the effect of pictorial versus linguistic context on iranian efl learners’ reading comprehension

The aim of the present study was to investigate and compare the effect of purely linguistic versus linguistic plus pictorial context on iranian efl learners’ reading comprehension. accordingly, the researcher selected 60 female efl learners from abidar private english language institute in sanandaj, iran based on their scores in nelson english language test and assigned them into one experimental and one control group (i.e., 30 learners for each group). later, reading comprehension pre-test was administered to both groups. during treatment sessions, the same texts from american english file 2 book (3rd edition) were used in both groups with the only difference that in the first experimental group, the learners were merely provided with the copies of the lesson only linguistic context (i.e., pictures removed) for the reading comprehension part whereas in the experimental group, the participants were provided with both pictorial and linguistic context (the normal book). at the end of the treatment period, reading comprehension post-test was distributed to both classes. the results of the data analysis revealed significant differences between the two groups in terms of reading comprehension in favor the experimental group. these findings may provide insights for iranian language teachers, learners, educational policy makers, textbook designers, and material developers in making the language classes more fruitful through taking advantage of pictorial context and other visual aids in teaching english in iran..