Investigating the effect of integrating a computer-based technique on college learners’ reading comprehension skills in literary texts: The case of IRIS College Pupils, Bejaia, Algeria

Abstract

This paper is a longitudinal survey, interested in tracing in detail some aspect of foreign language development in the reading comprehension of literary texts by means of the computer-test taxonomies technique. It aims at examining the progress of a set of college learners in comprehension rate, micro-skills, plus macro-skills, before, during, and after the inclusion of the technique. Accordingly, the study is concerned with answering the issue of what impact does the implementation of the computer-test taxonomies technique during literary texts sessions have on college learners’ reading comprehension skills ? The body of this research project is built upon five further sub-questions: How effective is the teaching of literary texts using the computer-test taxonomies technique? What do learners perceive as the most significant impact of the integration of the technique on their reading comprehension skills? Does the intervention have an effect on how learners process literary texts comparing to the former teaching contexts? What determinants of teacher performance in using the technique to attain better outcomes? Are the results obtained sufficiently convincing to be generalised to other settings and target college pupils? As a presupposed answer for the major question, we hypothesise that ‘participants who receive the intervention of the computer-test taxonomies technique will show a significant progress in reading rate, bottom-up, and top-down skills from baseline to post-intervention follow up’. The findings highlight the noteworthy contribution of the technique to learners’ reading comprehension skills and reading motivation as well.