Please Wait! Your file will start to download within 10 seconds automatically. Otherwise click here Download

Familiar settings and culture in the texts make English language learning an easy task: A case of intermediate students

Author(s)

Sumara Hina , Abdur Rehman Tariq , Hafiz Ahmad Bilal , Inam Elahi , Malik Zafar Iqbal ,

Download Full PDF Pages: 11-16 | Views: 1031 | Downloads: 200 | DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3412516

Volume 2 - December 2013 (12)

Abstract

Since the indigenous translated literature was included at the intermediate level, the students feel at home while reading them. While studying the native English writers, most of them are not at ease as foreign culture portrayed in those texts serves as a hindrance in the way of comprehension. Consequently, they may get fed up with the English Language. The purpose of this study is to explore the difference of understanding of the foreign and translated text with familiar setting and culture and to probe if the local translated texts serve the purpose of teaching English better than foreign texts written by native English writers. The data will be collected from a class of Intermediate Part I in a private college at Jauharabad Dist. Khushab. There will be a sample of about 20 students. Questionnaire will be set to collect the data that will be analyzed to conclude a result. The study is significant in the way that it may put forward some very practical and effective suggestions for redesigning the syllabus of English based on the opinion of students and teachers.

Keywords

indigenous translated literature, foreign text, questionnaire

References

        i.        Brown, H.d, 2001. Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy. White Wesley Longman, Inc.

ii.      Change, C., 2006. Effect of topic familiarity and linguistics difficulty on the reading strategies and mental representations of nonnative readers of Chinese. Journal of Language and Learning, 4(2):172-198.

iii.    Hammadou, J., 2000. The impact of analogy and content knowledge on reading comprehension: What helps, what hurts, Modern Language Journal, 84(1): 38-50.

iv.     Kendeou, P. and P. Van den B Broek, 2007. The effects of prior knowledge and text structure on comprehension processes during reading of scientific texts. Memory and cognition, 35(7): 1567-1577.

v.       Keshavars, M., M, Atai and H. Ahmadi, 2007. Content schemata, linguistic simplification and EFL readers’ comprehension and recall, Reading in a Foreign Language, 19(1): 19-33.

vi.     Leeser, M.j., 2007. Learning-based factors in 1, 2 reading comprehension and processing grammatical form: Topic familiarity and working memory. Language Learning, 57(2:229-270.

vii.   Bartlett, F.C., 1932. Remembering Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

viii. Carrell, P.L., and J.C Eisterhold, 1983. Schema Theory and ESL Reading Pedagogy. TESOL Quarterly, 17:553-573.

ix.     Johnson, P., 1982. Effects on Reading Comprehension of Building Background Knowledge. TESOL Quarterly, 16:5203-516.

x.       Abu-Rabia, S., 1996. Attitudes and cultural background and their relationship to readingvcomprehend-sion in a second language: A comparison journal of Applied Linguistic, 6(1):v81-107.

xi.     Abu-Rabia, S., 2003.Cognitive and social factors affecting Arab students learning English as a third language in Isreal. Educational Psychology, 23(4):347-360.

xii.   Ammon, M.S., 1987. Patterns of performance among bilingual children who score low reading. In S. R. English as a second language. Norwood, NJ: Ables.

xiii. Carrell, P.L., 1983. Three components of background knowledge in reading comprehension. Language Learning, 33: 183-207.

xiv. Yuet, C. and H. Chan, 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.

xv.   Chihara, T., T. Sakurai and J.W.J.R. Oller, 1989. Background and culture as factors in EFL reading comprehension Language Testing, 6(2):143-149.

xvi. Alptekin, C., 2002. The effects of cultural knowledge on EFL reading comprehension. Paper presented at the Opening plenary speech at International Balkan ELT Conference, Edirne: Trakya University.

xvii.                       Alptekin, C., 2006. Cultural familiarity in inferential and literal comprehension in 1, 2 reading. System, 34(4):494-508.

xviii.                     Erten, 1.H. and S. Razi, 2003. An experimental investigation into the impact of cultural schemata on reading comprehension. Paper presented at the 2nd International Balkan ELT Conference on Theory and Practice of TESOL.

xix. Oller, J.W., 1995. Adding abstract to formal and content schemata: Results of recent work in peircean semiotics. Applied Linguistics, 16: 273-306.

xx.   Sweller, j., 1994. Cognitive load theory, learning difficulty and instructional design. Learning and Instruction, 4: 295-312.

xxi. Perfetti, C.A., 1999. Comprehending written language: A blueprints of the reader, in C.M, Brown and P. Hagoort (Eds.), the neurocognition of language Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp167-208.

xxii.                       Sasaki, M., 2000. Effects of cultural schemata on students test taking processes for cloze tests: A multiple data source approach Language Testing, 17(1):85-114.

xxiii.                     Pritchard, R., 1990. The effects of cultural schemata on reading processing strategies. Reading Research Quarterly, 25(4):273-295.

xxiv.                      English Book – 1, For Intermediate Classes (short Stories)s, Punjab Text Book board, Lahore, Pakistan Editin 1st May 2011

xxv.                        Stanovich, K., 2000. Progress in understanding reading: Scientific foundations and new frontiers New York: The Guilford Press.

xxvi.                      Erten, 1H. and S. Razi,2009. The effects of cultural familiarity on reading comprehension. Reading in a foreign Language, 21 (1): 60-77.

xxvii.                    Day, R. and J. Park. 2005. Developing reading comprehension questions. Reading in a foreign Language, 17(1): 60-73.

xxviii.                  Rupp, A.A., T. ferme and H. Choi. 2006. How assessing reading comprehension with multiple-choice questions shapes the construct: A cognitive processing perspective. Language Testing, 23:441-474.

xxix.                      Sharifian, F., 2010. Glocalization of English in world Englishes: An emerging variety among Persian Speakers of English. In M. Saxena and T, Omoniyi (Eds,). Contending with Globalization in World Englishes Clevedonm, UK: Multilingual Matters pp: 137-158.

xxx.                        Ketchum, E.M., 2006. The cultural baggage of second language reading: An approach to understanding the practices and perspectives of a non-native product, Foreign Language Annals, 39(1): 22-42.

xxxi.                      Yule, G., 1996, Pragmatics. Oxford. England: Oxford University Press.

xxxii.                    Mandler, J.M., 1984. Stories, Scripts and scenes: Aspects of schema theory, Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

xxxiii.                  Klapproth, D., 2004. Narrative as social practice: Anglo-Western and Australian Aboriginal oral traditions: Walter de Gruyter.

xxxiv.                  Anderson, R.C., 1978. Schema-directed processes in language comprehension. In A. Lesgold, J. W. Pellegrino and R. Glaser (Eds.), cognitive psychology and instruction Now York: Plenum,pp: 67-82.

xxxv.                    Carrell, P.L.., 1987. Content and formal schemata in ESL reading TESOL Quarterly, 21: 461-481.

xxxvi.                  Droop, M. And L. Verhoeven, 1998. Background Knowledge, linguistic complexity and secondlanguage comprehension. Journal of Literacy Research, 30(2): 253-271.

xxxvii.                Johnson, P., 1981. Effects on reading comprehension of language complexity and cultural background of a text. TESOL Quarterly, 15: 169-181.

xxxviii.              Razi, S., 2004. The effects of cultural schema and reading activities on reading comprehension. Paper presented at the proceedings of the 1st international online conference on second and foreign language teaching and research, USA.

xxxix.                  Jalilifar, A.R. and R, Assi, 2008. The role of Cultural Nativization in Comprehension of Short Stories in EFL Reading Contexts. The International Journal of Language Society and Culture, 26: 62-79.

xl.     Shaw, I., 2000. Short stories, five decades. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press.

Cite this Article: