An Evaluation of Native-Speaker Self-Access Reading Materials in an EFL Setting

Abstract

This study evaluated the effectiveness of self-access reading materials (originally designed for native speakers of English) when used by Chinese EFL students in an English for science program. To this end, the following questions were addressed: (1) How much of the reading material was based on scientific subject matter? (2) How accurate were the author's claims for the reading levels of the materials? (3) How effective were the materials in terms of learning gain? (4) Were the placement tests provided by the author reasonably reliable and valid when applied to Chinese EFL students? And, (5) what were the students' attitudes toward the materials after they had used them? The subjects (N=118) were all students at the Guangzhou English Language Center in the People's Republic of China. They were asked to take the placement examinations provid ed with the materials, to use the materials themselves for ten weeks, and to take additional standardized reading tests at the beginning and end of the ten week period. The results indicated that the self- access reading materials were generally beneficial to the program with one serious reservation: the placement procedures provided with the reading materials were found to be completely inadequate for these EFL students.