Abstract:

In this article, we argue that software developers should use a combination of methodologies to determine the reading difficulties of lower-level foreign language students. During the pre-production phases of our program, ClearText, we asked students of third-semester French at Pennsylvania State University to read a passage in French. One group circled all the unknown words and expressions in the passage; other students wrote the definitions of words we had underlined in the text; the last group wrote recall protocols based upon what they remembered from their reading. We demonstrate that each of these assessment instruments was necessary in product development in order for us to identify the different types of foreign language reading problems encountered by students at this instructional level.

Author: James N. Davis, Mary Ann Lyman-Hager, Susan B. Hayden