PLAY-BACK MEDIA (PB.M): A READING COMPREHENSION ENHANCING TOOL FOR ESL STUDENTS

 

PLAY-BACK MEDIA (PB.M): A READING COMPREHENSION ENHANCING TOOL FOR ESL STUDENTS 


Aya Hasan

Satierra Chardell Hudson

Deborah Anne Michalak

Ted D Carryl




  1. INTRODUCTION:  


In this investigation, the researchers sought to find an effective way to enhance the reading comprehension levels of high school ESL students in The United Arab Emirates.  

A large population of instructors has expressed challenges they face with their ESL students when it comes to reading and comprehension. As a result of this deficiency, our ESL high school students struggle with participation, assignment submission, quality of work produced, and following written instructions in English. Therefore, to help our ESL students overcome these disadvantages, we explored effective ways to enhance reading and comprehension levels across all English medium academic subjects. 

After conducting a survey of our ESL High school students, we discovered that due to deficiency in English, students required greater control over the pace of their learning. To give them autonomy over their learning, they requested that audio files be inserted into each lesson presentation page (slides of Microsoft PowerPoint and Apple Pages). With such audio insertion, students will be able to follow the written text as they listen. But it is believed that these students will still face difficulties comprehending scientific text, even with audio insertion. To aid in that area, audio-visual media explanations of key concepts will be inserted into each lesson presentation page.  

Software that allows for Play-back Media (Pb.M) features include Apple Pages and Microsoft PowerPoint. In additional to text read-aloud features, these software programs allow for the creation and/insertion of audio-visual media that can be used to explain and illustrate key scientific concepts and terms. 

 

  1. RESEARCH AIM  


Can Play-back Media (Pb.M), through iPad applications, enhance ESL student participation levels, quality of student work, and their ability to follow written instructions/feedback in English? Pb.M is any digital content, presented through computer-based devices such as iPads, that allows students to listen, view, watch, manipulate, interact, and simulate academic content with the autonomy to rewind, relisten, rewatch, re-manipulate, and re-simulate such content as often as needed. As educators delivering instruction in English to students for whom English is a second/foreign language, we often observe the struggles they face in learning. The central reason for their struggle is not due to their disinterest in academia or learning-task avoidance, but that they struggle with understanding the meaning behind many of the terms, concepts, and grammar in their English medium core subjects. 

 

  1. LITERATURE REVIEW  

 

According to Daniela Medina Coronado, reading comprehension can be divided into three levels: Literal reading comprehension, Inferential reading comprehension, and Evaluative reading comprehension (Coronado). At the Literal reading comprehension level, there is only a recognition of the explicit information such as the main and secondary ideas, the sequence of actions, identification of places, actors, facts, and the identification of reasons for the occurrence of the events (Gordillo and Flórez, 2009). At the Inferential reading comprehension level, previous knowledge stored in the student's long-term memory plays an important role in allowing the student to construct the meanings of the text read. At the Evaluative reading comprehension level, the reader develops the ability to make value judgments of the reading, enabling him/her to accept or reject, with arguments, the proposal after he/she has evaluated. Without possessing the Literal ability to comprehend what they are reading, our students will not be able to make inferences. We believe that Play-back Media features (Pb.M) strengthens students’ literal reading comprehension and thus prepare them to progress on to inferential reading comprehension skills.  

Researchers have discovered that smartphone use (and other similar digital learning tools) by ESL students has boosted learners’ critical thinking, creative thinking, communication skills, collaboration skills, raised their satisfaction level in the learning process, and fostered autonomous learning (Viji and Srinivasa). Research shows that Text media helped students read fluently, efficiently, enhance their ability to read and comprehend material in a second language, construct new sentence structure correctly, improve performance in vocabulary inference, and enable their ability to answer correctly recall, comprehension, application, and analysis questions (Francis, 2019). Research conducted by Recard, Sembel, and Hasibuan from Pelita Harapan University in Indonesia yielded that YouTube (another software with Play-back Media features) was useful at developing the autonomy of learning and listening skills of nursing students (Recard et al.). Apple iPad is a popular Play-back Media device that has a plethora of learning applications that develop reading comprehension skills for ESL students. Researchers from the Northern State University in the United States explored the role iPads can have on enhancing the reading comprehension levels of fifth grade students. They discovered iPads as a learning tool increased students’ reading achievement scores to a statistically significant degree and students reported more enjoyment and understanding of reading (World and Francom,). 

 

  1. METHODOLOGY  


To determine the effectiveness of Play-back Media (Pb.M) on the reading comprehension level of our ESL high school students, we conducted a four-part investigation that spanned over several weeks and included over 100 students across four classrooms.  

During each session, we divided our class randomly into two groups: Play-back Media learning resource and non-Play-back Media learning resource. We varied the content of each learning session to ensure that we recorded an accurate assessment of the effects of Pb.M across subject content. The first and second independent learning sessions were related to Physics. Students explored particle behavior during melting and Pascal’s law and formula. The third and fourth sessions were related to Biology. Students explored an abridged article titled ‘Why humans are losing the race against superbugs’ and ‘Trisomy 18 Edwards syndrome’. Each session consisted of Play-back Media and non-Play-back Media learning resources. Students who received Pb.M learning resources had to ability to listen to the text in their learning resource and watch explanatory videos, while students who received Non-Pb.M resources were only able to read text found in their learning resource and view illustrations. During each session, each group were given only six minutes to explore the mini-lesson content and had six minutes to answer the assessment questions that followed. Students were not aware of which lesson content would be assessed prior to the assessment.  

These lesson activities were classified under independent/self-learning. In them, the teacher did not facilitate students’ understanding or learning. The input and effects of the teacher were removed from influencing assessment results. The teacher’s role was to ensure that everyone had access to the learning resources and had accessed them prior to the beginning of each session. 

Each mini lesson/learning resource was delivered through Apple Pages/Microsoft PowerPoint. Students used their iPads to access all learning content and assessment questions. Microsoft Forms application was used to design the multiple-choice assessment questions for all four learning activities, as well as surveys. 

Pre- and post-intervention surveys were given to teachers to determine the types of learning challenges their ESL high school students faced and the impact of the Pb.M on students’ reading and comprehension. Students’ assessment data were collected and analyzed for patterns and trends to determine the quantitative effect of Pb.M  and interviews were conducted with students post Pb.M-intervention plan to determine its qualitative effect on their learning. 

The initial survey given to teachers asked them to rank their students in the following categories: 1. reading and comprehension level in English, 2. students' participation level, 3. quality of your students' submitted assignments, 4. quality of work/project that your students produce, and 5. how well do your students follow written instructions in English. The reading and comprehension level category had the ranking scale of 1. Below English Grade Level, 2. On English Grade Level, and 3. Above English Grade Level. The students' participation level category had the ranking scale of 1. Low participation, 2. Average participation, and 3. High participation. The quality of your students' submitted assignments category had the ranking scale of 1. Assignments initially submitted often do not reach the level of sufficiency, 2. Assignments initially submitted often reach the level of sufficiency, and 3. Assignments initially submitted often exceed the level of sufficiency. The quality of work/project that your students produce category had the ranking scale of 1. Quality of work/project initially often below sufficiency, 2. Quality of work/project initially often sufficient, 3. Quality of work/project initially often exceeds sufficiency. The How well do your students follow written instructions in English category had the ranking scale of 1. Students' ability to follow written instructions in English is below sufficiency, 2. Students' ability to follow written instructions in English is sufficient, and 3. Students' ability to follow written instructions in English exceeds sufficiency. After the Pb.M intervention plan, teachers were asked to repeat the same survey. Prior to the intervention plan, students were interviewed regarding which digital resources they’d like to be added to their learning documents. Students agreed that they’d like audio files and more explanatory videos/simulations/animations inserted into their learning documents. After the intervention plan, students were asked how their learning experience and comprehension of the lesson content changed because of the Pb.M insertions. Students’ lesson assessment results were compared between all participating teachers to determine the overall effect of Pb.M on students' assessment performance.  

Assessment data between students who utilized the Pb.M resources during their independent learning sessions and those who utilized conventional non-Pb.M learning resources were collected and compared.


  

KEY FINDINGS/RESULTS 


After the intervention plan, we surveyed the teachers a second time with the same survey questions that were given initially to assess the impact of Play-back Media on their students’ academic performance. We the held a discussion to highlights challenges we faced implementing Pb.M in our classrooms The summary is stated below:  

  1. The survey data shows that most teachers expressed an overall improvement in the following categories: 1. reading and comprehension level of students in English 2. participation level in class, 3. quality of student submitted assignments, 4. quality of work/project students produce, and 5. following of written instructions in English. The greatest improvement was seen in Student participation. 

  1. Play-back Media (Pb.M) provided students with the autonomy to control the pace of their own learning. However, we were concerned with students becoming dependent upon Pb.M. Therefore, we decided that this learning strategy/tool is best implemented intermittently to prevent students becoming dependent of Pb.M for their learning. We believe that Pb.M would be a great learning tool for students with Individual Learning Plans. We also discovered that Pb.M helped students in pronouncing scientific terminologies correctly. 

  1. One central problem that we faced when attempting to implement Pb.M was due to our overly dependence on Apple Pages. To overcome malfunctions, device incompatibility, and other issues that would derail the learning process, Pb.M should be accessible through as many software platforms as possible. Those include Microsoft PowerPoint, Words, etc. 

  1. Like with any tool, Play-back Media (Pb.M) has its biases and how the teacher uses it, can exacerbate these biases, or reduce them. We believe that Pb.M must consider the various learning levels of students in one classroom and that teachers should design such resources to reflect the reality of their students in order to extract reliable and unbiased data that accurately assesses the impact of Pb.M as an effective learning resource. This cannot be accomplished if teachers have not classified their students into learning groups based on their learning styles, needs, and challenges ascertained from previously collected data. 

Assessment data of students who utilized Pb.M learning resources during their independent learning were compared to those who only utilized non-Pb.M learning resources for patterns/trends. A summary of the findings are as follows: 

  1. On average, students scored nearly 50% higher on assessments following Pb.M learning resources than they did assessments following non-Pb.M learning resources.  

  1. Students who utilized Pb.M experienced a greater increase in reading comprehension and content understanding as compared to their non-Pb.M colleagues. 

Interviews conducted with students who utilized the Pb.M learning resources provided insight into how they evaluated the impact of Pb.M on their learning. A summary of the interviews is as follows: 

Students mentioned that Pb.M has allowed them to extract information form the learning resources faster and has improved their understanding. Their fast retrieval of information has increased their Q&A response time and participation. Students have noticed a reduction in their dependency upon the teacher for information and help and have acknowledged a greater sense of autonomy in the ownership of their learning. 

 

  1. CONCLUSION 


This investigation validates the effectiveness of Play-back Media (Pb.M) as an effective learning tool that enhances ESL high school students’ reading comprehension and academic performance. It fosters independent study skills and reduces students’ dependency upon their teacher as the main information source in the classroom. It builds students confidence to participate in Q&A sessions because they have easier access extracting the necessary information from the learning resource. As students build confidence and autonomy using Pb.M, teachers are less occupied with redirecting students to sources of information or repeating content that was previously taught and can spend more time creating enriching activities and having in-depth discussions. As education becomes heavily technology driven, we are constantly searching for tools that provide the right scaffolding for the various needs of our students, especially ESL students. Pb.M has the potential to encompass an ever-expanding range of ‘media’ learning resources and thus the potential the meet the ever-changing needs of our students into the future. 

 

 

Citation 

 

Coronado, Daniela Medina. “Autonomous Learning Strategies in the Reading Comprehension of High School Students.” Academia.edu, 1 Jan. 2019, https://www.academia.edu/73062944/Autonomous_Learning_Strategies_in_the_Reading_Comprehension 

Viji , Ramamuruthy, and Rao Srinivasa . “Smartphones Promote Autonomous Learning in ESL Classrooms.” Malaysian Online Journal of Educational Technology, 21 Feb. 2022, https://www.academia.edu/72105001/Smartphones_Promote_Autonomous_Learning_in_ESL_Classrooms. 

Abobo , Francis. “Text Media and Learning Achievements in Kiswahili Reading Comprehension in Secondary Schools in Nakuru County, Kenya.” Academia.edu, 17 Sept. 2019, https://www.academia.edu/40380153/TEXT_MEDIA_AND_LEARNING_ACHIEVEMENTS_IN_KISWAHILI_READING_COMPREHENSION_IN_SECONDARY_SCHOOLS_IN_NAKURU_COUNTY_KENYA. 

Recard, Michael, et al. “Utilizing YouTube to Develop Nursing Students' Autonomous Learning and Listening Comprehension: An Experimental Study.” Nursing Current Jurnal Keperawatan, 27 Mar. 2022, https://www.academia.edu/74689826/Utilizing_Youtube_to_Develop_Nursing_Students_Autonomous_Learning_and_Listening_Comprehension_An_Experimental_Study. 

Wold, Cheryl, and Greg Francom. “Enhancing Reading Comprehension with Student-Centered IPad Applications.” TechTrends, 10 Oct. 2017, https://www.academia.edu/34684920/Enhancing_Reading_Comprehension_with_Student_Centered_iPad_Applications.