INVESTIGATING TECHNIQUE EFFICACY IN EFL READING INSTRUCTION USING PEAR DECK

INVESTIGATING TECHNIQUE EFFICACY IN EFL READING INSTRUCTION USING PEAR DECK

The present research examined the efficacy of integrating Pear Deck, a student response system (SRS), into reading instruction with two teaching techniques. A total of 151 university students from four intact classes were given identical learning content and a digitally interactive environment using Pear Deck. Two of the four classes were instructed using the teacher-interaction (TI) technique, while the other two classes were instructed using the peer-interaction (PI) technique. A pre-test, mid-test, and post-test were implemented to investigate the teaching effectiveness of integrating Pear Deck into reading instruction through the two teaching techniques. The results demonstrate that integrating Pear Deck into reading instruction can increase student engagement and boost the learning effect on reading skills and vocabulary acquisition. However, although the performance of the PI group was slightly better than the TI group, the differences did not reach a significant level, which differs from Kent’s (2019) study results. The differing results might be due to the difference in the study sample size, the participants’varying English proficiency levels, the students’willingness to engage, the teacher’s role, and the challenge of monitoring peer discussion in larger classes. Future research is suggested to explore whether the above factors affect interaction types.