Effects of lexical simplification and elaboration of ESP texts on Iranian EFL university students’ reading comprehension

This study investigates effects of the two techniques of lexical modification, namely, simplification and elaboration, on reading comprehension of ESP texts. For this purpose, three texts in the field of management in one of the forms of original, simplified, and elaborated were presented to 349 students of Management whose comprehension was assessed by a 17-item multiple-choice test. The data were analyzed by applying the One-Way ANOVA and multiple comparisons of post hoc tests. Results indicated that lexical simplification and elaboration are both helpful in enhancement of comprehension. However, there was no significant difference between simplification and elaboration in enhancing the rate of reading comprehension as subjects performed nearly the same on simplified and elaborated reading passages. However, since elaborated texts preserve the authenticity and naturalness of the language to a large extent and do not deprive the language learners of being exposed to the L2 forms, they are preferable to the simplified texts.