Improving EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension Through Raising Metacultural Competence: Comparing Teacher- Generated and Teacher/Learner-Generated Materials

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the effect of teaching metacultural competence through two modes of teacher-generated and teacher/learner-generated materials on English-as-a-foreignlanguage learners’ reading comprehension. To this end, 60 male and female upper-intermediate EFL learners studying at a language school were selected through nonrandom convenience sampling and thence assigned randomly into two experimental groups, with 30 learners in each group. Prior to the treatment, each experimental group sat for a reading pretest. The treatment spanned 13 sessions of 90 minutes each where both experimental groups undergoing metacultural competence-raising activities, with the point of departure being one group receiving teacher-generated materials while the other group receiving teacher/earner-generated materials. At the end of the treatment, a reading posttest was administered to both groups and the analysis of covariance run on the participants’ scores on the pretest and posttest revealed that the experimental group receiving teacher-learner generated materials outperformed the other group. The pedagogical implications of the study and the suggestions made for various stakeholders in the community of English language teaching are discussed in this paper

Keywords

• : metacultural competence
• reading comprehension
• teacher- generated materials
• teacher/learner-generated material