The Correlation Between Perceptions on the Use of Online Digital Interactive Media and Reading Comprehension Ability

The use of online interactive media in English teaching and learning has been significantly increasing since past few years. The media got more popular after distant or online learning was encouraged during the COVID-19 pandemic. The emergence of digital learning management systems such as Edmodo, Google Classroom, and Moddle further intensified the implementation of not only education-based platforms such as British Council and Quizziz, but also popularized non-education media such as YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter which were intentionally designed for entertainment. This research is designed to foster students’ perceptions on the use of online digital interactive media and correlate the perceptions with their reading comprehension ability. A total of 41 students from different middle and high schools, who lived in various orphanages, participated in this research. Close-ended Likert-scale questionnaire was distributed to obtain the data of students’ perceptions while reading comprehension test was adapted from British Council and implemented to see the correlation between the students’ perception and their reading comprehension ability. The finding shows that more than 75% of the students believed that online digital interactive media were very crucial and helpful in language learning process. Moreover, the mean score of the reading comprehension test indicated positive correlation between students’ perceptions and their reading comprehension ability. This study implies foster students’ perceptions in the use of online interactive media highly correlate with their reading comprehension performance.

An analysis of note-taking strategies: The effect of translanguaging on content comprehension and knowledge retention

Purpose This study investigates the effectiveness of using translanguaging for note-taking on students’ lecture comprehension and retention by measuring their scores on two tests administered two weeks apart. Methods The participants were English L2 Chinese graduate students (n = 101) studying in English-language programs in various English-speaking countries at the time of the study. The study used a quasi-experimental three-arm parallel groups design to compare the relative effects of three alternative approaches to note-taking (Chinese, English, and translanguaging). All participants watched a five-minute English-language video without subtitles and took notes using their assigned strategies. Then participants immediately took a comprehension test. After two weeks, participants took a retention test. Results The results showed that those taking notes in English only outperformed those taking notes using Chinese only on low-level, fact-based questions in the comprehension test. There was no significant difference found among the three language groups (Chinese, English, and translanguaging) in other types of questions (main topic questions and numerical questions) and the overall score. In the retention test, those taking notes in English outperformed those taking notes in Chinese in the overall score and all question types except for number-based questions, with the translanguaging groups also outperforming the Chinese group in fact-based questions. In addition, students’ previous study abroad experience was not found to impact students’ comprehension and retention of the video lecture content. Conclusion It seems that translanguaging does not aid advanced L2 learners in immersion contexts; instead, translanguaging may be more helpful for lower proficiency L2 learners.

Digitally Assessing Text Comprehension in Grades 3-4: Test Development and Validation

A prerequisite for child reading support at school is adequate assessment. Embedding (repeated) assessment into daily teaching routine is often challenging for teachers in terms of time and organization. The use of digital tools can help teachers in the assessment process (in preparation, evaluation, documentation, etc.). A digital assessment tool (Graz Reading Comprehension test: GraLeV), focusing on assessing reading comprehension skills in Grades 3 and 4 is currently being developed in Austria. This reading assessment covers reading comprehension at the word, sentence, and text level. Text level is assessed via two subtests (Subtest I: presentation of nonsense-stories and corresponding questions, and Subtest II: maze selection). The other levels consist of one subtest each. This paper focusses on the subtests at text level. More specifically, the paper reports the results of two studies. Study 1 describes the development phases and the first piloting of these two subtests (data collection: 10/2019-12/2019). Testing 273 students with preliminary versions of the subtests (Subtest I: 30 items, Subtest II: 60 items) produced information on (a) item difficulty, (b) item discriminatory power, and (c) time limits for future speed testing. Items not meeting the required quality criteria were excluded. The final version of Subtest I consists of 16 questions referring to eight different, short, nonsense-texts. Its testing time (without instructions) is three minutes. The final version of the Subtest II consists of 2 texts each with 15 maze selections (30 items) and testing time is 100 seconds. The internal consistency is found to be good for Subtest I (α=.87) and Subtest II (α=.78 to .80). Study 2 reports on testing for validity and retest-reliability (data collection: 09/2020-11/2020). Student scores in another reading comprehension test, together with teacher assessments of reading comprehension, were used to assess congruent validity. Divergent validity was assessed using teacher assessments of mathematical and socio-emotional skills. As expected, the correlations with the congruent measures were higher than those with the divergent measures. A subsample was tested twice with the GraLeV. Retest-reliability was acceptable for Subtest II. However, the scores obtained at time 2 were higher compared to those at time 1 in both subtests. This is probably the result of increased student familiarity with the digital device and the digital test environment at time 2. The results are discussed in the light of teachers’ needs for standardized digital assessments in order to facilitate the tailoring of student reading support.

The Effects of Reading Strategy Awareness on L2 Comprehension Performance among the Rungus in North Borneo

The Rungus are the indigenous people in Sabah, Malaysia. Malay as a second language and the primary instruction in schools seems inevitable. The study aims to determine the effects of reading strategies in the L2 reading comprehension tests on textual content and vocabulary. Participants consisted of twenty-six Form Four Rungus tribe pupils from Kudat Sikuati II Government Secondary School. The study used an ex-post facto research design. The researchers employed cognitive and metacognitive strategy questionnaires and two reading comprehension tests on L2 textual content and vocabulary. The researchers applied Cronbach alpha reliability statistics, paired sample test, and regression analysis. The study indicates that the L2 reading comprehension test on textual content and cognitive strategy were linearly related. Also, the factors related to L2 vocabulary in the reading comprehension test and metacognitive strategy are statistically significant. There is a very substantial relationship between past knowledge and reading comprehension among the participants. This study found that the use of cognitive strategies facilitates L2 reading comprehension with first language translation. The participants use translation strategies at a high level. However, they often use the metacognitive strategy more than the cognitive strategy. There is a significant positive relationship between metacognitive awareness and high-skilled readers’ performance. Low-level skilled readers choose the cognitive strategy. Meanwhile, the regression analysis between the L2 reading comprehension test on textual content and cognitive strategy revealed a positive association (β=.435) that is statistically significant (p<.05). The regression analysis between the L2 reading comprehension test on vocabulary and metacognitive strategy indicated a positive association (β=.440) and statistically significant (p<.05). Reading strategies facilitate students to understand the text, thereby improving their reading comprehension tasks. In addition to demonstrating positive implications on teaching students to read a second language, the findings are essential for teaching Malay language vocabulary. The schema theory employed in the study implicates that reading comprehension performance is generated from the interaction between top-down strategy (metacognitive) and bottom-up strategy (cognitive). A large-scale study could potentially reveal the use of translation strategy as a strategic trait associated with high-achievement readers or is, in fact, a bilingual additive.

The Effectiveness of Differentiated Instruction in Improving Bahraini EFL Secondary School Students in Reading Comprehension Skills

This study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of Differentiated Instruction (DI) in improving reading comprehension skills in the EFL secondary stage in Bahrain. The study adopted the quasi-experimental research design using thirty-six 2nd year secondary students to be the study participants. The participants were divided into two groups: an experimental group that received the (DI) training and a control group that received the conventional way. A reading comprehension skills questionnaire and a pre-post EFL reading comprehension test was used in the study to collect the data. Results showed that the experimental group outperformed the control group in the EFL reading comprehension test. The findings indicated that the DI strategies helped to develop students’ EFL reading comprehension skills. In addition, it revealed that using various materials for teaching reading comprehension skills to match students' different needs and abilities helped enhance their reading comprehension proficiency. A number of recommendations and suggestions for further research was presented.

STUDENT’S READING COMPREHENSION OF DIFFERENT GENRES IN SMP NEGERI 2 PANCURBATU

The purposes of the study were to (1) find out the level of students reading comprehension of different genres and (2) to describe students reading comprehension of different genres of text. The subject of the research was the eight grade students in SMP Negeri 2 Pacurbatu. The research was conducted by using descriptive qualitative method. The data were collected by using reading comprehension test and interview. Then The data were analyzed by identifying the result of test first, describing the result and the last was explaining the result. Based on the result of the data analysis, it was found that the students were good at both literal and inferrential. Literal comprehension was 75.95% better than inferrential comprehension 72,68 %. Furthermore, students reading comprehension of narrative texts was the dominant genre with 75.00% which belonged to good category and followed by recount text with 72.98%, procedure text with 73.79% and the last was descriptive text with 69.75% which the only genre belonged to fair category

Sanctions and international interaction improve cooperationto avert climate change

We report the protocol relative to the experimental project "Sanctions and international interaction improve cooperation to avert climate change",which connected through the internet pairs of laboratories from Kiel and Bonn (Germany) and Moscow and Tomsk (Russia). The connection was realized through Z-Tree. Each research session comprised 24 participants, who were randomly allocated to 4 groups, whose members were three from one laboratory and three from the other. After receiving instructions and passing a comprehension test, participants interacted over ten rounds. Each participant had a fixed allocation of money in each round, which could have been kept for oneself or contributed to a group account. Contributions decreased the probability that everyone suffered a 75% loss in their personal account at the end of the interaction. A random draw determined whether occurrence the loss event occurred, and individual payoffs were paid privately in cash at the end of the session.

Brain Hemisphericity and Saudi Students’ EFL Reading Comprehension

The present study is concerned with the relationship between brain hemisphericity and the reading comprehension of adult Saudi EFL learners. The tendency to rely on one side of the brain over the other can affect the degree of success in learning a foreign language as well as the appropriateness of learning and teaching strategies. A total of 122 Saudi university-level participated in the study. The first part of the study examines whether or not there are significant differences between the performance of right-brained learners, left-brained learners, whole-brained learners, whole-brained learners favoring right mode, and whole-brained learners favoring left mode in an EFL reading comprehension test. The EFL reading comprehension includes main idea questions, inferential questions, literal-meaning questions and text-bound questions. The Hemispheric Mode Indicator® is used to determine hemispheric preference of the participants. Findings revealed significant superiority of the performance of left-brained learners as compared to right-brained learners and whole-brained learners favoring right mode. This result suggests that even in a foreign language learned after childhood, the left-hemisphere seems to control brain activities dealing with language. In the second part of the study, participants were trained to use a visual tool (Mind Mapping ®) to summarize the information of the reading passage before answering a parallel reading comprehension test. Whole-brained learners favoring right mode, and right-brained learners were the two groups who benefited the most from the visual tool. This result was expected since the visual tool activates some right hemispheric functions. It is concluded that learners with different modes of hemisphericity learn in different ways.

The Implementation of Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) to Improve Students’ Reading Comprehension.

The goal of this research is to look into the use of Directed Reading Thinking Activity to improve students' reading comprehension in the tenth grade at SMAN 1 Tanete Riaja. The following research questions were addressed in this study: 1) How does the implementation of Directed Reading Thinking Activity (henceforth DRTA) improve students' reading comprehension?2) What are the students' perceptions toward the DRTA strategy's implementation? This study employs a quasi-experimental design with both an experimental and a control group. The experimental class was taught using the DRTA strategy, while the control class was taught using the conventional strategy. The participants in this study were chosen at random and were divided into two classes: class X-1, which consisted of 32 students as the experimental class, and class X-2, which consisted of 30 students as the control class. The data was gathered through a reading comprehension test and a questionnaire. According to the findings of this study, using the DRTA method increases students' scores more than using the conventional strategy. The experimental class has a mean score of 76.40, while the control class has a score of 50.3. It indicates that the DRTA strategy significantly improves students' reading comprehension and makes a positive contribution to their cognitive development. Furthermore, the results of the questionnaire show that the majority of students respond positively to the implementation of the DRTA strategy in the classroom.