The effectiveness of using film versus book on the comprehension of litrary text among Kurdish university students

The study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of using film versus book on the comprehension of literary texts among Kurdish university students. The study also investigated the factors influence the level of comprehension of Kurdish university students. The participants of the current study consisted of 15 third-year Kurdish students enrolled in the English department of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Zakho in Kurdistan, Iraq. The participants were divided into three equivalent groups and subjected to three treatments wherein each group was put to three different types of teaching approaches. The data collection procedure included two retelling tests that were carried out at different periods of time in which the participants retold a story through writing. The data procedure also included a questionnaire that was designed to determine the factors that influence the participants’ reading comprehension. The results obtained from both tests showed significant differences in the levels of achievement between the three groups whereby the participants who were exposed to both the written and film version of a story performed better than those who were exposed to either the written version or the film version of the story. The participants’ responses to the questionnaire determined the main factors that influenced their reading comprehension. Based on the results obtained, the researcher concluded that using film in teaching literature has a significant role on students’ comprehension and their level of understanding of the course material.