Eye-Movement Modelling as a Tool to Foster Digital Reading Competencies and Misconception Change When Reading Webpages in L2

Abstract

Background

Misconceptions are unjustified beliefs about a topic. Nonetheless, they are pervasive among educational practitioners. Although the internet can be a powerful tool to learn and debunk misconceptions, their use requires competencies like navigating through search engine results pages (SERPs), evaluating the reliability of content, and integrating meaning across varied perspectives. Furthermore, as most information on the internet is available in English, L2 readers might face additional barriers, limiting their possibilities to benefit from content debunking misconceptions.

Objectives

Our premise was that digital reading competencies could be modelled through videos of eye movements (EMMEs), which would promote misconception change after reading webpages that either corroborated or debunked the Learning Styles (LS) misconception.

Methods

Undergraduate students, speakers of English as L2, watched EMMEs or an instructional video, read the webpages while their eye movements were recorded, wrote an essay, and answered a memory task and a misconception posttest.

Results and Conclusions

EMMEs had a positive effect on increased time inspecting the SERP, decreased fixation on non-reliable pages, and misconception change. No effects were found in integrated understanding, nor on source memory. Although L2 level predicted performance in the learning measures, it did not mediate the effect of EMMEs on these measures. These results confirm previous research on learning and extend the effects of EMMEs to misconception change in L2 contexts.