Blended Language Learning: Using Facebook as a Pedagogical Tool to Enhance Thai EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension Through Internet-Based Reading Materials

Abstract

This paper aimed to examine Thai EFL learners’ reading comprehension ability through a blended language learning environment: the integration of regular face-to-face teaching method and the implementation of online reading activities. In this experimental research study, the participants were Thai EFL undergraduates randomly selected and assigned into two groups, namely a control group and an experimental group. The participants in the control group were taught by way of a regular face-to-face classroom teaching while the blended approach, which integrated face-to-face classroom teaching with online reading activities, was used with the experimental group of the learners. Following the principle of the content-based instruction (CBI), in this study, the learners were allowed to select the article with the contents they were interested to read and post them on a Facebook group particularly created to serve as a learning tool. This study was conducted over the course of 16 weeks. The data were collected from a pre-test and a post-test on the learners’ reading comprehension. The test each consisted of five reading comprehension skills, namely scanning for specific details, finding the main idea, using vocabulary in context, pronoun reference, and making inferences. The scores from both groups were then compared and presented quantitatively. The overall findings suggested that the blended language learning environment and learners’ reading comprehension complement each other.

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Author Information
Sonthaya Rattanasak, Rajamangala University of Technology Suvarnabhumi, Thailand

• Category: ECLL2017, Oral Presentation
• Tag: Blended learning,

Posted by James Alexander Gordon

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