Enhancing College Students'' English Reading Comprehension through Online Question Generation

• Main Authors: Pei-Yi Lai, 賴沛宜
• Other Authors: Hui-Chin Yeh
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/76219890995725508803

碩士 === 國立雲林科技大學 === 應用外語系碩士班 === 99 === Studies concerning online question generation suggested that question generation improved students'' reading comprehension. However, rare studies addressed how students generate questions from a reading text and how question generation processes enhance students'' reading comprehension. Therefore, the study aimed to explore what online question generation processes enhance students'' reading comprehension and how students perceive the activities involved in online question generation. 19 non-English major college students from different departments in a technological university were recruited as participants. The collected data involved the students'' scores of the pre- and post-tests, learning action logs in the online question generation system, the interview transcripts and a five-point Likert questionnaire. Pre- and post-tests were adopted to examine the effectiveness of online question generation in enhancing students'' reading comprehension. Students'' learning action logs in the online question generation system and interview transcripts were used to analyze students'' online question generation processes. The questionnaire was conducted to explore participants'' perceptions toward online question generation. Results of this study first indicated that college students displayed improvements in reading comprehension after the intervention of online question generation. Second, students who made progress in reading comprehension demonstrated similar learning behaviors in question generation processes in terms of the organization, composing, and peer assessment modules. In the organization module, the students who made reading progress had a higher tendency to add new vocabulary into their vocabulary databases and to edit their previously organized vocabulary, sentences, main ideas and summaries as well. In the composing module, the students who made progress had a higher frequency in reviewing the previously organized vocabulary, sentences, main ideas and summaries to generate questions. In the peer assessment module, students were also much more active in viewing peers'' test items, providing comments on peers'' questions, reading and responding to peers'' comments. Third, the results of the questionnaire showed that 77% of the students agreed the learning actions taken in the organization module, including vocabulary, sentences, main ideas and summaries were helpful for them to generate questions. In the composing module, 70% of the students found that the actions such as "reviewing" and "editing" were helpful for them to generate questions. In the peer assessment module, 82% of the students thought it was helpful for them to generate questions by going through the processes of commenting on their peers'' questions and responding to their peers'' comments on their own questions.