The Effect of Word Length of Unknown Words on the Iranian EFL Learners Reading Comprehension

A large number of variables influence the way a learner comprehends a reading passage, one of which is word length. The studies which have focused on this seemingly important aspect, in some settings, are few and far between. This indicates the importance of running more research in this respect. The present study endeavored to examine this variable to discover its effect on reading comprehension ability of Iranian EFL learners. In so doing, 60 Iranian intermediate students (30 males and 30 females) were given the TOEFL proficiency test to evaluate their level of proficiency in English, a Vocabulary Knowledge Scale test (Wesche & Paribakht, 1996) and two reading comprehension texts. The results did not show a very significant difference between long and short word groups in Iranian context (t=-1.219; P= .233). In other words, word length of unknown words cannot play a significant role in developing the level of the learners’ reading comprehension

Keywords:

Word length , Reading comprehension , vocabulary , Iranian EFL learners