Arab Educational Information Network

This study aims at investigating Iraqi EFL University students' comprehension in novella. The sample of this study consists of the fourth year students/ Department of English/ College of Education at University of Samarra. The total number of those students is forty. To achieve the aim of this study the following procedures are adopted: 1) A diagnostic test has been constructed. 2) The test is exposed to a number of specialized jurors who agree on its content validity and face validity. 3) A pilot study is administrated by giving a test to twenty EFL students chosen randomly from the selected sample to determine a number of factors including reliability of the test item, the difficulty level of the items and their discrimination power. Reliability is ensured by using Cronbach's Alpha formula and interscore reliability method. The coefficient reliability is found to be 0.81 and 0.94. Results obtained by statistical treatment of data have shown that fourth year EFL students in the college of Education at University of Samarra are below the average level in their efficiency in comprehending irony. The study ends up with recommendations which are based on the obtained results. (Published Abstract)