Mobile-assisted or paper-based? The influence of the reading medium on the reading comprehension of English as a foreign language

Figures & data

Figure 1. Image of the appearance on Iyangcong on a phone screen with an example of an excerpt from The Power of Tragedy.

Table 4. Advantages and disadvantages of mobile-assisted EFL reading reported by participants in the perception questionnaire.

Item	Category	Comment	N
Advantages	Aesthetic/Emotional	More pleasant	2
	Cognitive	More motivation to read	10
	Physical	Abundant reading resources	12
		Convenient built-in functions	63
		Portability	55
	Other	Environmentally friendly	3
		Low price	7
Disadvantages	Aesthetic/Emotional	Lack of real reading feeling	15
	Cognitive	Difficulty in finding coherence in the text	9
		Lack of concentration	35
		Poor retention	17
	Physical	Battery-charging problem	5
		Eye strain	38
		Inconvenient operation	16
		Small screen	7
		Inability to take notes	27
	Other	Not being used to it	2

Table 5. Reasons reported by participants for their preferences for the reading medium in the perception questionnaire.

Medium	Category	Comment	N
Mobile Phone	Aesthetic/Emotional	More pleasant	2
	Cognitive	Better focus	3
		More motivation to read	5
	Physical	Convenient built-in functions	12
		Portability	14
	Other	Being used to it	2
		Low cost	2
Printed paper	Aesthetic/Emotional	More real	14
		More pleasant	8
	Cognitive	Better focus	23
		Better retention	5
		More conductive to reflection	6
		More motivation to read	4
	Physical	Better for eyes	8
		More convenient to take notes	25
	Other	Being used to it	4

Note. Data were collected from Question 14 in the Perception Questionnaire (see Appendix V).

Figure 2. The average scores of reading comprehension tests for each order-medium condition (± standard error bars represent 95% confidence intervals).

Table 1. Means and standard deviations of the students’ reading comprehension scores in each experimental group.

Treatment order	Score of reading from mobile phone(s)		Score of reading from printed paper
	M	SD	M	SD
First mobile phone(s)	8.08	1.46	8.83	1.28
First printed paper	8.63	1.88	8.73	1.09

Figure 3. The average time spent on reading comprehension tests for each order-medium condition (± standard error bars represent 95% confidence intervals).

Table 2. Means and standard deviations of the students’ reading comprehension speed in each experimental group.

Treatment order	Time of reading from mobile phone		Time of reading from printed paper
	M	SD	M	SD
First mobile phone(s)	987.66	231.52	804.85	229.99
First printed paper	839.43	157.87	856.60	189.41

Figure 4. Mean rating scores of the three reading strategies in the two types of reading media (± standard error bars represent 95% confidence intervals).

Table 3. Descriptive statistics for the items in the perception questionnaire.

Item	M	SD	t
Perceived usefulness
1.I expect that reading from mobile phones will improve my English reading proficiency	3.42	.86	4.37**
2.I am more likely to study for a longer time with mobile-assisted English reading applications than with printed English texts.	2.70	1.02	−2.62*
3.Reading from mobile phones is convenient.	3.58	1.01	5.17**
4.Mobile phones are efficient tools for language learning.	3.62	.93	5.98**
Perceived ease of use
5.I find it easy to navigate among chapters when reading from mobile phones.	3.40	1.17	3.04**
6.The built-in functions of the mobile-assisted language reading application (Iyangcong) are easy to use.	3.21	1.00	1.90
7.I find information faster from texts on mobile phones than in printed texts.	3.17	1.06	1.47
Satisfaction
8.I am satisfied with the quality of the texts on the mobile-assisted language reading system (Iyangcong).	3.49	.92	4.82**
9.I am able to retain what I read when reading from mobile phones.	2.95	.88	-.51
10.I am satisfied with reading English texts from mobile phones.	3.52	.95	4.91**
Acceptance
11.I will recommend the mobile-assisted EFL reading system to my friends.	3.19	1.06	1.57
12.I intend to continue to read from mobile phones.	3.73	.84	7.83**

Note. ^**p < .01, and ^*p < .05 (two-tailed).