Effects of Text Elaboration on Korean Reading Comprehension

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study investigates the effects of input modification on L2 Korean reading comprehension. A total of 160 participants were randomly assigned to one of five conditions: baseline (B), simplified (SP), lexically elaborated (LE), structurally elaborated (SE), or lexically and structurally elaborated (LSE) version of texts. Comprehension was assessed by a multiple-choice test with three question types: synthesis, replication, and inference. In addition, a questionnaire for perceptive comprehension was administered. The test data were analyzed by a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and analysis of variance (ANOVA) with a least significant difference (LSD) test. The results were as follows: (a) simplified input promoted Korean as a second language students' reading comprehension, although the results were not statistically significant; (b) elaborated input enhanced the reading comprehension with degrees of difference among elaboration types; (c) the effects of simplification were not significantly different from those of elaboration; (d) different text modification types assisted students' degree of comprehension processing differently measured by the scores of reading comprehension on different question types; (e) students' perceived comprehension was well reflected on their scores of reading comprehension. The perceived comprehension of all the modification type groups (LSE, SE, LE, and SP) was significantly higher than those of the B version group.