Incorporating new literacies of online research and comprehension strategies instruction in English as a second language (ESL) undergraduate classrooms

The Internet is a worldwide computer network that transmits a variety of data and media across interconnected devices around the globe almost instantly, making both useful and potentially detrimental materials available worldwide. In educational settings, it is important for students to be able to distinguish between credible information and non-credible or ‘fake news’. However, as much of this online information is in English, making this distinction can be particularly challenging for those individuals whose English is a second language (ESL). This thesis describes how a mixed methods study was used to investigate this problem among Malaysian ESL undergraduate students; the study illustrates how a suitable intervention was implemented, as well as how its efficacy was measured. A new instrument, the Online Research and Comprehension Strategies (ORACS) survey was designed to evaluate online research and comprehension strategies. This original instrument combined core elements from the new literacies of online research and comprehension perspectives with selected items from the Online Survey of Reading Strategies. Eight Online Research and Comprehension Strategies Intervention Lessons (ORACSIL), which drew on key aspects highlighted by the new literacies of online research and comprehension perspectives, were designed to improve the use of these strategies. To test the effect of these lessons, 187 Malaysian undergraduate students from Universiti Teknologi MARA Cawangan Johor were divided into two groups. The treatment group participated in eight ORACSIL sessions, whereas the control group was given access to the materials created for these intervention lessons but received no instruction in their use. Pre- and post-tests of online research and comprehension strategies were administered. A one-way ANCOVA was conducted to compare the effect of ORACSIL whilst controlling for any confounding variables related to the participants such as their English proficiency level and pre-existing differences in online research and comprehension skills. It was found that the ORACSIL had a large effect size of partial eta squared = .17, accounting for 16.8% of the variance in scores on the post-test. According to Dörnyei (2007), when utilising partial eta squared, in terms of effect size “0.01= small effect, 0.06 = moderate effect, and 0.14 = large effect” (p. 221). This indicated that ORACSIL had a positive effect on participants from the treatment group where they scored significantly higher than the participants from the control group on the post-intervention test. This study shows that a suitable intervention such as ORACSIL can improve online research and comprehension strategies among ESL students. Findings from a thematic analysis of the semi-structured interviews provide insights into the ESL participants’ online research practices (such as the utilisation of individual online research and comprehension strategies in completing online research tasks) and may usefully inform future enhancements to ORACSIL since the usefulness as well as challenges in undergoing ORACSIL were also identified in this qualitative analysis. It is expected that the ORACS survey and ORACSIL can be adapted to suit other countries and cultures where online research and comprehension strategies are not explicitly taught, thereby facilitating their use by teachers, lecturers, decisionmakers, researchers, and other stakeholders. To gain a larger audience, the development of a website to disseminate the findings from this study is also considered