The Influence Of Self Reading

1138 Words5 Pages

Table 4.162 displays the reasons to the participants’ poor learning experience when using the screen reader to complete the reading task. Despite the majority preference towards the screen reader mode, there were a handful (7-8 participants) who were strongly against the idea of using the screen reader as an aid in their reading. Based on the responses received, the two main reasons which had led these participants to think likewise were the distracting audio of the screen reader and a personal preference to self-read.

Distracting audio
Text-to-speech technology or more commonly known as a screen reader in this study holds promise as a compensatory tool for adolescents with learning disabilities in accessing grade-level expository text (Meyer …show more content…

By practicing self-reading, the participants mentioned that they were able to understand and remember the passage content more clearly. This was in line with some of the recommendations proposed by Gupta (2007) who stated that students should be able to develop skills to learn faster and remember better through self-reading. Some of the comments by the participants include, “I would prefer to read by myself. It gives me some time to understand and remember what am I reading (D6)…I didn’t progress much in my learning. I felt that after listening to the screen reader, I forgot almost everything I just heard (T9)…I did find the screen reader a little distracting. Maybe I am used to reading by myself and I am able to understand better if I read it quietly (T12)”. This echoes the findings of Elkin, Cohen and Murray (1993) as some of the study participant felt that the computerized reading system was reading for them and reducing their opportunity to improve their independent reading skills. Others also commented that it was unnecessary since they felt that they could read well by themselves (Elkin, Cohen & Murray, …show more content…

Advocates of learning style models (Claxton & Murrell, 1987; Coffield et al., 2004) postulate that students learn in different ways. As shown by Beacham and Alty (2006) in their study, different media combinations yield different learning effects for learners of different learning styles. The VARK model (Fleming, 2001) defines learning style as an individual’s preferred ways of gathering, organizing, and thinking about information and it focuses on perceptual modes. The acronym VARK stands for Visual (V), Aural (A), Read/Write (R), and Kinesthetic (K). Those who prefer the screen reader mode are most probably auditory learners who learn best through listening (Leite, Svinicki & Shi, 2009). Since these participants mentioned that they would prefer to self-read than listen, it probably shows that they belong to the read/write group of learners. Fleming (2001) highlighted that read/write learners enjoy printed handouts, essays, textbooks, manuals, web pages, and taking notes which explains why they preferred the standard guidelines

Open Document