Task Difficulty of Macro-Genres and Reading Strategies and Reading Comprehension

Language learners' comprehension of a text relies more on their use of appropriate reading strategies during the activity and their perceptions of task difficulty. The current study aimed to explore the correlation between task difficulty of macro-genre-based texts and learners’ reading comprehension as well as their use of reading strategies in the same reading texts. For this purpose, based on the short reading texts with the same length and readability indices for four macro-genres (i.e., descriptive, narrative, argumentative, and expository), appropriate reading tests with the same number of questions were prepared. Task difficulty and reading strategies questionnaires were then administered to 50 EFL students at Lorestan University in Iran. The task difficulty questionnaire explored the learners’ perceptions of task difficulty of the target macro-genres. The results obtained indicated that there was no statistically significant correlation between reading strategies and task difficulty in the descriptive, argumentative, and expository macro-genres. There was, however, a statistically significant correlation between reading strategies and task difficulty in the narrative macro-genre. The results also revealed that there was no significant correlation between reading comprehension and task difficulty in the target macro-genres. The argumentative and expository macro-genres appeared to be more difficult than the descriptive and narrative macro-genres. The findings hold implications for task-oriented language teaching and testing and materials development.