Effects on Reading Comprehension of Language Complexity and Cultural Background of a Text

Abstract

complexity of the text and the cultural origin of the story affected comprehension. The native language readers were better able to understand unadapted English and the story based on American folklore. Implications of this study for teaching and for materials selection and design are discussed. The effects of the language complexity and the culturally determined background of a text on reading comprehension have always been recognized as elements of concern in the selection of reading materials for foreign language learners and in the evaluation of their reading comprehension. Research with native language readers has shown that the amount of language complexity has less effect on reading comprehension than the organization of ideas in the passage. Schlesinger (1968) found that the length and structure of English sentences had no effect on comprehension of readers who tended to use lexical meanings to understand the sentences. Meyer's work (1975) showed that organization in English prose influenced what idea units were recalled from a passage by native language readers, but there were no significant differences between recall of units with and without the presence of linguistic cues. In their discussions of the problems in reading comprehension of ESL