EFL learners' use of online reading strategies and comprehension of texts:

An exploratory study

Huang, H. C., Chern, C. L., & Lin, C. C. (2009). EFL learners' use of online reading strategies and comprehension of texts: An exploratory study. Computers & Education, 52(1), 13-26.

Presenter: Hsiao-lan Lee

Professor: Ming-Puu Chen

Date: 01 / 05 / 2009

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Introduction

The effective use of reading strategies has been recognized as an important way to increase reading comprehension.

Few studies have reported on L2 online reading strategies and the effects of strategy use.

The emergence of new technologies has redefined the nature of literacy.– need new comprehension strategies on the Internet (Coiro, 200

5; Sutherland-Smith, 2002)

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Second language reading strategies (1/2)

The taxonomies of common L2 reading strategies:

1. Top-down strategies: general strategies and global strategies– predict text content, construct a goal for reading, and self-

monitor the reading process

2. Bottom-up strategies: local strategies, problem-solving, and support strategies– understand specific linguistic units

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Second language reading strategies (2/2)

Language proficiency: high and low proficient readers– High: tend to use global strategies

– Low: resort to local strategies

Approaching texts with different difficulty levels: high and low achiever– High: use more strategies and more self-monitoring strategies

The use of certain strategies:– Global strategies contribute to better comprehension. use c

oherence-detecting and monitoring moves

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Hypertext second language reading

Comparing paper and online reading strategies:– Foltz (1993): Readers use the same reading strategies in acc

essing these three (paper, hypermedia, and multimedia) types of texts

Labeling EFL/ESL learners’ online reading strategies:– Elshair (2002): Readers tend to naturally transfer the reading

strategies

Examining the effectiveness of strategy use in a WLE:

– Chang (2005): The effects of self-regulated and self-monitoring strategies facilitates ESL learning in a WLE.

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The purposes of this study

Identify patterns in the online reading strategies used by EFL learners– What are the online reading strategies used by EFL

learners?

Investigate how reading comprehension is affected by strategy use and which strategies work best for EFL learners while reading online texts– What is the relationship between reading comprehension

and strategy use?

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Methodology (1/2)

The 15 strategy buttons are grouped under four strategy types:

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Methodology (2/2)

Four online reading texts were selected:– Two articles were approximately at the students’ proficiency

level, and two were slightly above their level.

Participants:– 30 applied English majors from a sophomore English class

– Two groups:• High proficient group: 15 with the highest TOEFL scores• Low proficient group: 15 with the lowest TOEFL scores

Four articles were selected:

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Results (1/5)

Online reading strategy use:

– The difference between the use of the four categories of strategies was statistically significant.

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Results (2/5)

Distribution of strategy use by the high and the low groups:

– Significant differences were found between the high group’s and the low group’s use of strategies (χ2 = 10.10, df = 3, p < 0.05).

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Results (3/5) Strategy use across difficulty levels of the text:

– The high group did not use different strategies in reading easy and difficult texts (χ2 = 3.822, df = 3, p > 0.05), but the p-value was close to 0.1.

– The low group did not use different strategies in reading easy and difficult texts (χ2 = 0.754, df = 0.3, p > 0.05).

– There were significant differences in strategy patterns between the high and the low groups in reading difficult texts (v2 = 9.726, df = 3, p < 0.05).

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Results (4/5) The total recall scores:

– The regression model:

– In article 1, 3 and 4, global strategies and support strategies significantly predicted higher recall scores.

– In article 2, support strategies were the only type of strategy.

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Results (5/5)

The recall scores on main ideas:– The high group: support strategies article 1 (score = 0.37SUS),

article 2 (score = 0.43SUS-1.48SOS), and article 3 (score = 0.32SUS)

– The low group: support strategies article 1 (score = 0.21-SUS), article 3 (score = 0.18SUS), and article 4 (score = 0.40GLS + 0.26SUS)

The recall scores on details:– The high group: support strategies all four articles

– The low group: • support strategies articles 1 (score = 0.61PRS + 0.12SUS),article

2 (score = 0.10SUS + 0.50SOS), and article 3 (score = 0.02SUS)

• problem-solving strategies article 1• global strategies article 4

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Discussion (1/3) Online reading strategy patterns:

– Learners mainly depend on support mechanisms because of the convenience and instant feedback.

– the rare use of problem-solving strategies: the greater degree of effort required

Language proficiency– Students with different proficiency levels used different

strategies. High: use more global/top-down strategies

Text difficulty level– Both groups tended to use a fixed set of reading strategies.

not aware of the various strategy tools at hand not conscious of the goals of the reading tasks

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Discussion (2/3)

The effects of strategy use on reading comprehension:

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Discussion (3/3)

Pedagogical implications:– The integration of strategy instruction into the reading class

room is essential. • use a fixed set of reading strategies regardless of the text’s leve

l of difficulty incorporate strategy awareness training

– Language proficiency influences strategy use.• the ‘‘teachability” of language learning strategies: explore the po

tential of teaching learning strategies to increase students’ ability to learn the language

– Global strategies are widely adopted by high achieving students and contribute to better comprehension when they read challenging texts. the most efficient strategy• teach these strategies by providing such activities as

(1) anticipating a text’s content, (2) previewing its structures, and (3) reviewing text-specific vocabulary