Exploring undergraduate EFL students’ perceptions and experiences of a Moodle-based reciprocal teaching application

ABSTRACT

This study reports on the use of Moodle as a platform for incorporating the online reciprocal teaching (RT) application into a freshman English Reading course in Taiwan. Data on the 53 students’ perceptions and experiences of Moodle-based RT application were collected using a questionnaire, and their actual reading comprehension was measured via a pre-test and post-test consisting of multiple-choice questions and a summary-writing task. The results showed that the students perceived the Moodle-based RT application as a helpful learning method, and their scores on the multiple-choice comprehension tests were higher on the post-test than on the pre-test. However, the propositional density of the post-test summary texts was about the same as or lower than that of the pre-test summary texts, reflecting difficulties the students encountered in using written English to express their understanding of passages they had read. These findings offer implications for both EFL instructors and researchers, especially those interested in designing new college-level English reading courses or improving existing ones through the Moodle-based RT application.

KEYWORDS:

• Online reciprocal teaching application
• computer-mediated communication
• interactive learning environment
• improving classroom teaching

Acknowledgments

We sincerely thank the anonymous reviewers and the editor of Open Learning: The Journal of Open and Distance Learning for their valuable comments and feedback on the earlier versions of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Taiwan [grant number MOST 103-2410-H-020-001, MOST 104-2410-H-020-003].

Notes on contributors

Mei-Mei Chang

Mei-Mei Chang is a professor in the Department of Modern Languages at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology in Taiwan. Her research interests include EFL teaching and learning, technology-enhanced language learning, instructional design, content analysis, and meta-analysis. Her contact email is: [email protected]

Shu-Wen Lan

Shu-Wen Lan is an assistant professor in the Department of Modern Languages at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology in Taiwan. Her research interests include English language teaching and learning, internationalisation of higher education, academic English literacy socialisation for international students, and qualitative research. Her contact email is: [email protected]