Exploring the Effects of Illustrations on Senior High School Students' EFL Reading
| Autor: | Hung-hsi Chen, 陳宏喜 |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2003 |
| Druh dokumentu: | 學位論文 ; thesis |
| Popis: | 91 Much research has been done to demonstrate the facilitative effects of illustrations on L1 reading comprehension (e.g., Gambrell & Jawitz, 1993; Hsieh, 1996; Small, Lovett, & Scher, 1993); few studies have looked into the effects of illustrations on L2 (EFL) reading. This present study aimed to explore the effects of illustrations on senior high school EFL students’ comprehension and retention of an expository text. The EFL teachers and students’ opinions on the inclusion of illustrations in senior high school English textbooks were also investigated. The illustrations in this study referred to colored drawings. The participants were ninety-six second-year high school students, who were randomly assigned into two groups, i.e., with-illustration and without-illustration, and two EFL teachers. Research methods included quantitative analysis of students’ comprehension and retention of the expository text, a questionnaire survey, and interviews. The major findings of this present study are as follows. First, from the reading comprehension test, the facilitative effects of illustrations on senior high EFL students’ reading comprehension were not salient. Second, the illustrations enhanced the students’ retention of the expository text. Third, the ways the students used the illustrations to help them guess unknown words and catch the main idea of the passage mainly included making a correspondence between the words and the acts of characters in the illustrations and using background knowledge. Moreover, 1) reading style, 2) schema for interpreting the illustrations, 3) degree of involvement in the reading task, and 4) the drawing style had impacts on the students’ use of the illustrations in helping them understand the passage. Fourth, illustrations in high school English textbooks can enhance comprehensibility from most of the students’ perspectives, while the EFL teachers did not think so. Fifth, the relevance of illustrations to the contents of articles in high school English textbooks still needs improvement. Finally, factors determining the use of illustrations in EFL instruction were 1) the relevance of illustrations to the contents of articles, 2) the course schedule, and 3) the text types of articles. Based on the findings of the present study, instructional implications are provided. First, the relevance of illustrations to the article and where the illustrations are placed on the pages of the English textbooks has impacts on students’ comprehension. Publishers and illustration designers are suggested to draw attention to the two aspects. Second, the students consider illustrations essential to high school students’ EFL learning as illustration could help students comprehend the articles in their English textbooks. However, from the teachers’ perspective, the helpfulness of illustrations in high school English textbooks in students’ reading comprehension is questionable. The gap between the teachers’ and students’ beliefs about the effectiveness of illustrations in high school English textbooks may influence whether or how illustrations are used in EFL instruction. EFL teachers are suggested to provide chances for their students to use illustrations to check reading comprehension. |
| Databáze: | Networked Digital Library of Theses & Dissertations |
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