Reading Comprehension of Foreign Language: Readers on Screen and Paper

Abstract

Digitalisation has led to many challenges in education. One of those challenges is the use of digital assessment. Digital assessment often involves reading from a screen. However, there are uncertainties about the impact this has on reading performance. This study examines reading comprehension performance of foreign language readers in the Netherlands in the context of digitalization. It focuses on the difference between computer-based and paper-based reading and how this affects the use of reading strategies. It is important to have insight into the consequences of testing foreign language reading comprehension digitally before digital examinations on reading comprehension can be implemented.Participants in this study were 112 fourth-grade HAVO students between the ages of 15-18 years old. Participants either took a test on paper or on a screen. Factors that were expected to influence the performance on participants were the length of the texts and the item category. The results show that there is no significant difference between the results of test items about the longer and shorter texts. Furthermore, there was also no significant difference between item categories. In general, there was no significant difference between the performance of participant staking the test on paper and participants taking the test on a screen. Altogether, the mode of assessment does not seem to affect reading performance. These findings suggest that reading from a screen may not be an obstacle for reading comprehension exams in foreign languages to shift to computer-based examination.The results of this study might give foreign language teachers some insight about reading comprehension on screen.