Textbook layout and the effectiveness of learning: an eye-tracking study on EFL textbook sample

Agnieszka Andrychowicz-Trojanowska; Sambor  Grucza

doi:10.33776/linguodidactica.v4.8329

Agnieszka Andrychowicz-Trojanowska University of Warsaw (Poland) https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6657-8823
Sambor Grucza University of Warsaw (Poland) https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7801-8444

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33776/linguodidactica.v4.8329

Keywords:

Dyslexia, educational research, learning disabilities, reading research, special needs education

Abstract

It comes as no surprise that teachers, including English as a foreign language (EFL) ones, meet a variety of students in their classrooms, as no student group is homogenous – in a typical (EFL) classroom usually there are some ‘average’ students and weak ones, some skilled and talented ones, together with those with special educational needs. The last group, limited to dyslexia, is of our special interest. It is because in the Polish schools the group of dyslexic students is getting bigger and bigger but teachers are still not trained well enough to successfully cooperate with them.

Eye-tracking studies involving dyslexia mainly concentrate on reading and writing in children with dyslexia. These studies show that dyslexics suffer from deficits in the area of language processing, which is reflected in their eye movements. However, dyslexics and non-dyslexics use the same textbooks at school. Modern textbooks are tools of multimedia teaching and learning. They also have very attractive layouts and visuals, which very often are not suitable for dyslexics. In our eye-tracking study, that was conducted with the help of SMI RED 500 eye tracker, we examined the eye movement patterns of 120 Polish teenagers (60 dyslexic, 60 non-dyslexic) working with 3 sets of materials imitating pages of an EFL textbook. We analysed 4 oculographic parameters (first fixation duration, fixation count, dwell time, revisit count), and one parameter unrelated to eye movements (answer correctness). The results show that with the use of proper layouts and designs, textbooks can minimise differences in the effectiveness of the work done, and results achieved, by dyslexic students compared to non-dyslexic ones. These conclusions are of great significance because they help equalise the educational chances of dyslexic students.

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Supporting Agencies

This study was partially supported by the research grant No. 206428/E-343/S/2017-1 “Shaping language competence in students with developmental dyslexia” from the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education (2018).

Author Biographies

Agnieszka Andrychowicz-Trojanowska, University of Warsaw (Poland)

Associate Professor and Director of the Institute of Specialized and Intercultural Communication, Faculty of Applied Linguistics at the University of Warsaw. Former teacher of English as a foreign language to secondary school students. Research interests: foreign language didactics, including special educational needs, eye tracking and its use in linguistics and foreign language didactics.

Sambor Grucza , University of Warsaw (Poland)

Full professor, Vice-Rector of the University of Warsaw, former Dean of the Faculty of Applied Linguistics, former head of the Institute of Specialised and Intercultural Communication, President of the Polnischer Germanisten Verband, Executive Board member of the Internationale Vereinigung für Germanistik (IVG). Research interests: metalinguistics, theory of language and communication for specific purposes, glottodidactics, translatorics, eye-tracking research.

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