Reading and Language Arts

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Browsing Reading and Language Arts by Author "mceneane@oakland.edu"

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    Chinese EFL Learners' Use of Online Reading Strategies
    (2019-03-10) Wu, Wen; McEneaney, John E.; mceneane@oakland.edu
    Based on Afflerbach and Cho’s (2009) theoretical model of Constructively Responsive Reading on the Internet (CRRI model), this study aims to explore the patterns of reading strategies that 40 proficient, college-level, Chinese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners use while reading online. It also seeks to identify the strategies’ relations to reading comprehension. This study utilized an exploratory research design. During the study, the participants were required to complete a 30-minute reading task on a pre-selected website, followed by a comprehension assessment with 20 multiple-choice questions. During the reading task, the participants were asked to verbalize their thinking process. Both their verbalization and online actions were recorded by Camtasia. These recordings served as the primary data and then were coded using Afflerbach and Cho’s (2009) four strategy categories as the coding scheme. Following this, the coded primary data were analyzed quantitatively. The results first indicated that participants’ meaning-making strategy use dominated the whole reading process. Both the self-monitoring and text location strategies served as a supporting role in this reading task; however, the information evaluation strategy was used least often. Additionally, based on the sequential patterns of the participants’ strategy use, three different types of readers were identified: uncertain readers, exploratory readers, and strategic readers. Lastly, the examination of the relationship between strategy use, reader types, and comprehension outcome revealed that both the meaning-making and self-monitoring strategies had a strong effect on the comprehension outcome. The results also showed that the comprehension outcome was significantly different among all three reader types. The comprehension outcomes of the strategic readers ranked highest, followed by the exploratory readers and the uncertain readers. This exploratory study not only provides a quantitative assessment of Afflerbach and Cho’s (2009) theoretical framework, but also extends our understanding of online reading to a different cultural context. The findings of the study have important implications for both practice and research.
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    An Examination of the Effectiveness of Peer Feedback on Chinese University Students’ English Writing Performance
    (2018-02-05) Zhang, Xin; McEneaney, John; mceneane@oakland.edu
    Effective writing pedagogy in higher education has been a consistent goal of researchers and instructors in the English as a second / foreign language writing practices. Formative peer feedback, a key factor in pedagogical writing practices, has been receiving growing interest (Hu & Lam, 2010). While much remains unknown regarding how the quality of peer feedback and back-feedback affects students’ writing performance, this quantitative study adopted a quasi-experimental control group design to investigate primary pedagogical effects of peer feedback on university students’ writing performance in an EFL context. A total of 198 sophomores majoring in English took part in a 15-week research study. A one-way repeated measures ANCOVA analysis was conducted to examine the comparative effect between the traditional and peer feedback groups. The result revealed that beginning with slightly different writing ability, the peer feedback group significantly made more growth in writing achievement than the traditional feedback group. Further analysis through hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that both the quality of students’ feedback and the quality of students’ back-feedback were significant predictors of students’ writing performance. Additionally, the quality of students’ back-feedback had a slightly larger impact than that of the quality of students’ feedback. This study provides not only further evidence of the power of formative peer feedback as an effective tool to maximize learning, but also recommends the inclusion of it in the university curriculum to encourage students to direct and monitor their own learning processes and be life-long learners.
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    The Impact of Face-To-Face Versus Online Peer Review on Students' Writing Achievement
    (2017-11-08) Hine, Lisa; McEneaney, John; mceneane@oakland.edu
    This study examines the impact of type of peer review first year college students participated in, either face-to-face (F2F) or online (OL) and its effect on students' writing achievement. Using a two-way repeated measures design, this research measured students' overall writing score as well as the five key areas of writing: focus and meaning; content and development; organization; language use, voice and style; and mechanics and conventions. Since this design allows for a pre- and post-test of the participants, it was chosen to measure the treatment effect, comparing the type of peer review between groups and its overall impact on students’ final writing achievement. The results suggest that there was not a significant effect based on the format of the peer review (F2F vs. OL) in either students' overall score nor in the five key areas of writing. However, there was statistically significant growth in both overall writing achievement scores over time as well as in the five key areas of writing, indicating that regardless of peer review format, first-year writing students’ writing achievement can improve over the course of one semester.
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    Impact of virtual literature circles on Chinese university EFL students' independent English reading
    (2018-02-28) Pei, Li; McEneaney, John; mceneane@oakland.edu
    The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of virtual literature circles (VLCs) on Chinese university English as a foreign language (EFL) students’ independent English reading. The importance of independent reading for EFL students to develop critical thinking, language proficiency, and good readership was extensively discussed and supported (eg. Day and Bamford, 1998; Krashen, 1989, 1993, 1995; Mason & Krashen, 1997; Ro, 2013; Yamashita, 2013). However, lack of empirically validated approaches hindered the ability of EFL teachers to effectively promote such reading. This study proposed a VLC approach for EFL teachers to engage their students in independent English reading. The VLC approach integrated the use of social media into traditional literature circles. To validate this approach in an EFL environment, VLCs were implemented with a sample of Chinese university EFL students. A quasi-experimental between-subjects posttest design was selected to investigate the effectiveness of the VLC. The 118 research participants were enrolled in four reading classes. Two classes (n=59) were randomly assigned to the VLC treatment and the other two (n=59) to the summary-writing treatment, while reading two American young adult novels outside of school. To measure participant reading experiences and reading achievement, five book-dependent instruments (the Reading Experience Survey, the Written Retell Test, the Vocabulary Acquisition Test, the Reading Comprehension Test, and the Reading Engagement Essay) were developed and administered to all research participants after the eight-week experiment. A one-way MANCOVA showed that, overall, VLC participants outperformed the summary-writing participants on the composite score of the posttest. Univariate analysis revealed that participation in VLCs led to statistically better performance in the Reading Experience Survey and the Reading Comprehension Test. The research provided empirical evidence for the overall effectiveness of the VLC. The findings have important implications for EFL reading instruction and research.