Investigating the Impact of Using Literary Texts on Improving EFL Students’ Reading Comprehension

Abstract

Reading is a very important skill that EFL students are required to master and develop. In addition, EFL teachers and students believe that literary texts are good materials that can help students improve their reading capacities and mainly reading comprehension. The present study aims then at investigating the role of using literary texts, as a teaching reading technique, in improving EFL students’ reading comprehension. The case study chosen has been Third Year students of English at the English Department at Guelma University. Thus, a sample of 114 students was randomly chosen from the whole population; in order to find suitable answers to the research question and check the validity of the research hypothesis; which states that students’ reading of literary texts may improve their reading comprehension. Consequently, two questionnaires were administered to both teachers and students as data collection tools to figure out the effects of reading literary texts on improving students’ reading comprehension. The collected data were described, analyzed and discussed using the Descriptive Statistical Method. Furthermore, the results revealed that both of teachers and sample students show high awareness and positive attitudes toward the effect of reading literary texts on improving students’ reading comprehension and other abilities; the fact that confirmed the research hypothesis. Finally, the investigation results were taken as pedagogical implications for effective EFL teaching and learning; in addition to some significant recommendations that can be taken into consideration for future researches. Research limitation and general concluding remarks are also mentioned.