the role of authentic and non- authentic materials on enhancing reading comprehension of the iranian intermediate efl learners

the role of authentic and non- authentic materials on enhancing reading comprehension of the iranian intermediate efl learners

the purpose of this study was to investigate the role of authentic and non- authentic materials on enhancing reading comprehension of the iranian intermediate efl learners performance. the participants of this study 50 efl learners who were studying english as a foreign language (efl) in gooya language training centre in ahvaz.

their age ranged from 18 to 40. among the population, 24 efl learners who got the band score of (oxford quick placement test) oqpt were considered as the intermediate learners since their scores were between 30 and 45. then, both groups were given a pre-test before the treatments to determine how well the participants in reading comprehension. they were randomly divided into two experimental groups (i.e., authentic and non-authentic groups) based on non-random convenience sampling method.

each group consists of 12 intermediate language learners. the textbook used based on the proficiency level of the efl learners. regarding non-authentic materials, 12 reading comprehension texts were selected from top notch 2 written by joan saslow and allen asher (2007).data were analyzed through descriptive statistics was used for investigating the pre-test and the post-test of authentic and non-authentic groups was used. furthermore, the independent samples t-tests were applied for descriptive and inferential statistics.

in order to realize how effective the two types of approaches were, the mean scores of the post-test of the two experimental groups were compared with those of the pre-test. the statistical method was done through descriptive and inferential statistics through ibm spss ,version 17. the findings revealed that reading comprehension performance of both groups improved. moreover, independent samples t-test showed that there was a significant difference between the two groups concerning reading comprehension.