Differences in FL Reading Comprehension Among High-, Middle-, and Low-Ambiguity Tolerance Students
Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), USA, 2003
16 Pages Posted: 11 Dec 2013
Date Written: March 1, 2003
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the differences in foreign language reading comprehension among high-, middle-, and low ambiguity tolerance students. The subjects for the study were 150 English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) university students randomly drawn from all freshmen enrolled in the English section at four schools of education in Egypt. Data required by the study were obtained by using two measures: the MAT-50 (Morton, 1975) and a reading comprehension subtest of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). The data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance and a t-test. Results showed a significant variance in the mean scores among the high-, middle-, and low ambiguity tolerance groups. The t-tests revealed that the moderate ambiguity tolerance group scored significantly higher than the low and high groups, and the low and high groups were not found to be significantly different. A relationship may exist between ambiguity tolerance and learning strategies -- high-, middle-, and low ambiguity tolerance students may exhibit different learning strategies that could, in turn , lead to different rates of language learning success. Based on these results, it is recommended that EFL students be helped to become moderate ambiguity tolerant students.
Keywords: Learning Strategies; Psycholinguistics; Reading Comprehension; Second Language Instruction
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