Synchronic Aspects of Interdiscursivity in Contemporary Communication

Аннотация

Reading comprehension is a fundamental COPYRIGHT skill in second language acquisition, yet traditional © 2025 Original content from this work may be used under the terms methods often rely on short, intensive reading passages of the creative commons attributes 4.0 License. that may not fully engage learners. This study investigates the use of English novels as a tool to improve students’ reading comprehension in an EFL context. Results indicate that the novel-reading group made significant gains in reading comprehension and related sub-skills, with notably higher incidental vocabulary gains and improved inferencing ability in comprehension questions. Participants also demonstrated increased reading fluency and expressed greater cultural insight and motivation to read in English. Keywords: Reading comprehension, second language acquisition, English novels, extensive reading, EFL, vocabulary acquisition, inferencing skills, reading fluency, cultural awareness, learner motivation, Communicative Language Teaching, Task-Based Language Teaching, language pedagogy. Introduction: Developing reading comprehension in English is a central goal for EFL/ESL learners, yet it remains a challenging skill to teach and acquire. Traditional classroom practice often emphasizes intensive reading of short texts with close vocabulary and grammar analysis. While such practices build discrete reading skills, they may not sufficiently promote fluent, engaged reading or the broad language growth that comes from encountering language in context. Among long-form texts, English novels hold particular European International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research 7 https://eipublication.com/index.php/eijmrms and Management Studies European International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Management Studies promise for improving reading comprehension. Novels sharpen students’ inferencing skills because literary are rich, authentic texts that present language in varied narratives typically do not spell out every detail; contexts and registers, exposing learners to vocabulary, readers must “read between the lines” to fully idioms, and syntax beyond the scope of textbooks. understand motives, causes, and themes. Several Unlike abridged passages, novels tell extended stories studies have explored how working with fiction can that can captivate learners’ interest, potentially improve learners’ inferential reading strategies. Gahari increasing motivation and time-on-task. From a and Basanjideh (2015) trained Iranian EFL communicative language teaching (CLT) perspective, undergraduates using short story reading and strategy novels constitute authentic materials produced for instruction, and found that those who practiced native readers, which can be leveraged in the classroom inferring meanings and identifying themes showed to simulate real-life reading experiences and cultural higher gains in reading comprehension than those who exposure (Savignon, 2002). Authentic literary texts only did standard comprehension exercises. The act of immerse learners in the target language culture and following a long-form narrative allows students to modes of expression, enabling them to understand not practice connecting clues over chapters and predicting just the language but the social and cultural contexts of outcomes, thereby exercising deeper cognitive communication. By reading fiction, students also processing. practice inferential thinking – “reading between the Research in L1 contexts also reinforces the value of lines” to grasp implicit meanings – an essential inference training through literature. For example, comprehension skill. Furthermore, the narrative flow of Levine and Horton (2015) demonstrated that high novels encourages reading fluency; learners must read school readers, after guidance on making thematic more continuously and rapidly to follow the plot, which inferences in literary texts, began to interpret stories can improve their reading speed and automaticity over more like expert readers and improved their overall time. understanding of the texts. In an EFL context, Öz & Despite these theoretical advantages, incorporating Efegioğlu (2015) examined the use of a graphic novel in novels in an EFL setting raises questions about a Turkish high school and found that the group reading methodology and outcomes. How exactly does novel the graphic novel developed a significantly better reading impact specific facets of comprehension such ability to make inferences compared to a control group as vocabulary growth or inferencing ability? Can a (as evidenced by more interpretative answers to novel-based curriculum significantly improve general comprehension questions). These students could more reading proficiency compared to traditional methods? readily “read between the lines” and grasp implicit What frameworks and classroom practices best meanings, a skill which directly translated into stronger support students in benefiting from literatur