Effects of Graded Texts on EFL College Students' Incidental ...

score <strong>of</strong> 2. If a target word is used semantically correct but grammatically wrong in
a sentence, then a score <strong>of</strong> 4 was given. If a sentence is constructed with a target
word used correctly in both semantic and grammatical aspects, then this word was
credited with a score <strong>of</strong> 5. For sentence judging, two raters were employed and
scores that they graded were averaged to achieve inter-rater reliability. The
Self-report Categories were translated into learners’ native language, Chinese, for
learners to fully understand how to do this test (see Appendix C).
The VKS posttest consisted <strong>of</strong> the 50 target words tested in the pretest. Based
on the above VKS scoring system, each learner had a score for each target word on
their posttest. A real VKS scoring example is shown in Appendix D. The scores in
the posttest were analyzed for two purposes. First, to measure learners’ vocabulary
gain after they were exposed to the on-line extensive reading syllabus. Second, to
determine the relationship <strong>of</strong> exposure <strong>of</strong> target words and the quality <strong>of</strong> vocabulary
learning (receptive or productive word knowledge).
3.4.3 Questionnaires
Questionnaires <strong>of</strong> three kinds were constructed for investigating into
participants’ background and their attitudes towards extensive reading. The
questionnaires were written in participants’ native language, Chinese, in order to
prevent participants’ limited English ability from affecting their answers.
The first questionnaire, the Background Questionnaire, intends to obtain
information on learners’ use <strong>of</strong> computer and internet (the 1 st to 8 th item), their
perspectives on English learning (the 9 th to 12 th item), and their experiences <strong>of</strong>
extensive reading (13 th to 17 th item) (See Appendix A). The other two questionnaires,
the Online Evaluation Questionnaire and In-class Evaluation Questionnaire, were
designed to probe into participants’ perceptions on the on-line extensive reading
48