Effects of Bilingualism and Monoligualism on Iranian EFL Learner s’ performance on Reading Comprehension Test

Abstract

This study aimed at comparing the performance of bilingual and monolingual groups of Iranian EFL learner’s performance on reading comprehension test. Altogether 30 Turkish – Persian bilinguals, and 30 Persian monolingual majoring in English as a foreign language at participated in the study. The subjects in two groups were homogeneous in terms of age (20-21 years old), sex (they were all female), nationality (they were all Iranian), and proficiency level (intermediate). Different testing instruments were utilized in the process of the development of the present research. A Nelson proficiency test was used to determine the student's level of language proficiency during the term reading strategies were taught to the students. The results showed that the use of strategies by bilinguals had significant effect on their better performance on reading comprehension. In addition, there was not a significant difference between the performance of bilinguals and monolingual test on reading comprehension test.