Influence of Rhetorical Pattern on Improving EFL Students' Reading Comprehension

Abstract: Schema theory states that recall of information relayed by the rhetorical patterns which offer extra linkage should be better than that of the descriptive schema. Since in Iran there is no schemata of rhetorical patterns in the native language, little research has been conducted. The present study, therefore, intends to investigate the effect of rhetorical patterns on Iranian high school students' reading comprehension. Participating in this study were 85 female students. One expository text with two rhetorically different patterns was used in this study. Using a between-subjects design, the subjects were divided into two groups. One group of students read the descriptive text while the other group read the causative text. The participants' reading comprehension was measured by recall protocol and cloze test. The results of the statistical analysis indicated that the subjects who read the causative text performed better than the subjects who read the descriptive text. This suggested that rhetorical pattern offers a guarantee for Iranian high school students that their comprehension will improve.