Abstract

This study examines the Sudanese EFL students’ comprehension performance and measures the differences in their performance according to gender. After one semester of participation in extensive reading, 300 secondary school students from 15 schools in the state of Khartoum are randomly selected for the study. A comprehension test followed by a questionnaire on how they think while completing the test are used as instruments. The study’s results reveal an average performance and statistically significant differences in the background, explicit, vocabulary and general understanding questions of the reading comprehension. However, these significant differences are not found in the implicit and the interpretation questions and in using lower and higher levels of processing skills. In addition, significant differences have appeared between males and females students in the background, explicit, implicit and interpretation, and vocabulary questions, but not found in the general understanding questions. Then, findings are discussed and recommendations are provided. Drawing on these findings the study, for example, recommends that good applications of techniques and procedures of teaching EFL reading might be a viable intervention for improving students’ performance in EFL reading.

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