The Role of Critical Discourse Analysis on Reading Comprehension Skills among Iranian EFL Learners

This research is to analyze the effects of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) on reading comprehension of Iranian EFL learners. After providing a useful synopsis, this research is to contextualize CDA in two range of learning situations and classifies how CDA can shed new perceptions on learning. Detailed systematic measures are included to clarify the procedure of conducting CDA. The participants were 61 male and female M.A. English students of Boroujerd Islamic Azad University, selected on a non- random basis by applying a TOEFL test among over 91 EFL M.A. students considered to be at the same level. Those whose scores on the test were from 224 to 316 with the mean of 273.736 (one standard deviation above and below the mean) were considered as the participants of this study. They had received instructions on the English language for about one term (16 sessions) at Boroujerd Islamic Azad University. The participants were native speakers of Farsi, and they used English as a foreign language for general purposes. Their ages ranged from 23 to 48. Any word, phrase, or structure can have different possible meanings, which is known as the meaning range. Focusing on the implied meaning of the text, the learners of the second language reach a better understanding of the text and consequently of the second language. The present research shows how seven elements offered by the Fairclough model in the critical discourse analysis can affect the reading ability of Iranian EFL learners. The effect of reading critically on language learning was the furthermost imperative area of the study. Since in CDA one should pay attention to social and political problem of the text as well as its structure, strategies, patterns of dominance and manipulation, it is necessary to explain the elements of CDA in details. Therefore, besides scrutinizing the effect of CDA in EFL learners, the researcher introduces the seven elements of the Fairclough model as well.