Content schemata, linguistic simplification, and EFL readers’ comprehension and recall

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of linguistic simplification and content schemata on reading comprehension and recall. The participants, 240 Iranian male students of English as a foreign language (EFL), were divided into 4 homogeneous groups, each consisting of 60 participants (30 with high proficiency and 30 with low proficiency). To elicit data, the study used 2 types of texts: content-familiar and content-unfamiliar. Each type appeared in 4 versions: original, syntactically simplified, lexically simplified, and syntactically-lexically simplified. Each participant group was tested on 1 of the linguistic versions of the content-familiar and content-unfamiliar texts. Data analyses showed a significant effect of the content and EFL proficiency, but not of the linguistic simplification, on reading comprehension and recall. The effect of the linguistic simplification on reading comprehension and recall is interpreted in the light of the interaction of content and linguistic simplification.