The effectiveness of Hymes’ ethnography of communication model in teaching English learners reading comprehension

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a discoursal approach on Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ reading comprehension ability. A Quick Placement Test (QPT) was used to select 60 intermediate EFL learners as the participants of this study. Then, they were divided into experimental and control groups. Each group consisted of 30 learners. Prior to the treatment, the participants of both groups were given a pre-test to determine their reading comprehension levels. The experimental group was exposed to the Hymes’ model. In the control group the researcher used a traditional approach for teaching the reading skill. Then a post-test was administered to both groups. An independent samples t-test between post-tests of the study and a paired-samples t-test between the pre-test and post-test of the groups of the study were run. The results of the study indicated that applying Hymes’ model improved the learners’ reading comprehension while the traditional approach did not.