Computer-Assisted Reading Materials Related to Coursebooks

Abstract

This paper reports on a computer-assisted reading program for EFL (English as a foreign language) college learners, which is integrated directly into the curriculum. The program was designed to offer learners reading opportunities by providing more information about and background to the coursebook through the reading of related texts as self-study. This paper begins with how the reading packages were created and distributed through the internet. It then goes on to explain how the amount of articles read was counted and displayed through the internet in order to encourage the learners to keep up with each other Section 3 describes how the program was organized throughout a semester using the reading packages. To investigate the effects of the reading packages, section 4 examines which material (texts related to the coursebook or random texts) is more effective in promoting reading amount. The result confirms that related texts promote maximum reading more than do random texts. The five-scale questionnaire also indicates that the learners who read the related texts had a more positive attitude toward the materials than did the learners who read the random texts. This paper indicates what kind of reading texts teachers should choose and in what way.