Developing English Majors’ Comprehension of Literary Texts and Online Self-Regulated Language Learning Skills via Literature Circles 2.0

Abstract

To cope with the virtual learning mode that the COVID-19 pandemic has posed and driven by the desire to enhance students’ ability to plan, monitor, and evaluate their online learning, the current study sought to digitalize the Literature Circles model and investigate its effect on developing English majors’ comprehension skills of literary texts and online self-regulated language learning skills in an EFL context. Literature Circles 2.0 was adopted to teach the Literary Reading course that includes five short stories and a one-act play. To achieve the purpose of the study, two tools were implemented: Test of Literary Reading Comprehension Skills and Online Self-Regulated Language Learning Skills Questionnaire (Barnard et al., 2009). Sixty English majors, divided into two equivalent groups, participated in the study. The control group studied the course using the traditional teaching method, teacher-centered, which relies on lecturing, whereas the experimental group studied the same course using the Literature Circles 2.0, whereby students worked autonomously in an online virtual environment. The study results revealed the significant effect of Literature Circles 2.0 on developing the students’ comprehension of literary texts as they were demonstrated to be involved personally and emotionally in the active learning process of the course. Meanwhile, the students of the experimental group displayed a significant mastery of the online self-regulated language learning skills. Based on the students’ significant improvement in processing, comprehending, and extracting the meaning of literary texts, the study concluded that the Literature Circles 2.0 proved to be an effective approach to promoting students’ comprehension of literary texts. Therefore, the study conclusively recommends the use of Literature Circles 2.0 in teaching such texts.