English Major Students’ Preferences for Hypermedia Annotations and Their Effects on Reading Comprehension

Tang Xiaoli

Introduction

It is considered that multimedia facilitates learning because people learn more deeply from words and pictures than from words alone. Corresponding researches on multimedia learning is beginning to flourish abroad. But the results are inconsistent. However, in China no empirical study in my knowledge has addressed this issue.

This paper present a study which examines Chinese English majors’ preferences for hypermedia annotations while reading in multimedia environment. The annotations in this study are categorized as textual annotations providing information on specific words, and extratextual annotations providing background knowledge. Both textual and extratextual annotations are available in text, sound, and graphic forms.

Research questions

Three research questions are addressed:

(1) What forms of annotations do students prefer while reading in multimedia environment?

(2) Do learners who use more annotations show better overall reading comprehension?

(3) What’s the correlation between specific types of annotation and overall reading comprehension?

Major Theories Concerning Reading

• Three models of reading process:

Bottom-up

Top-down

Interactive

• Schema Theory

• Mayer’s Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning

Methodology

Participant selection

Description of materials

Procedures

1. Experiment arrangement

2. Program demonstration

3. First reading and task

4. Second reading and task

5. Questionnaire

6. Interview

video sample recorded in the experiment

Findings

1. This study revealed that Chinese English learners consistently preferred text annotations. Text annotations were rated as highly useful by the participants. This finding is contrary to those abroad. The difference may due to students’ level, language learning background and other individualities.

2. No relationship was found between overall annotation use and reading comprehension may suggest that using computer may help students in learning strategy, attitude, interest, etc. Computer can not change students’ proficiency level significantly in a short time.

3. Regarding the effects of specific types of annotations, pictorial annotations might help learners. Audio recordings and videos might distracted learners and interfered with reading comprehension.

4. The findings suggest that learners perceive easy access to annotation highly useful in helping them cope with an L2 text. However, easy access may lead them to use the annotations excessively to look up even familiar information. Moreover, learners may select to view aids not because they are important, but because they are interesting

5. As regard to background information, it is found that background information can help students in understanding a text.

Limitations

Several limitations need to be pointed out in this study. First, the text is too long. Students become impatient a

t the end of reading. The long text was not divided into several pages, after they consulted specific annotations, they found it is difficult for them to go back to the original place. This could create additional frustration and impatience for students. Researchers in the future would be strongly encouraged to chose a shorter text or divide a coherent text into several pages for the convenience of screen reading.

Second, the record of pronunciation is not done by native speakers. If the words were pronounced by native speakers, students may be more interested in and be willing to consult them and read after them.

Third, the participants in this study are third-year English majors of a university in China. The findings of this study cannot be generalized to other contexts and proficiency levels unless the study is replicated in the different contexts and with different proficiency levels.

Forth, in this study, the researcher used a text from textbook for convenience and did not text reliability. It will be better if there are two texts in experiment.

Fifth, participants are selected based on a survey in which students’ individual difference are not thoroughly investigated. There may be other factors that are closely related to students’ interaction with a hypermedia text such as proficiency level, reading goals, readers’ interest in the topic. Types of text may be also related to reading performance. These factors were not investigated in this study, further researches can take these factors into consideration while investigate annotation use and reading performance.

Thanks for attention

Cognitive Theory of ML

Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning posits that in order to comprehend a text meaningfully, students must select relevant written (verbal) and pictorial (visual) information from it, organize the written presentation into a coherent verbal mental representation, organize the pictorial information into a coherent visual mental representation, and then integrate these newly created mental representations with one another by building referential connections between them and integrating them into a mental model.

Participant selection Participants were selected according to three factors. A total of 103

third-year English majors in Nanhua University completed a survey, which elicited information on students’ English proficiency level on the basis of TEM-4 scores, computer literacy and skills, general reading habits, experience with multimedia learning and willingness to participate in the study. These students attended TEM-4 three months before they participated in the survey. Their score for TEM-4 is used as an indicator of the proficiency level of potential participants. Thirty one students were selected to take part in the experiment, whose TEM-4 scores ranged between 60 and 69. They all had considerable experience with computers and were familiar with language learning CD-ROMs, word processing software, Internet, and e-mail. They all shared similar reading habits and they will refer to dictionaries when they come across new words in reading a passage.

Hypermedia reading text

• For this study, an English text entitled “An Iowa Christmas” from Contemporary College English (2002) is used. Contemporary College English is the text book for the students in Nanhua University. Therefore the English text chosen from the text book is considered to be suitable for participants. However, the original text is too long, the author chose part of the text and it consists of 2,000 words and has a linear organization. The text was presented in one page on the courseware and annotated via multiple types of media such as text, graphics, audio, and video.

• final课件\复件 圣诞课件页面(含语音)11.1\圣诞课件页面\圣诞课件页面\index.htm

1. Experiment arrangement

Thirty one students were selected to take part in the experiment. The experiment was arranged in groups which happened in student dorm. A friend provided help to find two suitable quiet neighboring rooms which have 8 computers in all. The courseware and Camtasia were installed in these computers.

2. Program demonstration

Participants were given a brief introduction to the program, its objectives, and its methods. After a 5 min demonstration on how to operate the courseware, the participants were asked to try a min-demonstrative courseware. The design of the mini-demonstrative courseware follows that of the courseware used in the experiment. This was to help students get familiar with this type of courseware and they would get ready for the coming experiment. This lasted for three minutes and was not recorded.

3. First reading and task

Participants were asked to read the text for general comprehension using the multimedia courseware. Then they were asked to complete word glossary and recall task

4. Second reading and task

Participants were asked to read the text for a second time. Meanwhile, they were given a reading comprehension test to complete during which they were allowed to have access to the text. The Camtasia studio created two recording files of every student. For each participant, two log files were saved on the hard disk: one for the participants’ interaction with the text during the first reading, and the other for their second interaction while answering comprehension test

5. Questionnaire

A questionnaire was delivered after the experiment, with the purpose of eliciting the participants’ preferences for forms of annotation and their perceptions of its usefulness. Participants were also invited to comment on the quality of the courseware used in the experiment.

6. Interviews

The informal interviews took place one day after the experiment. Six volunteering participants were interviewed in their L1. The purpose of the interviews was also to collect supplementary data about participants’ use of annotations while reading. Participants were also invited to talk about their perceptions of the usefulness of the annotations and quality of the courseware.

Word glossary

While in the first reading, participants were required to make a word glossary on some words. They were given a word list and asked to take down all the information about the word. They could write down the definition of the word based on their reading, or they could draw a picture of the word, or they could annotate the words with phonetic symbol. They can choose one form or two or three according to their habits and preferences. The word glossary is used to cross-analyze participants’ preferences while reading the text. The participants were told not to focus only on the words appeared in word glossary. They were advised to learn the new words on the basis of their understanding of the whole text.

Recall task

Participants were also told that they would be asked to do a recall test without looking at the text itself. Participants were required to summarize some events appeared in the text in their native language when they finished first reading. They were not allowed to see the passage while writing the recall test.