The Effect of Text Structure on Iranian EFL Learner's Reading Comprehension as Measured by Multiple-choice and Cloze Tests

This study was an attempt to investigate Iranian EFL student's performance on reading comprehension tests with different text structures and response formats. The participants of the study included 228 students, comprising eight groups, selected based on the Preliminary English Test (PET). Four types of text structures, time sequence (T), description (D), causation (C), problem-solution (P) were selected and two types of response formats, Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQ) and Multiple-Choice Cloze tests (MCC), based on the four text structures were developed and administered to the eight groups. The results revealed that in both response formats, the student's performance on the more loosely organized text structures (T and D) was better than their performance on the more tightly organized ones (C and P). Furthermore, the student's performance on MCQ was significantly better than on MCC response format across all four text structures. The results of the study suggested that students performed better on T and D text structures compared to C and P in both response formats and that their performance on MCQ response format was better than their performance on MCC across all four text structures. The results of the study suggest that teachers and test developers can boost their student's performance on reading comprehension tests by choosing the most appropriate response formats for different text structures