In an earlier pilot study, we found that advanced English for Academic Purposes (EAP) students who were not experienced computer readers could neither scan nor skim texts effectively on screen. In the present study, we hypothesized that if students were taught to use facilitating strategies, they would scan better from screen than from paper and also skim and close-read as well as they do on paper. Throughout the semester, students in the experimental group were taught to use available on-line tools, and at the end of the semester a reading comprehension test was administered to the students in the experimental and the control groups. The results showed that in all question types, students reading from screen performed as well as those reading from paper, confirming two of the three hypotheses.

<p>The aim of this study was to explore the possible benefits of using Google Translate (GT) at various tertiary English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course levels, i.e., to see if the use of GT affects the quantity and quality of student writing. The study comprised preliminary work and a case study. The former included an awareness task to assess student awareness of GT mistakes, and a correction task to assess their ability to correct the mistakes identified. The awareness and correction tasks showed that intermediate students identified 54% of the mistakes, while advanced students identified 73% and corrected 87% of the mistakes identified. The case study included two writing tasks, one with GT and one without. Results showed that when using GT students wrote significantly more words. They wrote longer sentences with longer words and the vocabulary profile of their writing improved. We believe that GT can be a useful tool for tertiary EAP students provided they are able to critically assess and correct the output.</p>

Electronic texts are playing an increasing role in education in general and in languagecourses in particular. Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) tasks utilizingauthentic texts on the Web require extensive screen reading. The flexible nature ofelectronic text encourages customization, which is important for effective screenreading and learning. For users to read comfortably and effectively, attention must bepaid to the way electronic text is presented. Presentation includes factors related tothe screen (e.g., contrast), to the reader (e.g., familiarity with the medium) and to thetext layout (e.g., number of lines per screen). Navigation method (e.g., scrolling orpaging) may also affect reading and learning from screen. Two studies conducted bythe authors show that not everyone performs well with the same presentation mode andthat preferences also vary. Designers of user-centered CALL materials should, therefore,allow for choice of presentation mode.

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