Explicit Instruction of Metadiscourse Features and Intermediate EFL learners' Reading Comprehension Ability

• Published in: The linguistics journal Vol. 14; no. 2; p. 87
• Main Author: Farahani, Mehrdad Vasheghani
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sydney Time Taylor Publishing 01.12.2020
• Subjects: Corpus analysis; English as a second language instruction; English as a second language learning; Reading comprehension; Second language reading; Iran
• ISSN: 1718-2298; 1718-2301

This paper reports the results of an experimental study on the potential impact of explicit instruction of metadiscourse features and the Iranian intermediate EFL learners' reading comprehension ability. To fulfill this purpose, 30 male and female subjects were selected randomly and assigned to one experimental group and one control group (each group 15). Then, the control group received placebo; whereas, the experimental group received an explicit instruction on the subject matter. Finally, a reading comprehension test was given to both groups to investigate the potential impacts of metadiscourse features instructions. For the categorization of metadiscourse features, the model developed by Hyland (2006) was exploited. Moreover, for extracting the metadiscourse features British National Corpus as a representative and balanced source was used. For extracting and analyzing metadiscourse features in the corpus, the Sketch engine corpus software was used. The null hypothesis of the study was rejected as the findings showed that the explicit teaching of metadiscourse features can have positive impacts on reading comprehension ability of Iranian EFL. The findings can have useful implications for EFL learner and teachers as well as materials developers in EFL context.