Iranian EFL Learners L2 Reading Comprehension: The Effect of Online Annotations via Interactive White Boards

This study explores the effect of online annotations via Interactive White Boards (IWBs) on reading comprehension of Iranian EFL learners. To this aim, 60 students from a language institute were selected as homogeneous based on their performance on Oxford Placement Test (2014).Then, they were randomly assigned to 3 experimental groups of 20, and subsequently exposed to the research treatment after taking a pre-test of reading comprehension. The experimental groups received the L2 texts on IWB screen for comprehension and, at the same time, received the online annotations (auditory, pictorial, and video) attached to the target words. During the session of instruction, the participants read the texts through IWB for comprehension while consulting the annotations attached to the target words. Then, they were tested on their reading comprehension through an immediate post-test in order to measure the effect of instruction on reading comprehension immediately. The results of one-way ANOVA analysis of the data indicated that pictorial annotation group comprehended the L2 texts significantly better than the auditory annotation group. The results also revealed that video annotation group significantly outperformed the other two groups in L2 reading comprehension, confirming the Dual-coding Theory (Paivio, 1971, 1990). The findings of this study may have important implications for foreign language syllabus designers and instructors as well.