The Effect of Authentic and Simplified Literary Texts on the Reading Comprehension of Iranian Advanced EFL Learners

The present quasi-experimental study mainly investigates the role of literature as input for reading comprehension in Iranian EFL classrooms. To be more exact, it investigates the effects of authentic and simplified literary texts on the reading comprehension of Iranian advanced EFL learners. The participants were 35 male and female Iranian EFL learners who were at advanced level, studying in a private language institute in Tehran, Iran. They were randomly divided into three groups, each group receiving a particular type of text: general academic texts in control group, authentic literary texts in one of the experimental groups, and simplified literary texts in the other experimental group. After the administration of CAE reading comprehension pre-test, holding 15 sessions of treatment, and another CAE reading comprehension as post-test, the collected data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA by SPSS software. The results showed that using both simplified literary texts and authentic literary texts, as replacements for general academic text, had a positive effect on the reading comprehension of advanced Iranian EFL learners. In addition, there was not any significant difference between the effectiveness of simplified literary texts and authentic literary texts.