The Effect of Lexical Glossing Types on Reading and Listening Skills of Iranian EFL Learners

Abstract

Knowing what factors influence, positively or negatively, the reading and listening ability of language learners is of crucial importance. Amid these factors the type of glossing can be named which number of studies on it, especially in our country, Iran is rare. The present study, therefore, aimed at investigating the lexical glossing impact on such skills as reading and listening comprehension of a group of Iranian EFL learners. To put it clearly, the study is, in fact, an attempt to ascertain if L1 or L2 lexical glossing may make any difference in their effectiveness on L2 reading and listening comprehension processes. To achieve the intended purpose, 60 female students learning English as a foreign language in an English language school in Isfahan, Iran were randomly selected and were grouped into two intact classes. They were required to take two TOEFL tests: one as a pretest to ensure their homogeneity concerning language proficiency, and one to specify the impact of glossing on their listening and reading comprehension, respectively. Conducting a one-way analysis of variance (MANOVA) and two independent sample t tests, the study revealed that first, there was a significant difference between the two groups receiving Persian and English glosses. Besides, the study indicated that the class receiving native language gloss (i.e., Persian lexical gloss) outperformed compared with the class getting the second language gloss (i.e., English gloss) in both reading and listening comprehension although this effect was more on the former than the latter one. The study may have some pedagogical implications in the realm of L2 research that the present researchers will point out throughout the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]