Investigating the Impact of the Degree of Contextualization on Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners’ Reading and Listening Tests Performance

The present study was an attempt to examine the effect of the degree of contextualization on reading and listening comprehension tests. In other words, it was intended to check the performance of the learners providing with high contextualized input compared to those who received low contextualized input. In doing so, 36 intermediate learners from an English Language Institute, participated in this study. Following that, two kinds of reading comprehension tests, more contextualized and less contextualized, and two kinds of listening comprehension tests, more contextualized and less contextualized, were designed. The data collected from the participants were analyzed by using ttest analysis. Findings revealed that there was a significant difference between the mean score of more contextualized input and less contextualized input in both reading and listening comprehension tests. However, the results of the present study showed that contextualization seemed not to have any significant effect on the reading and listening. It was concluded that both learners’ proficiency level and degree of contextualization should be considered when designing listening and reading comprehension tests.