THREE COSIGNATORIES: TEXT RHETORICAL STRUCTURE, IRANIAN EFL LEARNER’S COGNITIVE STYLES AND READING COMPREHENSION
Gholam-Reza Abbasian 
ABSTRACT
This study investigates the hypothesized interrelation among text rhetorical structure, Iranian Intermediate EFL learner’s cognitive styles and reading skill. To do so,  eighty participants identified as a homogeneous sample through the TOEFL, were assigned into four experimental groups. They received the Group Embedded Figure Test (GEFT) to identify types of their cognitive learning styles. Twenty field dependent (FD) and twenty field independent (FI) participants were exposed to expository reading texts, and two other similar groups in number were exposed to narrative reading texts; total ten reading passages from each type in a ten-session course. They received a diagnostic reading pre-test to make sure of their reading comprehension ability. To explore any significant changes in the reading comprehension ability of all participants due to the two independent variables, they received a post-test similar to the pretest. To test the hypothesis, two way ANOVA was run as to the results of both performances. The findings sustained a significant improvement in the performance of the participants exposed to narrative texts - who benefited more significantly from the treatment than those who received instruction in expository written rhetorical structure, though all groups, regardless of the text type, showed significant changes compared to their level prior to the treatment. Nevertheless, the participants identified as either FD or FI did not show any significant changes in their achievements. The findings suggest that: text rhetoric structure brings about significant changes in developing reader’s reading comprehension ability. The target cognitive styles; however, do not enjoy the same effect as the text types do.     
KEY WORDS: EFL learners, reading ability, text rhetorical structure, cognitive styles