Abstract:

This study investigates the effects of different EFL materials on university students' reading comprehension. Two types of materials: culturally familiar (based on the nationality of the text's author) and culturally non-familiar (based on western culture ) were tried on two experimental Groups sampled out from first and forth years English department students enrolled at the faculty of Arts, Menoufia University, Egypt.

This study attempts to answer the following questions:
(1) to what extent is EFL reading comprehension perfected in relation to Learners' associated language education level ?;
(2) what effect do culturally familiar and non-familiar materials have on university Students reading comprehension ?;
(3) what are the strategies that 'successful readers' use to comprehend the two written texts?; And relatedly, what are the strategies used by 'less successful readers' to comprehend the two written texts?;
(4) to what extent do these Strategies differ from one written text to another; and from one level to another?;
(5) how do first year students and forth year students Comprehend written texts?; and wether or not their performance in reading comprehension is unitary?; and
(6) what are the subjects' Reading habits in their native and target languages?

Finding answers for these questions may uncover some hidden factors that influence the reading act of our students.

Keywords:

Schemata, L2 reading.