Abstract This paper presents findings from an approximate replication of Erten and Razi (2009), which investigated the effects of cultural familiarity and reading activities on comprehension. Two variables were modified in the replication: participants’ first language (L1) and proficiency. Cultural referents were manipulated in a short story to make them more culturally familiar to participants. Reading comprehension was compared between four treatments: the original version with American cultural referents; original version plus reading activities; an adjusted version with L1 cultural referents; and adjusted version plus reading activities. While a large effect for cultural familiarity on comprehension was seen in the original study, no effect was found in the replication. Post-hoc analysis indicated lexical difficulty was likely a factor. The results suggest that if a large portion of vocabulary is unknown, no effect for cultural knowledge is seen. Thus, while cultural knowledge can aid comprehension, vocabulary knowledge seems to be more important.

中文翻译：

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文化熟悉度对阅读理解的影响：Erten和Razi（2009）的近似复制

摘要本文提出了从Erten和Razi（2009）的近似复制中获得的发现，该发现研究了文化熟悉度和阅读活动对理解的影响。复制过程中修改了两个变量：参与者的母语（L1）和熟练程度。在短篇小说中操纵了文化对象，使参与者对文化更加熟悉。比较了以下四种治疗方法的阅读理解力：原始版本与美国文化参考者；原始版本加上阅读活动；带有L1文化参考对象的调整版本；以及调整后的版本以及阅读活动。虽然在原始研究中发现了文化理解对理解的巨大影响，但在复制中没有发现影响。事后分析表明，词汇难度可能是一个因素。结果表明，如果未知的词汇量很大，则不会对文化知识产生影响。因此，尽管文化知识可以帮助理解，但词汇知识似乎更为重要。