Author(s)

Zichun Zhao ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ School of Social Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry, Warwick, CV48UW, UK

Corresponding Author

Zichun Zhao

ABSTRACT

Whilst there is increasing usage of small-screen devices such as mobile phones shape the way of acquiring information that was different from the traditional way of static text on paper. Literature indicates not only different text presentations influence people reading comprehension level but also language contributes to reading abilities. However, the extent to which recent text presentation formats influence comprehension remains unclear, as does the interaction between text presentation and language proficiency among native English speakers and Chinese readers with second language English. This study aimed to examine the effects of different text presentations and first or second language readers on English reading comprehension. Participants with volunteers (N = 51) were grouped independently of either Chinese or English readers and presented with four different text presentations. A bespoke reading comprehension task was used to measure participants' comprehension levels and data was analysed by factorial mixed measure ANOVA. The findings demonstrated that overall, first language readers had better comprehension compared to Chinese readers when engaging in English reading. However, there is no significant difference in comprehension between different text presentations. Theoretical factors contributed to the current study and use to explain the phenomenon of the current findings, while also acknowledging the potential methodological limitations related to culture and individual differences. Future research should consider these factors to get deeper insight. Despite these limitations, the study offered real-life applications with benefits to both technological science and educational psychology.

KEYWORDS

Reading comprehension, Text presentation formats, English as a second language (ESL), Language proficiency, Educational psychology, Cognitive psychology

CITE THIS PAPER

Zichun Zhao, The Influence of Native Language and Text Presentation on Reading Comprehension on Smartphones. Advances in Educational Technology and Psychology (2024) Vol. 8: 1-7. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/aetp.2024.080601.

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