The Effect on Reading Comprehension of Required Mastery of on -Line Prereading Activity Quizzes

The present study evaluated the effect of differing levels of prereading activity modules and on-line quizzes on the subsequent reading comprehension of an authentic short story in French. Forty-eight participants from six intact third-semester French classes were randomly assigned to three orienting task conditions. The mastery Orienting Task (n =13) received instructions to get a score of 100% correct on each prereading activity quiz before proceeding to the following activity module. The regular Orienting Task (n =16) were given instructions that did not specify that they should get 100% correct on the prereading quizzes. Finally, the control condition (n = 19) completed an activity unrelated to the short story to be read and answered questions pertaining to that activity. For purposes of analysis, participants were also divided into three achievement levels based on their final grades in the course. Low achievement students earned a grade of 69--83 (n = 17), mid achievement students had a final grade of 84--89 (n =16), and high achievement students got a grade of 90--96 (n =15). On Day 1 all participants completed the on-line prereading activity and quizzes in a computer classroom on the university campus. On Day 2 they read the 1,600-word short story during class time in the regular classroom. Reading comprehension of the short story was measured by means of a multiple choice recognition assessment and a free recall task. The results of the study indicate that overall course achievement level was a predictor of reading comprehension success and of the number of paraphrases and reproduced idea units were produced in the free recall task. Completion of the prereading activity and quizzes did not have a significant effect on reading comprehension, however, significant results were found for orienting task on the number of paraphrases, inferences, reproduced idea units, and errors that were made in the free recalls. Secondary analyses provided information about participant performance on the on-line quizzes and a detailed quantitative and qualitative study of the free recall protocol task.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

French

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Diekelman, Michele Marie

Contributors dc:contributor

• Hadley, Alice
• Golato, Peter

• Language, Modern

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI3111538

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/86266