The Influences Of Hypertexts And Printed Texts On Senior High School Students’ Reading Comprehension

Printed books provide an important carrier for traditional reading,and the development of computer and network technology offers a new channel for reading and changes the way people read.By virtue of its own technological advantages,hypertexts are essentially different from printed texts,which lead to different reading effects of readers to certain extent.However,the related research on the reading effect of hypertexts in China started relatively late.There are just a few comparative studies between the reading effects of hypertexts and printed texts and they are not deep enough.Furthermore,many of these researches focus on university students,while few researches choose high school students as the research subjects.Therefore,combining literature research methods and empirical research method,this study chooses 180 senior high students from An’xi No.6 Middle School as the resealrch subjects,and the researcher conducts two reading tests and a questionnaire survey.By comparing and analyzing the impact of’hypertexts and printed texts on English reading of senior high school students and by investigating students5 feeling and attitude toward hypertext reading,this study attempts to answer the following three questions:1.Do the different ways of text presentation affect the speed and comprehensioin level of English reading of senior high school students?Is this effect consistent among students of different English proficiency levels?2.Which kinds of reading questions can demonstrate the differences between printed text reading and hypertext reading?3.What are senior high school students’feeling and attitude towards hypertext reading?The result of this study shows that there is a significant difference in average reading,time between hypertext group and prnnted texts group,which means hypertexts reduce the students’reading speed to some degree,but there is no significant difference in reading comprehension level;Hypertext reading can help students grasp the main idea of articles while printed text help students understand the meanings of some important words.Students generally believe that the vocabulary explanation and background knowledge in hypertext are helpful to their reading comprehension;and most of senior high school students show their positive attitude towards hypertext reading,etc.Based on the above findings,this study finally puts forward some suggestions on popularizing hypertext reading,hoping to provide references for English teachers,senior high school students and hypertext designers and to improve the reading effect of hypertext in senior high school students as well as their reading comprehension level through joint effort.