The Study of the Effectiveness of Textual Cohesion of Teaching Materials on Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension

The present investigation was an attempt to study the effect of difference in textualcohesion of different teaching materials on Iranian intermediate EFL learners' readingcomprehension. To that end, a QPT test was administered to 105 EFL students learningEnglish language in institutes. Based on QPT test direction individuals who get 31+ ingrammar and vocabulary, 8+ in reading section, and 8+ in writing are considered to be atintermediate level of foreign language proficiency. So 45 learners were selected for thisstudy and they were divided into three groups, two experimental groups and one controlgroup, the first experimental group, studying Topnotch, the second experimental groupstudying Touchstone and the control group studying high school English book. Allgroups contained 15 participants. Then a reading test was administered to all groups as apre-test to take their initial knowledge of reading comprehension. The experimentalgroups received treatment in using the above mentioned books containing more cohesiveelements in ten sessions. The control group was taught the high school English bookreading passages. Finally all experimental and control groups sat for the posttest forreading comprehension test. ANOVA was conducted to see if there was a significantdifference between groups or not. The results were computed and analyzed through SPSSand it was explored that difference in textual cohesion in different teaching materials,namely texts containing more cohesive elements, had a positive effect on Iranianintermediate EFL learners' reading comprehension ability.