Abstract

INVESTIGATION OF THE ROLE OF RHETORICAL PATTERNS ON THE EFL STUDENTS PERFORMANCE IN READING COMPREHENSION

Asst. Prof. Nagham Qadoori Yahya, Zubaida Sameer Aayed Al-Obaidy

Volume: 8 Issue: 3 2018

Abstract:

The knowledge of text structure may be considered as an important aid to facilitate students comprehension and learning from text. This study aims at investigating the role of rhetorical patterns and their types on Iraqi (EFL) students' performance in reading comprehension, finding out whether there are significant differences between the experimental group and the control in the post-test, and pointing out whether there are significant differences in achievement scores according to gender variable of experimental group in the post-test. It is hypothesized that there is a role for the rhetorical patterns and their types using in the text’s structures on the EFL students' performance in reading comprehension, there are no statistically significant differences between the experimental group mean scores, that is taught Meyer's rhetorical patterns; and the control group mean scores, that is not taught Meyer's rhetorical patterns on their performance in reading comprehension in the post-test, and there are statistically significant differences between males' and females' performance of experimental group in the post-test. To fulfil the aims of the study and to verify the hypothesis, fifty two university students have been selected from 3rd year to be the sample of the study divided into two equal groups: twenty six students represent the experimental group (taught Meyer's rhetorical patterns) and twenty six students represent the control group (did not receive any teaching of Meyer'srhetorical patterns). The two groups have been equalized in terms of age, level of parent's education, pre-test scores, and students' average scores in the previous year. After the instruction for six weeks, a performance test has been constructed and applied. The performance of these two groups was compared using T-test formula for two independent samples and T-test formula for paired sample. It has been found that students in the experimental group perform better than those in the control group and showed a clear difference in comprehension level between the two groups with the superiority of the experimental group. Rhetorical patterns teaching haveimproved students' performance obviously. Results obtained from this study indicate that the knowledge of text structure by teaching rhetorical patterns has facilitated the students' comprehension and learning from text. Finally, on the basis of the results outlined earlier, a number of recommendations and suggestions have been given such as the explicit teaching of academic text structure which contains the rhetorical patterns implicitly and the effective use of such patterns could be inserted in the instructional program of English language teaching as a foreign language.

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