Exploring online reading attention and question-generation task completion of English learners at different proficiency levels by eye tracking method

This study investigated online reading attention from the viewing patterns of English learners at different proficiency levels as well as their completion of question-generation task on English grammar. Seven college students participated and were classified to low (n=3) and high (n=4) English proficiency. Eye tracker Tobii X60 was used to record data on the participants' eye fixations within areas of interest (AOIs) and their visits between AOIs while reading online materials of different instructional functions (i.e., Review, Instruction, Situation, Related hints, and Unrelated hints) for student-generated questions task. Two major findings were obtained. First, there were salient different online reading attention patterns in terms of fixation duration and visit counts between students at different English proficiency levels. Specifically, based on Kruskal-Wallis tests, the High English Proficiency Group (HEPG) paid more attention to areas related to the targeted SGQ task, by visiting significantly more frequently on 'Instruction' and 'Related hints' type of information, and spending significantly more time attending to 'Related' useful information, rather than on 'Unrelated' information, as compared to the Low English Proficiency Group (LEPG), who seemed to have less attention tactics to help them filter out unrelated information. Furthermore, based on the Fisher exact tests, significant differences were detected between HEPG and LEPG on SGQ task completion, with HEPG having a higher task completion rate than LEPG. Limitations of this study are noted, and suggestions for instruction as well as future studies are provided.