The Impact of Multicultural Reading Circles on the Reading Comprehension and Cultural Awareness of EFL Learners

Abstract

This study investigates how structured multicultural reading circles influence reading comprehension and cultural awareness among English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners in upper-secondary educational settings. A mixed-methods design was implemented over a 12-week intervention period, involving 142 learners across six intact classrooms randomly assigned to experimental or control conditions. The experimental group engaged in weekly facilitated reading circles centered on authentic literary texts from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds---including narratives from West Africa, South Asia, Latin America, and Indigenous North America---accompanied by guided reflective dialogue, vocabulary scaffolding, and intercultural comparison tasks. The control group followed standard curriculum-based reading instruction without deliberate cultural framing. Pre- and post-intervention assessments measured literal, inferential, and evaluative comprehension through validated cloze and open-response protocols, while cultural awareness was gauged via scenario-based judgment tasks and semi-structured interviews analyzed for thematic consistency and conceptual depth. Quantitative results showed statistically significant gains in all three comprehension dimensions for the experimental group (p < 0.001), with effect sizes ranging from medium to large. Qualitative analysis revealed marked growth in learners' ability to recognize cultural positioning, question assumptions, and articulate contextual nuance in textual interpretation. Notably, gains were most pronounced among learners with initially lower baseline proficiency, suggesting the approach serves as an inclusive pedagogical lever. The findings affirm that sustained, dialogic engagement with culturally plural texts---when scaffolded intentionally---enhances both linguistic processing and intercultural reasoning capacities in EFL contexts.