Abstract:
Density and distribution of Unfamiliar Lexical Items (ULIs) appear to influence learners’ Reading Comprehension Achievement (RCA). This study concerns the impact of these two variables on Iranian EFL learners’ RCA. For this, two groups of students timetabled for the experiments designed to assess learners’ RCA. To determine the participants’ levels of proficiency a Quick Proficiency Test was first given to the total population of 87 students and 60 selected as participants. They were then divided into four subgroups of 15, each of which took the pertaining text as the treatment. To do so, three short passages were administered, two for the density and one for distribution. Then, data were gathered from the questionnaires and answers analyzed by SPSS. The results revealed the participants in low density/distribution subgroups outperforming their counterparts in high density/distribution subgroups on tests devised to measure the learners’ inferencing of ULIs boldfaced in the texts. The selected method was a quasi-experimental, post-test only design and the procedures comprised short passages, multiple-choice tests, and statistics. To conclude, ULIs found detrimental to the learners’ successful RCA in the foregoing experimentation, where it can serve as a resource to the EFL development programs.
Machine summary:
Keywords: Density, Distribution, Inferencing, Reading Comprehension Achievement Introduction Since its inception in Iran’s educational system through the national and ministerial curriculum legislation, and under an unrivalled position of influence of some socio-political factors, the English language became widely disseminated and deeply ingrained into the different educated levels of the society.
The purpose of this study is to explore the density and distribution of ULIs found in a written text and their possible impact on Iranian EFL learners’ successful reading comprehension achievement.
In doing so, readers have at their own disposal a number of skills and strategies to exploit the main idea, to make a summary, to guess meaning from the context, and to use the available cues to answer questions that might have been made about the information existing in the text (Gersten, Fuchs, Williams, & Baker, 2001; Curtis, 2002; Kamil, 2000).
The next study goes with Babaei and Riazi (2008) who explored the lexical inferencing performance of Iranian female students where they then compared the output of this variable (inferential ability) with students’ L2 language proficiency and reading skills in the next learning levels.
21; Ulijn, 1984; Ostyn & Godin, 1985; Ostyn, Vandecasteele, Deville & Kelly, 1987; Ulijn & Strother, 1990).
e. , the number of the Unfamiliar Lexical Items lodged in a written text) have any significant effect on Iranian EFL learners’ successful reading comprehension achievement?
e. , the occurrence pattern of the Unfamiliar Lexical Items packed into a written text) have any significant effect on Iranian EFL learners’ successful reading comprehension achievement?