TASK 2 - ARTICLE REVIEW

August 28,2009
2209

http://llt.msu.edu/vol11num3/murphy/default.html

Title : Reading Comprehension Exercises Online: The Effects of Feedback, Proficiency and Interaction.

This journal article was taken from the Journal of Language and Technology (Volume 11, Number 3 & 2007). The author is Philip Murphy; it is an action research and the study was done to examine a hypothesis which claims that comprehension of a reading passage could be enhanced by online materials promoting interaction between students as they completed a multiple – choice reading comprehension exercise. Interaction here means students interact with one another as it was promoted through pair work at a single computer and by providing elaborative feedback in the form of hints about incorrect answers as a means of stimulating discussion about corrections among them. In this study, students were randomly selected from upper and lower levels of English proficiency as determined by the Kanda English Proficiency Test.
The aim of this study is to observe the connection between the reading comprehension exercises online with the effects of feedback, proficiency and interaction. To study the connection between students’ test result with the type of feedback they received. Does the type of feedback they received has any significant to their result for the second exercises based on the results and feedback from the first exercise.
As for the methodology, it starts with introduction to the lesson for 15 to 20, and then they were given 40 minutes to read the text and complete the first multiple- choice comprehension exercises. Next, students were divided into two level (upper & lower) according to level of proficiency and they were randomly chosen to work either individually or in pairs as they are completing their exercises. After that, students were given 20 minutes to complete a second comprehension exercises related to the same text. Furthermore, transcripts of the video sessions were written by the students themselves and lastly all input data were stored in a database and analyse quantitatively.
The samples of this study were first year English majors at Kanda University of International Studies in Japan. It involved 407 students from 15 classes were then divided into four bands; advanced (3 classes), upper intermediate (4 classes), intermediate (4 classes) and lower intermediate (4 classes). The findings of this study are as follow: First, Elaborative feedback was found to be equally as effective as KCR (Knowledge of Correct Response) feedback. Second, individual work was found to be equally effective as pair. Third, higher proficiency students performed significantly better than lower proficiency students. Fourth, there is a difference in terms of scores on the second comprehension exercises whether students received Elaborative feedback or KCR feedback and whether they worked individually or in pairs during the first comprehension exercises. Fifth, no significant difference between students scores on the second comprehension exercise regardless of the feedback and proficiency level. Sixth, no significant difference in scores on the second comprehension exercises whether higher or lower proficiency students worked alone or in pairs. Lastly, there is no statistically significant interaction between type of feedback, manner of study and English proficiency level.
Honestly, this research does interest me because it is interesting to investigate whether types of feedback does influence the results of comprehension exercises. Before this, when we did any online exercise or exercises from computer, the feedback is keep short and simple. For examples, “Excellent”, “It’s Correct”, “Try Again”, and “Incorrect” or others but it is very rare for us to come across feedbacks which are well elaborated when we get wrong answers. However, this study has opened my eyes and makes me realize the importance of elaborative feedback to the L2 learners. L2 learners did not learn form their mistake from the traditional type of feedback but elaborative feedback helps learners to learn from their mistake and able to identify the mistakes they did previously.
In my opinion, I think this research is well conducted because the researcher was well prepared in terms of materials. He has prepared both exercises for this study and also computer software, in which was custom-written with the facility to provide students with one of two different types of feedback. Moreover, the researcher also observes the participants while they are doing the exercises, due to that the end result might be accurate as he gets to witness the participants’ behaviour and physical reactions towards their results and the feedback.
This research is able to bring positive implications to the teaching and learning of ESL in Malaysia because it encourages learners to learn on their own (learner- centered). In other words, students are free to do exercises at home and any time, elaborative feedback helps them to enhance their skills in English language such as grammar part. Ever since elaborative help learners learn from their mistakes then there is no need for learners to use exercise books because answers in exercise books are fix and learners will not get feedback from it. Lastly, this research on elaborative feedback will help learners to learn their target language easily and perhaps in the future learners could use this not only to learn English language but also other languages such as French, Arabic and others.


This article was reviewed by Nurul Farehah Mohamad Uri