On the Iranian EFL learnersʹʹ working memory in reading: Does gender make any difference?

The present quantitative study aims at investigating or better to say, comparing the working memory ability (WMA) of Iranian EFL male and female learners in terms of reading skill. In order to do so, forty students, twenty male and twenty female, were randomly selected and then three different but equivalent texts were distributed among them. In each administration, immediately after reading the text, they were supposed to answer a few questions to check their understanding of the texts. Having collected the required samples, the SPSS program of Independent t-test was run three times. The gained findings revealed that regarding reading skill, beginning females outperformed by far the males. But with regard to the intermediate and advanced level students, no significant difference was observed.