An Investigation of Supportive Reading Strategy Use and Reading Comprehension in Multi-User Online Annotation System

• Main Authors: Zhen-Yu Fan, 樊鎮宇
• Other Authors: 葉修文
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2008
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/66799259707589488877

碩士 === 中原大學 === 應用外語研究所 === 96 === The bulk L2 reading research has revealed that prospective readers use numerous reading strategies to facilitate comprehension, but relatively few studies have centered on online supportive reading strategy use and its effects on reading comprehension. Multi-User Online Annotation is one of the applications of computer-mediated-communication (CMC), which offers interpersonal communication among groups of readers. It allows multiple readers to annotate the same electronic text for the purpose of knowledge sharing and collaborative learning. This study has four aims: (1) exploring EFL learners’ online supportive reading strategy use, (2) examining the effects of supportive strategy use on comprehension, (3) investigating the relationship between supportive reading strategy use and comprehension, and (4) evaluating the effectiveness of an online supportive reading environment, Multi-User Online Annotation System (Yeh, 2004; Lo et al., 2005) on reading comprehension. The study employed a pretest-posttest control group design with random assignment. Sixty-five participants divided into the experiment and the control group, were asked to read two online reading texts, did immediate recall protocols, and completed the post-survey. Each participant’s browsing behavior in completing the two reading tasks was recorded by the computer system to collect their pre-defined supportive reading strategies. Supportive strategy use data was further analyzed with descriptive statistics. The independent t-tests were used to compare the reading comprehension performance between the experiment and control groups on immediate written recall protocols. The relationships between frequency use of supportive reading strategies and reading comprehension were explored by person correlations. Finally, the feedback from the post- survey was analyzed by descriptive statistics. The results revealed that due to the convenience and immediacy, Dictionary strategy made up the overwhelming proportion of strategy use and Search strategy was used the least. In regard to supportive reading strategy use on comprehension, the experiment group outperformed control group in the recall scores and total idea units recalled with more significance. There were positive significant correlations between the frequency use of supportive strategies and comprehension, especially on Dictionary strategy. In relation to the feedback from the post-survey, overall participants held positive attitudes toward the effectiveness of the supportive reading strategy buttons, the learning effects, and the interface design of Multi-User Online Annotation System. They would even recommend the system to their friends. Findings of this study offer important pedagogical implications and suggestions for future research. First, it is essential to incorporate strategy instructions into the reading classes. Teachers need to incorporate strategy awareness training before engaging students in online tasks for promoting their online reading performance. Second, the sole dependence on supportive strategies mechanism does not successfully explain the increase of reading ability. For the future study, more kinds of reading strategies, such as global strategy, problem-solving strategy and socio-affective strategy should be included in order to investigate the influence of different strategy use on comprehension.