Iranian Journal of Language Issues

Iranian Journal of Language Issues

The Effect of Gender on Comprehending Culturally Familiar/Unfamiliar Texts

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
1 M.A. in TEFL, University of Tehran
2 M.A. in TEFL, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran
3 TEFL Instructor, University of Zabol
Abstract
The present study investigated the role played by gender in comprehension of culturally familiar and unfamiliar texts. One hundred university intermediate TEFL students (50 males and 50 females) participated in this study. These students were given an Iranian (culturally familiar) and an English (culturally unfamiliar) story to read in two separate sessions. After reading these texts, they went through two reading comprehension measures. First, they were asked to write down in their mother tongue anything they could remember from the texts immediately after they finished reading them. Then, they completed a set of reading comprehension questions at the end of the study. The results of this study showed no significant effect of gender on reading both the familiar and unfamiliar texts. The findings are discussed and pedagogical implications are provided.
Keywords