The Effect of Using Persian Language Literature on the Comprehension of English ReadingTexts: Learners' Perspectives

Abstract

The role of using target language literature in teaching foreign languages has attracted the attention of many researchers. This study investigated the ignored aspect of using native literature in teaching English, and with the use of reading comprehension tests, it made an attempt to illustrate the possible advantages of using Persian short stories in the development of Iranian EFL learners‘ reading comprehension. The study followed a pretest-treatment-posttest design with a control group. The participants were 60 learners from Kashan University, majoring in TEFL, from two intact classes who were selected via convenient sampling, and then were randomly assigned into experimental and control groups. During the reading sessions, the experimental group was exposed to eight Persian short stories, while the control group was taught some general English texts. The participants‘ scores on reading tests administered before and after the treatment were then compared. Besides, the learners‘ views on the use of native literary texts were gathered via a small survey. The obtained quantitative data were analyzed using the parametric tests of T-test and Ancova, while the learners‘ views were analyzed qualitatively through thematic analysis. It was revealed that using Persian short stories in reading comprehension practices makes it easier for the students to get the essence of the text and improves their performance. The themes emerged from the qualitative analysis indicated that pre-known stories, nostalgic texts, familiar culture, familiar vocabulary and expressions, and many other factors make Persian literature a useful tool for the development of language skills, including reading comprehension.