• Fariba Heydarian

  Author

This study aimed to focus on one of the most significant elements of the texture of a
paragraph, namely topic sentence. The question this study tried to answer was whether there was
a relationship between the position of topic sentences and reading comprehension ability. The
research also aimed to find out whether there was a relationship between (male and female) and
reading comprehension ability concerning the position of topic sentence. Having considered the
limitations of studies and the gaps in the literature it was decided to conduct a study aiming at
recognizing how intermediate Iranian EFL (English as a foreign language) learners perform in
reading comprehension. To gather desirable population, 150 EFL learners took OPT test. 62
learners were considered as a research sample with different fields of study and different gender
(48 females and 14 males). Two kinds of reading comprehension test, reading with initial and
implied topic sentences were administered. Each type of reading consisted of four reading
comprehension tests with four multiple choice questions. Quantitative analysis was used in order
to analyze the results of the test. Based on Pearson Correlation and Independent Sample T-test,
there was no relationship between the position of topic sentences and reading comprehension
ability. Research also indicated that there was no relationship between male and female learners
with respect to the position of topic sentence and their ability in comprehending texts.