Effect of Active Breaks on reading comprehension in a foreign language

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to find out whether Active-Breaks (AB) improve the three levels of reading comprehension in a foreign language which could be a determining variable in the academic success of the implementation of CLIL programmes. This study involved a total of 50 healthy students [n=25: Control Condition (CC), and n= 25: Active-Break Condition (ABC)] from one secondary school in the Region of Andalucía (Spain). To investigate the acute effects of an AB on reading comprehension in a foreign language, those in the CC were asked to maintain their ordinary routines, while those in the ABC modified their class by introducing ten minutes of exercise. After that both groups complete a reading comprehension test. Significant different were found in both question of literal comprehension, p=0.03, d=0.38, p=0.001, d=0.11, and in both question of inferential comprehension, p=.003, d=0.35, p=0.03, d=0.47. Crucially, in both question of evaluation, p=0.26, d=0.20, p=0.41, d=0.40, no significant difference was appreciated. The present study demonstrated that overall student’s reading comprehension in a foreign language improves after of AB of 10 min (compared with CC) and concretely, improve the efficiency in question of literal comprehension and inferential comprehension.