Learner's Gender, Reading Strategies, and Reading Performance in Expository and Argumentative Macro-genres

This study investigated whether learners’ gender could make differences in their reading comprehension and use of reading strategies in theexpository and argumentative macro-genres. To this end, six short macrogenre-based reading passages with the same readability indices and length were prepared from which appropriate reading tests were constructed and administered to a total of 50 EFL intermediate male (n = 21) and female (n = 29) students. This was followed by administrating reading strategies questionnaires to explore the learners’ use of reading strategies in themacro-genres. Results of the study indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between male and female students’ reading comprehension in the macrogenres. It was also shown that there was no significant difference between male and female learners in the overall use of reading strategies in the same macro-genres. The findings of the study hold implications for language teaching and testing, teacher training, and curriculum design.