抄録
This study examined whether linguistic text complexity affects explanation modality (oral and written) to fictitious peers on students' learning by teaching. Thirty-three university students divided into two groups read expository stories of Grade Pre-2 and Grade 3 Eiken texts and generated an oral or a written explanation in Japanese. The findings revealed that there was a significant difference in oral explanation with Grade Pre-2 text compared to the written explanation. This suggests that a high-complex text is more efficacious when explained orally than when written because an oral explanation may increase high levels of social presence and trigger a more generative process. This was not observed with a low-complex text as there may be possibility that both oral and written explainers have the cognitive resources to process the information. Although oral or written explanation in terms of social presence was not statistically significant, the students' opinions revealed that they reviewed the text by explaining to fictitious peers and understood more about the text, experiencing satisfaction and enjoyment during the process. Practical implications were presented to enhance the learning by teaching effectively.
