Results of the first question of th

Results of the first question of the study demonstrated significant differences among the three  learner levels  in narrative texts. This shows that  narrative comprehension among our subject  groups is a function of reading proficiency level.  Contrary to the differences noticed between the  intermediate and low group in the narrative version, we do not see any significant differences  between the two groups in the expository and argumentative texts.  The high group’s  performance  is significantly higher than that  of the two groups in these kinds of texts too.  Expository texts were found to be more difficult  to comprehend than narrative texts for the  readers because of the processing demands of these texts, as well as the participants’ limited domain­relevant knowledge (Geva,  2004;  Bialystock and Rayan,  1986).  Both groups  are  challenged by the need to note and process the micro and macro­structures of such texts. This  finding is also supported by Chung (2000) who found that the low group’s performance was as  good as the intermediate group among Chinese readers of English in expository texts. These two types of texts appear to be demanding for low level readers.  In such texts, the reader has to draw  more on text­based inferences and comprehend the general concepts through differentiation by analysis  and synthesis  (in expository texts), and evaluate the relations between and among concepts (in argumentative texts).