Leveraging Context for Computer-Supported Student-generated Questions and EFL Learning in Grammar Instruction: Its Effects on Task Performance

Abstract

Inspired by the concept of ‘learning in context ,’ this study aimed toward examining the effect of computer -supported student- generated questions (SQG ) with a given reading passage (acting as the context) on the quality of generated questions and task completion for grammar learning . Thirty- eight college sophomores with Intermediate English level taking a two-credit English course at a university in southern Taiwan participated in two back-to-back SQG activities on grammar covered in instructi on during regular class . A newly developed online system equipped with computer -supported procedural prompts and design was adopted to support SQG as individual knowledge construction activities . Four grading criteria — Importance, Fluency, Originality, and Elaboration , were devised for the assessment of the quality of student- generated questions . The results of the repeated measures analysis of variance showed significant differences in task performance total scores between the two SQG activities , attestin g SQG without a given passage exceling SQG with a given passage . Additionally , SQG without a given reading passage led to significantly better performance in Fluency, Originality and Elaboration indices than SQG with a given passage. Finally, the result of the chi- square test showed a near-significant difference (p = .054) between the two SQG activities in task completion, with comparatively more participants complet ing the task under the SQG without given context condition than the SQG with context conditi on.