Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate two levels of reading comprehension, namely literal and inferential, of two text types of narration and exposition in Iranian EFL learners. The elicitation instruments were four expository texts and four narrative ones. One hundred eighty upper-intermediate EFL learners were assigned the reading passages followed by both literal and inferential multiple-choice items. Paired-samples t tests were run to provide answers to the research questions of this study. From an inter-text-type angle, the results demonstrated that the participants meaningfully outperformed on the expository texts at the level of literal comprehension. Yet, regarding inferential comprehension, there was no significant difference between the two text types. The results, from an intra-text-type perspective, also revealed that in the expository texts, literal comprehension meaningfully outweighed inferential comprehension, whereas no significant difference was observed between literal and inferential comprehension in the narrative texts. Finally, probable explanations and interpretations for the obtained results were provided.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alderson, J. C. (2000). Assessing reading. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Alptekin, C. (2006). Cultural familiarity in inferential and literal comprehension in L2 reading. System, 34, 494–508.
Alptekin, C., & Erçetin, G. (2011). Effects of working memory capacity and content familiarity on literal and inferential comprehension in L2 reading. TESOL Quarterly, 45(2), 235–266.
Alvermann, D. E., Hynd, C. E., & Qian, G. (1995). Effects of interactive discussion and text type on learning counterintuitive science concepts. Journal of Educational Research, 88, 146–154.
Berman, R. A., & Katzenberger, I. (2004). Form and function in introducing narrative and expository texts. Discourse Processes, 38, 57–94.
Best, R. B., Floyd, R. G., & McNamara, D. S. (2008). Differential competencies contributing to children’s comprehension of narrative and expository texts. Reading Psychology, 29, 137–164.
Bower, G. H., & Morrow, D. G. (1990). Mental models in narrative comprehension. Science, 247, 44–48.
Britton, B. K., & Pelligrini, A. D. (1990). Narrative thought and narrative language. Hillsdale: Erlbaum.
Camiciottoli, B. C. (2003). Matadiscourse and ESP reading comprehension: An exploratory study. Reading in a Foreign Language, 15(1), 51–69.
Carnine, D. W., Silbert, J., Kame’enui, E. J., & Tarver, S. G. (2010). Direct instruction reading (5th ed.). Boston: Merrill.
Carrell, P. L. (1985). Facilitating ESL reading comprehension by teaching text structure. TESOL Quarterly, 19(4), 727–752.
Cope, B., & Kalantis, M. (1993). The powers of literacy: A genre approach to teaching writing. Hong Kong: Falmer press.
Davey, B. (1988). Factors affecting the difficulty of reading comprehension items for successful and unsuccessful readers. Journal of Experimental Education, 56, 67–75.
Diakidoy, I. N., Stylianou, P., Karefillidou, C., & Papageorgiou, P. (2005). The relationship between listening and reading comprehension of different types of text at increasing grade levels. Reading Psychology, 26, 55–80.
Dole, J. A., Duffy, G. G., Roehler, L. R., & Pearson, P. D. (1991). Moving from the old to the new: Research on reading comprehension instruction. Review of Educational Research, 61, 239–264.
Gardner, D. (2004). Vocabulary input through extensive reading: A comparison of words in children’s narrative and expository reading materials. Applied Linguistics, 25, 1–37.
Geva, E. (1992). The role of conjunctions in L2 text comprehension. TESOL Quarterly, 26(4), 731–747.
Goff, S. (2010). What are the causes and effects of literal comprehension? Retrieved from http//:www.ehow.com/info_12044849.
Gough, P. B. (1984). Word recognition. In P. D. Pearson, R. Barr, M. L. Kamil, & P. Mosenthal (Eds.), Handbook of reading research (pp. 225–254). White Plains: Longman.
Graesser, A. C., McNamara, D. S., & Louwerse, M. M. (2003). What do readers need to learn in order to process coherence relations in narrative and expository texts. In A. P. Sweet & C. E. Snow (Eds.), Rethinking reading comprehension (pp. 82–98). New York: Guilford Publications.
Hall, K. M., Sabey, B. L., & McClellan, M. (2005). Expository text comprehension: Helping primary-grade teachers use expository texts to full advantage. Reading Psychology, 26, 211–234.
Herber, H. L. (1970). Teaching reading in the content areas. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.
McNamara, D. S., & Graesser, A. C. (2011). Coh-Metrix: An automated tool for theoretical and applied natural language processing. In Applied natural language processing: Identification, investigation, and resolution. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
Jude, W. I., & Ajayi, O. B. (2012). Literal level of student’s comprehension in Nigeria: A means for growing a new generation African scholars. Journal of Education and Practice, 3(7), 120–129.
Landers, K.A. (2010). An examination of genre differences. Ph.D dissertation. The university of minnesota. UMI dissertation publishing, proQuest LLC.
Lapp, D., & Flood, J. (1983). Teaching reading to every child. New York: MacMillan.
Marzban, A., & Seifi, S. (2013). The effect of genre structure on reading comprehension ability of Iranian EFL learners. Procedia: Social and Behavioral Sciences, 83, 1043–1048.
McCormick, S. (2007). Instructing students who have literacy problems (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall.
Pearson, P. D., & Johnson, D. D. (1978). Teaching reading comprehension. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.
Perfetti, C. A. (1999). Comprehending written language: A blueprint of the reader. In C. M. Brown & P. Hagoart (Eds.), The neurocognition of language (pp. 167–208). New York: Oxford University Press.
Perfetti, C. A., Landi, N., & Oakhill, J. (2005). The acquisition of reading comprehension skill. In M. J. Snowling & C. Hulme (Eds.), The science of reading: A handbook (pp. 227–247). Malden: Blackwell.
Pettit, N. T., & Cockriel, I. W. (1974). A factor study of the literal reading comprehension test and the inferential reading comprehension test. Journal of Literacy Research, 6(1), 63–75.
Rapp, D. N., & van den Broek, P. (2005). Dynamic text comprehension. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14, 276–279.
Roller, C. M., & Schreiner, R. (1985). The effects of narrative and expository organizational instruction on sixth-grade children’s comprehension of expository and narrative prose. Reading Psychology, 6, 27–42.
Rumelhart, D. E. (1980). On evaluating story grammars. Cognitive Science: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 4, 313–316.
Saadatnia, M., Ketabi, S., & Tavakoli, M. (2016). EFL learners’ levels of comprehension across text structures: A comparison of literal and inferential comprehension of descriptive and enumerative expository texts. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 45(6), 1499–1513.
Saenz, L. M., & Fuchs, L. S. (2002). Examining the reading difficulties of secondary students with learning disabilities: Expository versus narrative texts. Remedial and Special Education, 23, 31–41.
Şahin, A. (2013). The effect of text types on reading comprehension. Mevlana International Journal of Education (MIJE), 3(2), 57–67.
Smith, C. S. (2003). Modes of discourse: The local structure of texts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Snider, V. E. (1988). The role of prior knowledge in reading comprehension: A test with LD adolescents (pp. 6–11). Fall Issue: Direct Instruction News.
Snow, C. E. (2010). Academic language and the challenge of reading for learning about science. Science, 328, 450–452.
Stein, N. L., & Trabasso, T. (1981). What’s in a story: An approach to comprehension and instruction. In R. Glaser (Ed.), Advances in the psychology of instruction (Vol. 2, pp. 213–267). Hillsdale: Erlbaum.
Tapiero, I., van den Broek, P., & Quintana, M. (2002). The mental representation of narrative texts as networks: The role of necessity and sufficiency in the detection of different types of causal relations. Discourse Processes, 34, 237–258.
Tun, P. A. (1989). Age differences in processing expository and narrative text. Journal of Gerontology, Psychological Sciences, 44, 9–15.
Vacca, J. L., Vacca, R. T., Gove, M. K., Burkey, L. C., Lenhart, L. A., & McKeon, C. A. (2009). Reading and learning to read (7th ed.). Boston: Pearson.
Van Dijk, T. A., & Kintsch, W. (1983). Strategies of discourse comprehension. New York: Academic. 418 pages. 0127120505. Location: Dallas SIL. Library, 401(41), D575s.
Voss, J. F., & Bisanz, G. L. (1985). Knowledge and processing of narrative and expository texts. In B. K. Britton & J. B. Black (Eds.), Understanding expository text (pp. 173–198). Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Weaver, C. A., & Bryant, D. S. (1995). Monitoring of comprehension: The role of text difficulty in metamemory for narrative and expository text. Memory and Cognition, 23, 12–22.
Zabrucky, K. M., & Moore, D. (1999). Influence of text genre on adults’ monitoring of understanding and recall. Educational Gerontology, 25, 691–710.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
There is no conflict of interest.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Saadatnia, M., Ketabi, S. & Tavakoli, M. Levels of Reading Comprehension Across Text Types: A Comparison of Literal and Inferential Comprehension of Expository and Narrative Texts in Iranian EFL Learners. J Psycholinguist Res 46, 1087–1099 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-017-9481-3
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-017-9481-3