Examining the Effects of Raising Text Structure Awareness in Computer-Based Instruction through Moviemaker and Mind mapping software on EFL learners’ Reading Comprehension

Abstract

Effective teaching of reading comprehension has been a great concern for language teachers, leading to the emergence of strategies in developing students’ reading skill. This study examined the effects of raising text structure awareness (TSA) through face-to-face and computer-based reading instruction (CBI) on students’ reading comprehension. The participants included 87 undergraduate students of Humanities from Guilan, Iran who were at the upper-intermediate level concerning their foreign language proficiency and took part in the pretest and the posttest of reading comprehension that were taken from sample IELTS. They were randomly assigned into one control and two experimental groups. The first experimental group received instruction on text structure within face-to-face classes (TSA) and the second experimental group worked through computer-based instruction (TSA+CBI) while the control group benefited from their routine conventional reading activities. The results of the one-way ANCOVA indicated that the second experimental group that received instruction on text structure awareness through CBI outperformed the first experimental group that simply practiced text structure awareness in face-to-face classes and the control group. In addition, the difference between the two treatment groups was statistically significant. The results verified the effectiveness of text structure awareness in improving the students’ reading comprehension in TSA+CBI groups. Language teachers can benefit from providing students with text structure awareness and facilitating their reading comprehension through applying technology.

Keywords

• awareness-raising
• efl learners
• computer-based instruction
• reading comprehension
• text structure