The development and evaluation of a web-based college English outside reading system for EFL freshmen

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to design a web-based English outside reading learning system for college students to study English reading outside the classroom by themselves. In addition to the main purpose, we explored the web-based learning system’s effects on students by comparing it with the reading of traditional printed materials. This web-based learning system included nine units whose topics were the life stories of nine contemporary celebrities. This study adopted a pretest-posttest nonequivalent group design. Control group students conducted English outside reading by studying paper materials on their own. Experimental group students studied the same materials in an asynchronous web-based learning system. The results of this research were that the group using the web-based learning system had significantly better English reading comprehension, higher English learning motivation, and greater learner satisfaction. Furthermore, most of the web-based learning students held very positive views of the design, presentation and functions of this web-based learning system.