engleski

Examining reading comprehension of expository texts in L2: Graphic organizers vs. multiple- choice questions

Reading is a complex skill which depends on a number of factors including general language proficiency, background knowledge or reading tasks. Comprehension occurs at different levels (e.g. word, sentence, discourse, relation to prior knowledge), so it is measured using a variety of tasks whose content and form may affect readers’ performance. In our research we compared performance in the comprehension of college-level expository texts in English (L2) tested with two different question formats: multiple-choice questions (MC), a standard tool in reading comprehension research methodology, and graphic organizer completion tasks (GO) as a less common method of comprehension assessment. Significantly better performance was observed in GO compared to MC. The GO performance less strongly correlated with both L2 competence measures (L2 proficiency, text-specific vocabulary) than the performance in MC. The results are discussed within the framework of cognitive models of text comprehension and the interaction of bottom-up/top-down processes. It is suggested that the explicit text structure provided by GO may have triggered top-down cognitive processes which facilitate comprehension.

reading comprehension, expository text, L2, graphic organizers, multiple-choice questions

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