Use of Computer-Mediated Reading Supports to Enhance Reading Comprehension of High School Students

This study investigated whether providing reading supports for high school students who read computer-mediated text would further their comprehension. Independent variables included subjects' reading achievement level, the difficulty level of the text, passage order, and subjects' perception of the task. While most subjects in the reading support condition used them, reading supports did not improve subjects' reading comprehension scores on easy or difficult reading passages. When the subjects were blocked as high or low readers, reading supports also showed no effects on comprehension scores. It was found that reading supports were used more on the high-difficulty than low-difficulty reading passages. Suggestions for improving the presentation of reading supports are given.