Fostering EFL Learners' Reading Comprehension Through a Web-Based Cumulative Sentence Analysis (CSA) System

2018 ◽  
pp. 202-220
Author(s):  
Yea-Ru Tsai
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
English Reading ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Experimental Group

In this chapter, the author investigated the effects of a web-based cumulative sentence analysis (CSA) instruction on university engineering students' English reading comprehension. The results of two empirical studies were presented. The findings showed that the experimental group achieved a higher level of reading comprehension performance following the instruction. Inter-group comparison also revealed that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group in the post-test, while no difference was found between these groups in the pre-test. The questionnaire showed the majority of the students have perceived positive learning outcome in reading comprehension after the CSA instruction. The positive correlation between the post-test and online CSA test indicates that learners' syntactic analysis ability can benefit their reading comprehension. By presenting the instructional framework, this study has contributed to the empirical research concerning the effect of syntactic competence on English as a foreign language (EFL) reading comprehension.

Design of a Web-Based Sentence Analysis System to Support EFL Reading Instruction

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-22
Author(s):  
Yea-Ru Tsai ◽  
Yukon Chang
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Reading Instruction ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Comprehension Process ◽  
On Line ◽  
Analysis System ◽  
Experimental Group

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of an on-line Cumulative Sentence Analysis (CSA) instruction on university engineering students' English reading comprehension. Within the framework of CSA instruction, the reading comprehension process can be divided into six steps: identifying finite verbs, finding key words, separating clauses, identifying subjects and main verbs, adding words stepwise, and translating the sentence. The results showed that the experimental group achieved a higher level of reading comprehension performance following the instruction. Inter-group comparison also revealed that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group in the post-test, while no difference was found between these groups in the pretest. The findings clearly demonstrated that on-line CSA instruction is an efficient and feasible approach to helping engineering students cope with their problems of reading English texts.

scholarly journals THE EFFECT OF LEXICAL INFERENCING STRATEGIES ON STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliana Juliana
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Placement Test ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Lexical Inferencing ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Written Test ◽  
Academic Year ◽  
Experimental Group

Abstract: This study was conducted to investigate the effect of lexical inferencing strategies on students’ reading comprehension. The purpose of the study was to find out whether the use of lexical inferencing strategies had effect on students’ reading comprehension. The population of this study was 90 Informatics Engineering students of Potensi Utama University in the fifth semester of 2014-2015 Academic Year. A placement test was given to 90 students to select 60 similar English proficiency level students. The instruments used for collecting data were written test and spoken test. These tests were conducted to identify students’ reading comprehension performance toward lexical inferencing strategies. These data were analyzed applying an experimental research design involving pre-test and post-test. A pre-test and post test were administered for control and experimental groups. The first, control group was taught using conventional method, while the second, experimental group was treated using lexical inferencing strategies. The results of the test showed that the use of the lexical inferencing strategies had significantly affected to students’ reading comprehension performance. Hence, it was concluded that lexical inferencing strategies was recommended to teach to improve the students’ reading comprehension performance.

scholarly journals The effect of instructing critical thinking through debate on the EFL learners’ reading comprehension

2015 ◽  
pp. 21-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryam Danaye Tous ◽  
Abdorreza Tahriri ◽  
Sara Haghighi
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Post Test ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Experimental Group

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of instruction through debate on the male and female EFL learners’ reading comprehension, and to examine the difference between male and female EFL learners’ perception towards instructing critical thinking (CT) through debate. 88 learners, out of 120, were selected through convenience sampling method. Using a quantitative research method with experimental pre-and post-tests design, this study consisted of 44 participants in the experimental group and 44 participants in the control group. The experimental group received some treatment in the form of “the Meeting-House Debate” strategy, while the control group received no such treatment. After one month and a half treatment of experimental group, both groups participated in the post-test. Data analysis was done using descriptive and inferential statistics procedures. Findings showed that the debate strategy had statistically significant effect on the students’ reading comprehension. Also, results revealed that there was no significant difference between male and female EFL learners’ perception towards instructing CT through debate. It was concluded that instructing CT skills through debate strategy resulted in better understanding of reading texts.

scholarly journals The Effect of Two Pre- task Activities: Pre- taught Vocabulary and Brainstorming on Intermediate EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 86
Author(s):  
Masoud Khalili Sabet ◽  
Abdorreza Tahriri ◽  
Somayeh Rostami Shirkoohi
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Placement Test ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Attitude Questionnaire ◽  
Intermediate Students ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Experimental Group

The primary purpose of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of two pre- task activities of reading: pre- taught vocabulary and brainstorming in EFL learners’ reading comprehending.  To this end, three intact classes in a private English Institute in Tehran, were selected from a population of 60 English learners.  Based on their scores on Oxford Placement Test (OPT), the students were randomly assigned into two experimental groups and one control group and a pre-test was run at the beginning of the course. At outset of the course a pre- test was run among three groups.  The researcher instructed the experimental groups in 16 weeks, one session a week and lasting 40 minutes in each session. The first experimental group benefited from pre- taught vocabulary, while the second experimental group benefited from brainstorming as a pre- task and the third group did not receive any pre- task activities in the reading class. At the end of the course, a post- test with the same items of the pre- test was run to determine the improvement of EFL intermediate students’ reading comprehension changes and an attitude questionnaire was planned to determine the learners’ attitudes toward the pre- task activities.    The results of paired sample t- test indicated that the use of pre- taught vocabulary and also brainstorming enhanced the scores of  the first experimental and second experimental groups’  post- tests ; moreover, ANOVA results revealed a significant increase in reading comprehension scores  of the first and the second  experimental groups’ post- tests compared to the control group’ post-test scores.  The results of attitude questionnaire demonstrated the pupils’ positive attitudes toward the use of pre- task activities. 

Teaching Collocations through Web-Based Concordancing

2017 ◽  
pp. 142-156
Author(s):  
Aysel Şahin Kızıl ◽  
Abdurrahman Kilimci
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Final Performance ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Instructional Settings ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Experimental Group ◽  
The Web

With the advent of language corpora and concordancing activities, teaching collocations knowledge of which is considered significant for appropriate and fluent language use has gained new dimensions within the context of technology enhanced language learning. The present study investigates the impact of web-based concordancing activities on EFL learners' achievement and retention of verb-noun collocations compared to paper based-activities. A total of 62 EFL learners participated in the study by taking a pre-test and an immediate and a delayed post-test. Results indicated that learners in experimental group outperformed the control group making significant improvement in their knowledge of verb-noun collocation immediately after the web-based practice. Although both groups regressed later, final performance of the experimental group was still better than that of control group. This study, therefore, suggests that EFL practitioners craving for creating variations in their instructional settings employ web-based concordancing activities to raise collocational competence of learners.

The Impact of Cooperative Learning on Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension: The Case of Jigsaw Technique

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-18
Author(s):  
Behnaz Raji
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Cooperative Learning ◽  
T Test ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Post Test ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Jigsaw Technique ◽  
Experimental Group

This study examined the effect of Jigsaw technique as a part of cooperative learning on Iranian EFL learners’ reading comprehension. To this end, 40 intermediate participants were selected out of 73 EFL learners based on the results of Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT). The participants were divided into two groups; control and experimental. Then, the participants of both groups were pretested on reading comprehension. After pre-testing, the cooperative learning activities (Jigsaw technique) were practiced with the participants of the experimental group during 5 sessions. The experimental participants were assigned to five-member teams to work on reading texts. Each team member read an assigned section and then members from different teams who had studied the same sections met in ‘expert groups’ to discuss their sections. Then, students returned to their own teams and taught their team-mates about their section. On the other hand, the control group received traditional teacher-fronted instruction throughout the classroom time. After the treatment sessions, a teacher-made reading comprehension post-test was given to the participants of both groups to measure their reading comprehension ability after the treatment. The results of paired samples t-test and independent samples t-test revealed that the experimental group outperformed the control group on the post-test. The findings also showed that there was a significant difference between the post-tests of both groups in favor of the experimental group.

scholarly journals The Effect of Using Video Technology on Improving Reading Comprehension of Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amir Mohammadian ◽  
Amin Saed ◽  
Younes Shahi
Keyword(s):  
Educational Technology ◽  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Multiple Choice ◽  
Placement Test ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Teaching Reading ◽  
Video Technology ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Experimental Group

With the development of educational technology, the concept of technology-enhanced multimedia instructions is using widely in the educational settings. Technology can be employed in teaching different skills such as listening, reading, speaking and writing. Among these skills, reading comprehension is the skill in which EFL learners have some problems to master. Regarding this issue, the present study aimed at investigating the effect of video materials on improving reading comprehension of Iranian intermediate EFL learners. A Longman Placement Test was administered to 30 EFL learners to ensure that learners are at the same level of proficiency. The students were chosen from the state high schools in Chabahar.  The participants were regarded as intermediate learners and were divided into two groups (one experimental group and one control group). Then, a pre-test of reading comprehension was administered to assess the participants’ reading comprehension. The participants of experimental group used video files to improve their reading comprehension while the control group received conventional approaches of teaching reading comprehension. Finally, all the participants were assigned a 40-item multiple-choice reading comprehension post-test. The results of the study indicated that video materials had a significant effect on promoting reading comprehension of Iranian intermediate EFL learners (p = .000, <.05).

scholarly journals The Effectiveness of Note-Taking on Reading Comprehension of Iranian EFL Learners

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (7) ◽  
pp. 308
Author(s):  
Farnoush Bahrami ◽  
Heidar Nosratzadeh
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Pearson Correlation ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Note Taking ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Post Test ◽  
And Control ◽  
Experimental Group ◽  
Analyze Data

By taking notes students could save time for reading all textbooks for their exams or for their representations.  It helps them to be vigilant all the time in class for having good notes and they have to paying attention to lectures or teachers all the time, therefore note-taking causes to listening better to lessons and lectures an also it causes to improves their comprehension when they read texts. Thus, the present study is important because note-taking could provide student’s memorization and helps them to remember what they learnt, absolutely important information. Also it accelerates to one-over their studies.The method used in this research was survey. The 40 Persian EFL learners were selected from a language institute in Karaj to participate in the present study. These learners were divided into two groups; one of them is experimental group (N=20) and the other one is control group (N=20). Pretest and post test were two instruments that were used to carry out this study, a pretest about skill of note-taking of passages of the lessons was used for both experimental and control group. This test consisted of 4 passages. The same test was administrated again as the post test for both groups by the end of the course to see the different conclusion between taking note of experimental group and control group control groups. Reliability between 4 texts is in oscillation from 0.6 to 0.81 (from 0.6 upwards). Therefore this reliability was an acceptable one. To analyze data descriptive statistics (that was contained percentage, frequency and mean score) and also inferential statistics (that was contained ANOVA, Pearson correlation, independent sample t-test, multivariate’s test, regression) were carried out by using SPSS16 soft ware. The findings confirmed that note taking is effective in reading comprehension.

scholarly journals THE EFFECT OF TEACHING CULTURAL CONTENT ON INTERMEDIATE EFL LEARNERS’ READING COMPREHENSION ABILITY

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 302
Author(s):  
Masoumeh Razavi ◽  
Abbas Pourhosein Gilakjani
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Treatment Period ◽  
Lesson Plan ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Paired Samples ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Cultural Content ◽  
Experimental Group

This study investigated the effect of teaching cultural content on Iranian intermediate English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ reading comprehension. To this end, 60 intermediate EFL learners from Shokouh Institute in Motelqu, Mazandaran, Iran were selected randomly and assigned to two groups, namely the control group and experimental group; 30 participants in each group were chosen based on their performance using the Oxford Placement Test (OPT). This study used a quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest control group research design. After the OPT, the reading comprehension pre-test was given to the participants to check their initial reading comprehension. During a six-week treatment period, both control and experimental groups received the same routine lesson plan of the institute but only the experimental group enjoyed the culture instruction in order to test its effect on learners’ reading comprehension improvement. At the final stage, the post-test was given to check their reading comprehension after the six-week treatment period. The data were analyzed using an Independent Samples T-test and a series of paired Samples T-tests. The results of this study showed that receiving cultural content instruction improved learners’ reading comprehension. In general, the results of experimental group supported the effect of teaching cultural content on Iranian learners’ reading comprehension.

The Effect of Cultural Transfer of Connotative Meaning of Vocabularies on Iranian EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (7) ◽  
pp. 1489
Author(s):  
Narjes Mabhoot ◽  
Mitra Zeraatpishe
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
T Test ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Traditional Teaching ◽  
Connotative Meaning ◽  
Cultural Transfer ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Comprehensive Performance ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Experimental Group

This research has been worked upon analyzing the effect of cultural transfer of connotative meaning of vocabularies on Iranian EFL learners’ reading comprehension. 100 participants took part in the study who were divided into 2 groups: experimental group in which the cultural transfer took place; and the control group in which the traditional teaching without mentioning cultural transfer occurred. It should be taken into consideration that both groups have been tested by the same taxt taken from TOEFL as a pre-test and a post-test. The obtained results were calculated and analyzed by statistical t-test, indicated that the learners had a better comprehensive performance in second language texts by using the cultural transfer of connotative meaning of vocabularies. Results indicated the outperformance of the experimental group.

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