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The Effects of Cultural Familiarity on Reading Comprehension and Attitudes Towards Reading English Short Stories Written by a Native Speaker and a Thai Author |
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| รหัสดีโอไอ | |
| Creator | Prasit Petnoosed |
| Title | The Effects of Cultural Familiarity on Reading Comprehension and Attitudes Towards Reading English Short Stories Written by a Native Speaker and a Thai Author |
| Contributor | Thanyapa Palanukulwong |
| Publisher | Faculty of Liberal Arts, Prince of Songkla University |
| Publication Year | 2564 |
| Journal Title | Journal of Liberal Arts, Prince of Songkla University |
| Journal Vol. | 13 |
| Journal No. | 2 |
| Page no. | 120-143 |
| Keyword | cultural familiarity, cultural schema, reading comprehension, English literature, local literature in English |
| URL Website | www.tci-thaijo.org |
| Website title | Thai Journal Online (ThaiJO) |
| ISSN | 2651-1126 |
| Abstract | Literature is an integral part of language learning. Literary works written by native speakers are the predominant reading materials for English-major students in Thai universities while Thai literature written in English is often overlooked. Based on the hypothesis that reading comprehension of literary works requires cultural familiarity, this article reports on a quasi-experimental study assessing the impact of cultural familiarity on reading comprehension. In addition, this study also aimed to explore Thai English-major students’ attitudes towards reading English short stories. Participants of this study were thirty-five English-major students taking English literature courses at the Faculty of Liberal Arts, Prince of Songkla University. The instruments were (1) two short stories with a comparable theme, linguistic complexity and length but in different cultural contexts – one in an American and the other in a Thai context, (2) a reading comprehension test from the two texts, and (3) a questionnaire on the participants’ attitudes towards reading the two texts. The findings showed that the culturally familiar text resulted in significantly better literal,inferential and overall comprehension. In addition, participants found that the Thai short story surpassed the American short story in the aspects of authenticity, ease of understanding and interest. Implications for selection of reading materials are discussed. |
