THE IMPACT OF SIMPLIFIED VS ORIGINAL TEXT PRACTICE ON IRANIAN PRE-INTERMEDIATE EFL LEARNERS' READING COMPREHENSION ABILITY

THIS STUDY INTENDED TO COMPARE THE EFFECTS OF USING SIMPLIFIED VERSUS ORIGINAL READING PASSAGES ON IRANIAN PRE-INTERMEDIATE EFL LEARNERS' READING COMPREHENSION ABILITY. TO THIS END, A TOTAL OF 60 FEMALE IRANIAN EFL LEARNERS WHOSE AGE RANGED FROM 18 TO 25 YEARS OLD WERE SELECTED THROUGH CONVENIENCE SAMPLING. AFTERWARDS, THE PARTICIPANTS WERE RANDOMLY DIVIDED INTO TWO GROUPS, GROUP 1: EXPERIMENTAL GROUP (SIMPLIFIED TEXT) AND GROUP 2: CONTROL GROUP (ORIGINAL TEXT). AS DATA ANALYSIS INDICATED, THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GROUP 1 AND GROUP 2 ON THE POSTTEST WAS MEANINGFUL (T = -3.79, DF = 48, P = .000, P < 0.05). IN FACT, EMPLOYING SIMPLIFIED TEXT HAD SIGNIFICANT EFFECTS ON THE PARTICIPANTS' READING COMPREHENSION ABILITY. THE MAIN PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATION OF THIS STUDY IS FOR LANGUAGE TEACHERS TO INTRODUCE SIMPLIFIED ACTIVITIES WHICH CAN HAVE POSITIVE EFFECTS ON THEIR LANGUAGE LEARNERS' READING ABILITY AS WELL AS MOTIVATION.