Is printed-text the best choice? A mixed-method case study on reading comprehension

Abstract

Reading is a basic language skill which is essential not only because it develops the literacy skills of the students but because enables them to comprehend and formulate the discourse within a language. Lack of reading, on the other hand, causes impairment of comprehension and affects the academic progress of students greatly. The range of studies suggesting that screen-based reading has a greater effect than primarily paper-based is growing each day. Accordingly, this study aims to set forth the effects of screen-based versus paper-based reading on reading comprehension of English. This is a mixed-method case study, conducted by a group of 30 freshmen, majoring in English Language Teaching undergraduate program at a state-run university. As a tool for data collection, performance tests and written opinion forms were used. Before the study, three different reading texts have been specified. Of these, two were printed, and four of them were digital. Two of the digital text was plain text (pdf); the other two texts were enriched with pictures and links (hypertext). After reading the texts, the participants answered the reading comprehension questions provided by the researcher. Besides, after each application, the written views of the participants have been gathered. In the process of data analysis, performance tests have been scored, and written views are divided into themes. As a result, the success of the application with the highest means score has been identified as the first and fourth reading texts, which were printed. The two lowest success means are identified as containing links to text pictures and hypertext. The findings additionally discovered that students who study texts in print, scored substantially higher at the studying comprehension tests than the students who study the texts digitally. All in all, this study involves several pedagogical implications for reading comprehension in the field of foreign language settings.

Keywords

• EFL; reading comprehension; printed-text; digital text; hypertext.

References

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