First Advisor

Marjorie Terdal

Term of Graduation

Summer 1988

Date of Publication

7-11-1988

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.) in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

Department

Applied Linguistics

Language

English

Subjects

Reading comprehension -- Study and teaching, English language -- Study and teaching -- Foreign speakers

DOI

10.15760/etd.5639

Physical Description

1 online resource (3, v, 118 pages)

Abstract

In recent years with the growing emphasis upon communicative activities in the classroom, controversy has risen as to which type of reading material is best for teaching reading in the ESL classroom, fiction or nonfiction.

A study was conducted with 31 students of which 15 were taught with non-fiction and 16 were taught with fiction. Both groups were taught the same reading skills. Each group was given three pre-tests and three post-tests in which improvement in overall language proficiency and reading comprehension in the areas of main idea, direct statements and inferences was measured. Also, each group was observed for positive and negative behaviors during the fourth and eighth week of the study as well as responding to a questionnaire given the last week of the study which solicited their attitude toward the reading material used.

Four hypotheses were posed:

1. Students taught with literature, i.e. short stories, drama and poetry, and students taught with nonfiction will demonstrate no significant difference in overall language proficiency as shown by two cloze tests -- one using fiction and the other using nonfiction as the content.

2. Students taught with nonfiction will show greater increase in reading comprehension than students taught with literature, i.e. short stories, drama and poetry as measured by the Reading Comprehension Test by Descriptive Tests of Language Skills of the College Board.

3. Students taught with literature, i.e. short stories, drama and poetry. will demonstrate a more positive attitude towards reading than students taught with nonfiction as shown by a teacher's observations of class participation and students' behaviors.

4. Students taught with literature, i.e. short stories, drama and poetry, will demonstrate a more positive attitude towards reading than students taught with nonfiction as shown by a questionnaire.

In order to determine the outcome of this study, t-Tests were used with the cloze tests and the Reading Comprehension Test. No significant results occurred when the two groups were compared against each other although each group improved significantly from the beginning to the end of the study. In analyzing the observations, no conclusive trend could be determined as to which group displayed a more positive attitude. However, in regards to the questionnaire, the fiction group did display a slightly more positive attitude.

Rights

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Comments

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Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/21165

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