چکیده:
This study was an attempt to investigate the effect of information-gap tasks on field-dependent (FD) and field-independent (FI) EFL learners’ reading comprehension. For this purpose, 61 learners out of a total number of 120 existing intermediate learners studying at a language school in Tehran were chosen through their performance on a piloted sample Cambridge Preliminary English Test (PET) and subsequently on the Group Embedded Figure Test (GEFT). Overall, there were 33 FD and 28 FI learners undergoing the information-gap task treatment. Furthermore, an independent samples t-test was run on the mean scores of the two groups on the reading section of the sample PET, thereby proving that they were homogeneous at the outset in terms of their reading. Another sample PET reading section was administered as the posttest of the study after each group was exposed to 15 treatment sessions. At the end of the instruction, another independent samples t-test was run on the mean scores of the two experimental groups in the posttest with the results indicating that there was no significant difference between the two groups’ reading skill.
خلاصه ماشینی:
g. , Fallahi, Aziz Malayeri, & Bayat, 2015; Fatemi- pour & Nourmohammadi, 2014; Ismaili & Bajrami, 2016; Lam Son, 2009; Ma- rashi & Amirabadi, 2017; Pica, Kang, & Sauro, 2006; Soleimani, Zare, & Abbasi, 2014) Alongside the teaching method employed in the ELT classroom, the role of the students’ personalities is also decisive in acquiring the language successful- ly (Weisstein & Jacobson, 2009).
g. , Behnam & Fathi, 2009; Chamorro-Premuzic, Furnham, & Lewis, 2007; Chapelle, 1995; Kahtz & Kling, 1999; Marashi & Kordbacheh, 2014; Salmani-Nodoushan, 2007; Tinajero & Paramo, 1998; Zhang, 2004).
Accordingly, this study set out to look into the above issue and thus, to respond to the following research question: Question: Is there any significant difference between the effect of infor- mation-gap tasks on field-dependent and field-independent EFL learners’ read- ing?
However, comprehension is not reliant only upon language processes such as basic reading skills, decod- ing, vocabulary, sensitivity to text structure, and inferencing (Cain & Oakhill, 2009); rather, it depends also on the characteristics of the reader such as his/her prior knowledge, working memory, and of course personality style (Yovanoff, Duesbery, Alonzo, & Tindal, 2005).
Descriptive Statistics of the PET Administration (View the image of this page) Dividing the Participants into Two Groups As the students in the language school came from intact groups and random sampling was not feasible, the researchers had to make sure that the learners in each of the two experimental groups bore no significant difference in terms of the dependent variable of this study (reading skill) prior to the treatment.