Investigation of Discourse Comprehension among EFL Students at Najran University

Abstract

From a discourse perspective, this study employs an empirical research design to investigate timed reading (TR) as discourse comprehension (DC) in a Saudi English as a foreign language (EFL) enrichment reading class. DC deals with three dimensions: reading text, reading comprehension, and reading rate. In so doing, this study measures reading text, reading comprehension, and reading rate. Fifteen reading texts were used in an enrichment reading class: 30 Preparatory Year PY EFL students at Najran University. The researchers used two analytical tools: the Coh-Metrix and the one sample test. The results show that the reading texts simplified meaning using high narrativity, high syntactic simplicity, average word concreteness, an average amount of referential and deep cohesions, frequent words, and simple graph patterns of words. While reading comprehension scored high, the reading rate shows that the participants were slow in this context. The study concludes that DC is context-based and constructed in all layers of meaning: reading text, reading comprehension, and reading rate. The reading texts contributed to a deep investigation of DC. The study suggested some implications for employing DC in EFL contexts. It recommends further research on DC including the role of the writer.