English Majors’ Preference and Behavior in Reading via IDP: The Context of STUT

• Main Authors: C. M. Yang, 楊捷閔
• Other Authors: M.T. Wu
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2005
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/05639058002784653849

碩士 === 南台科技大學 === 應用英語系 === 93 === This study investigates students’ reading preference and behavior in Interface with Dynamic Presentation (IDP) assisted reading classes. The study is divided into 2 phases. Phase 1 investigates students’ preference toward IDP display modes. A total of 139 English majors participate in the study. Students’ preference toward three different display modes—chunk, sentence, and paragraph—is the major focus of phase 1 study. The optimal display mode for IDP is then implemented along with paper and screen reading to further examine their reading behavior in phase 2 study. Students’ performances in regard with reading speed and comprehension are investigated. Meanwhile, students’ perceptions toward IDP assisted reading classes are also explored. The results show the spatial duration of display speed and reading habit transmitted from traditional paper medium affect students’ ranking among the display modes. The distributions of students’ preference ranking appear to have some kind of order, indicating different comprehension processes of reading. Students who favor chunk display tend to accord with bottom-up processing model whereas those who favor paragraph display tend to follow top-down processing model. A great majority of students are in favor of sentence display because they consider sentence as a grammar unit. This might have something to do with their analytical mind and sentence-pattern based English curriculum since their junior high school days and the way their teachers taught them in the past. Compared with static screen reading and IDP reading, paper reading is still the most efficient way. Reading via computer screen is approximately 24.8% slower than reading on paper medium. However, IDP reading is more efficient than static screen reading. IDP reading seems to affect screen reading in a positive way as screen reading speed trailing IDP and increase gradually. Students’ reading speed and comprehension rate fluctuate in the initial stage. The fluctuation may due to students’ unfamiliarity with IDP and incapability in balancing between reading speed and comprehension in the beginning stage. Yet the different characteristic of students’ attitudes toward reading may also contribute to this phenomenon. A ceiling effect appears when the IDP display speed reaches the limitation of students’ processing speed. When it happens there is a great decline of comprehension rate. Students show positive attitudes toward IDP assisted reading, which contributes to students’ increase of reading speed as well as general knowledge acquisition from the text. In addition, time pressure brought by IDP reading is the key factor for their progress of reading speed. Most students indicate that their concentration and efficiency are enhanced when doing IDP reading. The use of IDP in reading class has been found to be both motivating and productive, as students gain benefits from both concentration and their increase in reading speed.