Cultural Familiarity in Vocabulary Learning through "Literary Short Story Reading
Abstract
The aim of this study is to explore whether cultural familiarity influences vocabulary learning through reading short stories and nativizing the story can compensate for the lack of such familiarity. The study was conducted with 48 pre-intermediate university students divided into two groups. The experimental group studied on familiar (nativized) story while the control group did so with an unfamiliar (original) story. The participants were selected according to their scores of two tests including a pre-intermediate reading comprehension test and a vocabulary test on the tested vocabulary. For providing equality in opportunity, nativization was applied to an original story instead of using two different stories. After introducing the targeted words, the stories including the target words were studied with the students whose test scores pointed to a significant difference between the memorization levels of the two groups. The analysis of variance indicated a better vocabulary memorization with the nativized story.
References
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Ketchum, E. M. (2006). The cultural baggage of second language reading: An approach to understanding the practices and perspectives of a nonnative product. Foreign Language Anals, 39(1), 22-42.
Lipson, M. Y. (1983). The influence of religious affiliation on children's memory for text information. Reading Research Quarterly, 18(4), 448-457.
McClurea, E., Mason, J., & Williams, J. (1983). Sociocultural variables in children's sequencing of stories. Discourse Processes, 6(2), 131-143.
McKay, S. (1982). Literature in the ESL classroom. TESOL Quarterly, 16(4), 529-536.
Pei-shi, W. (2012). The effect of background knowledge on EFL learners’ reading comprehension. Sino-US English Teaching, 9(9), 1516-1523.
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Rashidi, N., & Soureshjani, K. H. (2011). The effect of teaching culturally-cased texts on the persian English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ motivation and reading performance. Journal of Languages and Culture, 2(8), 141-147.
Sasaki, M. (2000). Effects of cultural schemata on students’ test-raking processes for cloze tests: A multiple data source. Language Testing, 17(1), 85–114.
Steffensen, M. S., Jogdeo, C., & Anderson, R. C. (1978). A cross-cultural perspective on reading comprehension. Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Yousef, H., Karimi, L., & Janfeshan, K. (2014). The relationship between cultural background and reading comprehension. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 4(4), 707-714.
Yuet, C., & Chan, H. (2003). Cultural content and reading proficiency: A comparison of mainland Chinese and Hong Kong learners of English. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 16(1), 60-69.
Ausubel, D. P. (1968). Educational psychology: A cognitive view. New York and Toronto: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Brantmeier, C. (2003). Does gender make a difference? Passage content and comprehension in second language reading. Reading in a Foreign Language, 15(1), 1-27.
Carrel, P. L. (1983). Some issues in studying the role of schemata, or background knowledge in second language comprehension. TESOL Convention, 7(1), 81-92).
Chihara, T., Sakurai, T., & Oller, J. W. (1989). Background and culture as factors in EFL reading comprehension. Language Testing, 6(2), 143-151.
Collie, J., & Slatter, S. (1987). Literature in the language classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cristina, A., & Martinez, L. (2014). Analysis of the effect of content familiarity and gender on english as a foreign language reading comprehension by Spanish University students. Porta Linguarum, 21, 69-84.
Demir, Y. (2012). The Effect of background knowledge and cultural nativization on reading comprehension and vocabulary learning. Journal of Educational and Instructional Studies in the World, 2(4), 188-198.
Droop, M., & Verhoeven, L. (1998). Background knowledge, linguistic complexity, and second-language reading comprehension. Journal of Literacy Research, 30(2), 253-271.
Erten, İ. H., & Razı, S. (2009). The effects of cultural familiarity on reading comprehension. Reading in a Foreign Language, 21(1), 60-77.
Floyd, P., & Carrel, P. L. (1987). Effects on ESL reading of teaching content schemata. Language Learning, 37(1), 89-109.
Gambrell, L. B. (1996). Creating classroom cultures that foster reading motivation. International Reading Association, 50(1), 14–25.
Gardner, R. C., & Lambert, W. E. (1954). Motivational variables in second-language learning. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 13(4), 266-272.
Garner, R. C., & Lambert, W. E. (1972). Attitudes and motivation in second-language learning. Rowley, Massachusetts: Newbury House Publishers.
Gatbonton, E. C., & Tucker, G. R. (1971). Cultural orientation and the study of foreign literature. TESOL Quarterly, 5(2), 169-181.
Gilakjani, A. P., & Ahmadi, S. M. (2011). The relationship between L2 reading comprehension and schema theory: A matter of text familiarity. International Journal of Information and Education Technology, 1(2), 142-149.
Gilroy, M. (1995). An investigation into teachers' attitudes to using literature in the language classroom. Edinburgh Working Papers in Applied Linguistics, 6, 1-17.
Gürkan, S. (2012). The effects of cultural familiarity and reading activities on L2 reading comprehension. Social and Behavioral Sciences, 55(5), 1196 – 1206.
Hall, G. (2005). Literature in language education. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Jafari, S. S., & Aghaei, H. (2013). The effects of culture of Muslim students on their reading comprehension. Linguistics and Literature Studies, 1(3), 150-156.
Jalilehvan, M., & Samuel, M. (2014). Content familiarity and gender-neutral texts in foreign language reading comprehension. The Malaysian Online Journal of Educational Science, 2(3), 1-21.
Johnson, P. (1981). Effects on reading comprehension of language complexity and cultural background of a text. Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. (TESOL), 15(2), 169-181.
Ketchum, E. M. (2006). The cultural baggage of second language reading: An approach to understanding the practices and perspectives of a nonnative product. Foreign Language Anals, 39(1), 22-42.
Lipson, M. Y. (1983). The influence of religious affiliation on children's memory for text information. Reading Research Quarterly, 18(4), 448-457.
McClurea, E., Mason, J., & Williams, J. (1983). Sociocultural variables in children's sequencing of stories. Discourse Processes, 6(2), 131-143.
McKay, S. (1982). Literature in the ESL classroom. TESOL Quarterly, 16(4), 529-536.
Pei-shi, W. (2012). The effect of background knowledge on EFL learners’ reading comprehension. Sino-US English Teaching, 9(9), 1516-1523.
Pujol, D., & Corrius, M. (2013). The role of the learner's native culture in EFL dictionaries. Lexikos 23, 565-584.
Rashidi, N., & Soureshjani, K. H. (2011). The effect of teaching culturally-cased texts on the persian English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ motivation and reading performance. Journal of Languages and Culture, 2(8), 141-147.
Sasaki, M. (2000). Effects of cultural schemata on students’ test-raking processes for cloze tests: A multiple data source. Language Testing, 17(1), 85–114.
Steffensen, M. S., Jogdeo, C., & Anderson, R. C. (1978). A cross-cultural perspective on reading comprehension. Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Yousef, H., Karimi, L., & Janfeshan, K. (2014). The relationship between cultural background and reading comprehension. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 4(4), 707-714.
Yuet, C., & Chan, H. (2003). Cultural content and reading proficiency: A comparison of mainland Chinese and Hong Kong learners of English. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 16(1), 60-69.
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Published
2016-12-28
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Cultural Familiarity in Vocabulary Learning through "Literary Short Story Reading. (2016). Journal of Narrative and Language Studies, 4(7), 40-49. https://nalans.com/index.php/nalans/article/view/54
