Effect of reading comprehension instruction enriched with cultural materials on English learning

Abstract

This research examines the effect of reading comprehension instruction enriched with cultural materials on seventh graders’ vocabulary knowledge and attitudes towards English lessons. The study group comprised two 7th grade classes at a socio-economic middle-level public school in Aydın Province in the spring semester of the 2013–2014 academic year. In the research, a pretest and post-test quasi-experimental model was used. Reading comprehension instruction enriched with cultural materials in two lesson hours per week was given to the learners in the experimental group for 6 weeks, while the control group followed their normal reading comprehension instruction. According to the results, reading comprehension instruction enriched with cultural materials positively contributed to learners’ vocabulary knowledge and attitudes towards English lessons.

Keywords

• attitude
• culture
• reading
• vocabulary