The Effect of Cultural Familiarity on Reading Comprehension: An Approximate Replication of Erten and Razi (2009)

Abstract

This paper presents findings from an approximate replication of Erten and Razi (2009), which investigated the effects of cultural familiarity and reading activities on comprehension. Two variables were modified in the replication: participants’ first language (L1) and proficiency. Cultural referents were manipulated in a short story to make them more culturally familiar to participants. Reading comprehension was compared between four treatments: the original version with American cultural referents; original version plus reading activities; an adjusted version with L1 cultural referents; and adjusted version plus reading activities. While a large effect for cultural familiarity on comprehension was seen in the original study, no effect was found in the replication. Post-hoc analysis indicated lexical difficulty was likely a factor. The results suggest that if a large portion of vocabulary is unknown, no effect for cultural knowledge is seen. Thus, while cultural knowledge can aid comprehension, vocabulary knowledge seems to be more important.

Notes

1 Since the time of writing, these options have now changed on the website. All three options appear to the user, with the first option checked by default: treat proper names as 1K.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kimberly Klassen

Kimberly Klassen is currently an instructor in the Department of English for Liberal Arts, International Christian University, Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan 181-8585. Her research interests include second language reading and vocabulary acquisition.