Textual enhancements and comprehension with adult readers of English is China

Date
2012-10
Authors
Brantmeier, Cindy
Callender, Aimee
Yu, Xiucheng
McDaniel, Mark
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University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center
Center for Language & Technology
Volume
24
Number/Issue
2
Starting Page
158
Ending Page
185
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Abstract
The present study utilizes texts from social psychology to examine the effects of textual enhancements on reading comprehension with 185 native adult Chinese speakers learning English in China. Participants read two different vignettes, either with or without an adjunct. Each adjunct consisted of a ‘what’ question along with instructions to either ‘pause and consider’ or ‘pause and write.’ Participants also completed written recall, sentence completion, multiple-choice, and a topic familiarity question. Across passages, findings revealed significant effects of passage version on comprehension as measured via recall and sentence completion and no significant effects of passage version on multiple-choice questions. Participants scored almost the same on recall and sentence completion for versions with no adjuncts and versions with ‘pause and consider’ adjuncts, and they scored significantly lower on these assessment tasks for the version with pause and write adjuncts. Participants scored the same on multiple-choice questions for all three versions of both passages.
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textual enhancements, reading, adjuncts, comprehension, Chinese Subject classifications, English as a foreign language in China, Intermediate learners
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