims to shed light on the impact of exophoric and endophoric instruction on the comprehension (decoding) skills, writing (encoding skills), and linguistic awareness of English as Foreign Language learners. In this line, a mixed qualitative quantitative approach was conducted over a period of fifteen weeks on sixty English major students enrolled in their first year at the Lebanese University, fifth branch. The sixty participants were divided into two groups (30 experimental) that benefited from instruction on exophoric and endophoric relations and (30 control) that did not have the opportunity to study referents in the designated period of the research. The participants sat for a reading and writing pretest at the beginning of the study; and they sat again for the same reading and writing assessment at the end of the study. The results of the pre and post tests for both groups were analyzed via SPSS program and findings were as follows: hypothesis one stating that students who are aware of endophoric and exophoric relations are likely to achieve better results in decoding a text than are their peers who receive no referential instruction, was accepted with significant findings. Hypothesis two stating that students who are aware of endophoric and exophoric relations are likely to perform better in writing than their peers who receive no referential instruction, was accepted with significant findings. Hypothesis three stating that, students who learn endophoric exophoric relations become aware of referents and their linguistic function, was also asserted with significant findings. The study answered the research questions can endophoric and exophoric awareness influence the reading comprehension and writing structure of English as foreign language learners? Does instruction on referents boost learners’ awareness on the linguistic function of endophoric and exphoric relations? Recommendations for teachers, learners, curriculum designers, and future research have been incorporated.