The Effect of Graded-Reading Websites/Applications on EFL Undergraduates’ Reading Comprehension during COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in many educational changes, especially the shift towards the use of technology in all subjects. This longitudinal study was conducted to investigate the effect of learning environments—blended and online, alone and with graded-reading websites/applications—on the reading comprehension of Saudi undergraduates majoring in English during COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, 130 participants were selected (control: male [N = 21], female [N = 54]; or experimental: male [N = 21], female [N = 34]). Although the four gender-based groups were exposed to the same learning environments—first blended and later online, which were either partially or dependent on technology—only the male and female experimental groups were required to use graded-reading websites/applications for approximately 10 months during the COVID-19 school lockdowns. All participants took four tests (pretest, posttest 1, posttest 2, and delayed posttest). Using the SPSS program, the results indicated that the learning environments alone had a limited positive effect on the control groups’ reading comprehension in the short term, which either decreased significantly (male control group) or remained unchanged (female control group) in the long term. There were significant differences between all control groups and experimental groups across all tests (p < 0.000). However, the experimental male group outperformed their male counterpart across all posttests except for the second posttest: experimental male group mean was 15.43 whereas it was 16.19 for the control male group. However, combining learning environments and graded-reading websites/applications yielded gradual positive effects on the reading comprehension of the experimental groups in the short term, which continued into the long term for the male experimental group. The experimental groups outperformed the control groups on at least two out of three posttests. The study concluded that the effect of technology on the reading comprehension of Saudi male and female undergraduates is bounded by the type of specialized technology (i.e., reading websites/applications) and the applied learning environments (i.e., blended and online). Additionally, the study indicated that there is a need to investigate other important factors related to technology used in Saudi institutes, as well as its effects on students’ learning processes in ongoing changes in the education sector in Saudi Arabia.