Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - To simplify or not?
T2 - Facilitating English L2 users' comprehension and processing of open educational resources in English using text simplification
AU - Rets, Irina
AU - Rogaten, Jekaterina
PY - 2021/6/30
Y1 - 2021/6/30
N2 - Open Educational Resources (OER) aim to provide equal access to education. Yet, as the language level used in OER presents a barrier to many learners, there is a need to make these resources more comprehensible. This study combined eye-tracking methodology and comprehension assessment to explore the effect of text simplification on English second language (L2) users, while also accounting for text organizational structure and individual predispositions. A total of 37 adult English L2 users took part in the study. They had to read either an authentic narrative, authentic expository OER or their linguistically simplified versions. The analysis showed that simplification led to better text comprehension, and text narrativity facilitated text recall, particularly at lower English proficiency levels. Eye-tracking measures revealed that text simplification led to an increase in processing time during the initial reading of the text and a decrease in processing time during text re-inspection. These findings have strong practical applications for online teaching with OER
AB - Open Educational Resources (OER) aim to provide equal access to education. Yet, as the language level used in OER presents a barrier to many learners, there is a need to make these resources more comprehensible. This study combined eye-tracking methodology and comprehension assessment to explore the effect of text simplification on English second language (L2) users, while also accounting for text organizational structure and individual predispositions. A total of 37 adult English L2 users took part in the study. They had to read either an authentic narrative, authentic expository OER or their linguistically simplified versions. The analysis showed that simplification led to better text comprehension, and text narrativity facilitated text recall, particularly at lower English proficiency levels. Eye-tracking measures revealed that text simplification led to an increase in processing time during the initial reading of the text and a decrease in processing time during text re-inspection. These findings have strong practical applications for online teaching with OER
KW - eye-tracking
KW - online learning
KW - reading comprehension
KW - text processing
KW - text simplification
U2 - 10.1111/jcal.12517
DO - 10.1111/jcal.12517
M3 - Journal article
VL - 37
SP - 705
EP - 717
JO - Journal of Computer Assisted Learning
JF - Journal of Computer Assisted Learning
SN - 0266-4909
IS - 3
ER -