Scaffolding EFL Reading with Text-Structure Visual Displays: Idea Maps and Idea Matrices

Abstract

Awareness of text structure has been perceived as crucial for effective text processing and comprehension, especially for EFL readers in academic contexts. This study investigated the instructional effect of two types of text-structure visual display—idea maps and idea matrices—in two phases of implementation. In the first phase, freshman non-English majors in two experimental groups went through respective training on the completion of idea maps and idea matrices in support of textbook reading, while the control group did not have such access. Pretest and posttest measures indicated a significant effect of idea map tasks on a general reading test. For text retention in recall, no effect was found for both groups. Nevertheless, descriptive statistics revealed that both experimental groups retained more higher level ideas and less lower level ideas. For inferences generated in recall, idea matrix completion produced significantly fewer incorrect inferences but more correct inferences, as reflected in the descriptive statistics. In the second phase, a swapping of treatment was done between the two experimental groups. Both groups reported a higher preference for the idea map task with reasons regarding text processing, task demand, and design features. Thus, the higher level of relational processing demanded by the two-dimensional matrix may dilute the benefit of idea localization.