Abstract
Although connecting complementary or conflicting information across texts is key to constructing coherent and integrated mental representations of multiple texts, few English as a foreign language (EFL) studies have been conducted on this issue. This study aimed to explore EFL readers’ cognitive processes in forming connections among multiple texts and examine effective interventions, specifically focusing on highlighting. Twenty-nine EFL learners were asked to read four sets of multiple texts with complementary and conflicting main ideas under two conditions using a within-subjects design: (a) reading only—reading without following any extra instructions—and (b) highlighting—reading while highlighting any connections that they noticed across texts. The results indicate that reading conflicting texts promotes more crosstextual connections than reading complementary texts. Think-aloud protocols showed that evidentiary and contextual connections were significantly greater in conflicting texts than in complementary texts. The highlighting tasks induced significantly more evidentiary and thematic connections than the reading-only condition. The results can help teachers understand how students should read multiple texts and use highlighting tasks to better comprehend them.
https://ror.org/00c4wmy51 
