Abstract-The present study aimed to investigate the effect of the reader-response approach on EFL (English as foreign language) learners' reading comprehension, retention of vocabulary and test anxiety. To achieve this goal, out of a sample of sixty EFL learners who were selected to participate in the study 52 were assigned into two groups. During the study, a reader-response approach was used as the treatment, and the quantitative data were collected through the anxiety questionnaire, reading and vocabulary tests. MANCOVA was run to compare and determine the performance of the two groups. Based on the findings, the reader-response approach in teaching English to EFL learners, does not improve the reading comprehension and vocabulary retention of EFL learners. Furthermore, no significant differences were observed in the level of vocabulary acquisition and the reading comprehension of both groups. It was also found that the reading response approach contributed to the decrease in the experimental group's test anxiety.

The current study was planned to investigate the interference of the native language in English word recognition and word integration skills in L1 speakers of French and Persian. The participants of the study were 48 intermediate and upper intermediate native Persian and French-speaking EFL learners studying in VUB and ULB universities in Brussels, Belgium. All in all, based on the results of ANCOVA, there was a strong and positive relationship between EFL learners' word recognition and word integration skills and their L1(first language). The RT (reaction time) resulting from the LDT (lexical decision task) showed that the Persian EFL participants were able to outperform French EFL participants, though Persian and English are orthographically and typologically distant languages. On the other hand, in a word integration task, French participants showed superiority over Persian participants in the direct object reading time that emphasized the positive aspect of L1 interference as facilitation.