The Effect of Learning a CDA Model on Promoting EFL Undergraduates’ Reading Comprehension Ability across Different Proficiency Levels

The present study examined the impact of critical discourse analysis (CDA) on EFL undergraduates’ reading comprehension ability across different proficiency levels. Through Oxford Placement Test, 96 EFL undergraduates participating in this study were divided into three different proficiency levels of high, mid, and low. A journalistic reading comprehension test selected from a series of TOEFL tests were administered to all of them as a pretest. They received the same test after a treatment of van Dijk’s model instruction in the class. The analysis of results of the posttest through one-way ANCOVA indicated that CDA has a positive influence on learners’ reading comprehension. Then, a post hoc comparison using the Bonferroni test showed that the high proficiency group was significantly different from the low and mid proficiency groups. Also, the mid proficiency group significantly differed from the low one. Taken together, these findings suggested that CDA training had an effect on L2 learners’ reading comprehension for high and mid groups. Thus, language proficiency has a positive mediating role in the extent to which a CDA model awareness can improve learners’ reading comprehension ability. The findings of this study can inspire the curriculum designers as well as the teachers to include critical discourse analysis techniques both in students’ textbooks and in teacher training courses.