Abstract

For students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL), reading exercises are critical not only for developing strong reading comprehension, but also for developing listening, speaking, and writing skills. Prior research suggests that social, collaborative learning environments are best suited for improving language ability. However, opportunities for English learners to collaboratively practice reading comprehension are minimal, and due to resource constraints and a lack of accurate evaluation methods, English instructors rarely assess student literacy effectively. In response to these problems, we propose a Tag-based Collaborative reading learning System (TACO) that makes use of Web 2.0 Internet social tagging techniques to provide a collaborative environment for reading English. We test our system’s ability to both improve reading comprehension and aid teachers in accurately assessing literacy by conducting a three-month trial with 56 participating Taiwanese high school students from February to May 2009. During this period, post-testing results show a significant improvement in reading scores among participants in our tag-based system, and survey feedback from teachers suggests an improved capacity for literacy assessment.

Citation

Chen, J.M., Chen, M.C. & Sun, Y.S. (2010). A novel approach for enhancing student reading comprehension and assisting teacher assessment of literacy. Computers & Education, 55(3), 1367-1382. Elsevier Ltd. Retrieved March 22, 2023 from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/66854/.

Keywords

• architectures for educational technology system
• Computer Assisted Instruction
• Computer Assisted Testing
• computer mediated communication
• Computer System Design
• Cooperative learning
• Cooperative/collaborative learning
• Educational Strategies
• educational technology
• English (Second Language)
• EVALUATION METHODS
• Foreign Countries
• High School Students
• Instructional Effectiveness
• Instructional Improvement
• Interactive Learning Environments
• internet
• Language Teachers
• Language Tests
• learning strategies
• Pretests Posttests
• reading comprehension
• Scores
• Second Language Instruction
• second language learning
• social networks
• teacher attitudes
• Teacher Surveys
• teaching methods