The Effect of Text Structure Awareness on Iranian EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension and Written Recall of Argumentative Texts

The present study probed the effect of explicit text structure instruction on argumentative reading comprehension and written recall of Iranian EFL learners. Furthermore, it tried to find out whether the effect of text structure awareness was significantly different between learners at high and low reading ability. To achieve these goals, 40 English undergraduate students were randomly assigned into two experimental (n=18) and control (n=22) groups. To ensure the homogeneity of the two groups, a thirty-multiple-choice-item reading comprehension test and a free immediate written recall task were implemented. Furthermore, a Cambridge Advanced English (CAE) paper reading ability test was used for dividing the participants into high and low reading ability. The treatment was the instruction of argumentative text structure based on Toulmin's (1958) model of argumentation. Finally, the post-test on argumentative reading comprehension and the post-task on argumentative written recall were administered on the two groups to show their comprehension and recall of argumentative texts after the instruction. Independent-samples t-tests were run to analyze the data. The findings of the study suggested that explicit instruction of text structure enhanced learners' reading comprehension; however, no significant difference was indicated for written recall ability between the two groups. It should be mentioned that a significant difference was observed with regard to the effect of explicit instruction of text structure on reading comprehension of argumentative texts for learners at high and low level of reading ability. The pedagogical implications of the study as well as suggestions for further research are reported at the end.