Comprehension of biology texts in bilingual and monolingual university students: Exploring the effect of presentation modality, previous knowledge, and topic enjoyment.

The present study investigated the effects of presentation modality (reading compared to reading while listening – RWL), biology enjoyment and biology knowledge on the comprehension of biology texts in a group of 94 university students with a wide range of language experiences. Language experience was measured both categorically (bilinguals compared to non-bilinguals) and continuously, using a detailed questionnaire on bilingualism. Participants were presented with two biology texts, one written, and one presented in two modalities simultaneously (oral and written) and completed a comprehension task after each text. They also rated their knowledge and enjoyment of biology and completed the language questionnaire. The results highlight an advantage for bilingual students when it comes to comprehending texts, and this advantage is especially notable in the Reading condition. Results also highlight a positive effect of students’ subject enjoyment on performance, particularly in the case of bilingual students. Analyses including language experience as categorical or continuous showed the same results, except a lack of interaction between language experience and presentation modality in the analyses with language experience as continuous. This suggests that bilingual participants are those most likely to experience facilitation from the reading condition, but this facilitation might be experienced similarly by bilinguals past a certain language threshold. In conclusion, bilinguals had higher comprehension scores than non-bilinguals, and presentation modality affects bilingual and non-bilingual students differently, with bilingual university students being advantaged by a written presentation of the material and being more affected by their enjoyment of biology than their non-bilingual peers.