The Interdependence between the Process and the Product of Reading in English and Persian

The aim of the present research was twofold. First, to investigate whether Persian reading skills contribute differentially to English reading performance depending upon amount of exposure to the second language. And second, to investigate the extent to which Persian readers use similar comprehension strategies when· reading in LI and L2 at the three proficiency levels. To answer the questions, 240 Iranian EFL undergraduate students at the Islamic Azad University in Ghaemshahr were randomly selected. First, the TOEFL was administered in order to assign the participants into the three proficiency levels. For measuring L2 reading ability, three English reading cloze tests and for measuring LI reading ability three Persian cloze tests were used at the three levels. Three English and three Persian reading strategy questionnaires were administered to the subjects immediately after each cloze test. As for the first question, correlational analysis showed that the contribution of first language reading ability to second language reading ability changes significantly depending on the amount of second language exposure. Asfor the second question, one-way ANOV A showed a significant difference in the employment of English reading strategies across the three proficiency levels