204 Beverly Derewianka

Supporting Comprehension
While the above pop-ups and rollovers can help the L2 reader by providing on-
demand support through glosses and definitions, it involves very low-level
interactivity simply clicking and being provided with minimal information at the
local level. The contribution of the technology is limited to convenience and
speed. Of greater significance, however, is the contribution that electronic
materials can make to the construction of meanings beyond the level of the word.
Certain SLA theorists (e.g., Larsen-Freeman and Long, 1991; Sharwood Smith,
1993), for example, propose that input be modified so that it is comprehensible
to the learner. Chapelle (1998) suggests that the designer of electronic materials
could include modifications in the form of repetition, simplification, restatement,
decreased speed and change of input mode. Such modifications could be avail-
able by clicking on buttons, thus adapting the input to the needs of individual
learners.
Schema theory (e.g., Carrell, 1987) argues that comprehension is enhanced
when the reader brings to the text an awareness of the rhetorical structure of the
text (i.e., the readers formal schema). In a well-designed electronic text, the
reader should have constant reminders of how the text is structured, both in
terms of the current page on the screen and the larger text (e.g., the entire
website). When the page is lengthy, for example, the reader is often provided with
an advanced organizer at the beginning, summarizing the main points to be
covered. Beyond the immediate page, the sidebar menu provides a reminder of
the topics available which are related to the current page, and the top or bottom
menu lists the main areas covered on the site. The sitemap acts as the contents
page of a traditional book and the search function can do the job of an index.
The design of the various interfaces and navigation devices are critical in pre-
venting reader disorientation. L2 readers in particular need the support of very
user-friendly architecture (Plass, 1998) in order to see how the text is constructed
and how the various parts relate to each other.
Practice in recognizing text organization can be provided through electronic
text reconstruction tools such as Text Tangler and NewReader, where the teacher
can enter a reading passage being used in the class and the program processes it
in such a way that the students need to manipulate it to create meaning (e.g., by
sequencing a jumbled text).
Schema theory also proposes that the readers background knowledge is critical
to developing an understanding of the text. The more the reader knows about
the topic and sociocultural assumptions, the more readily the reader can con-
struct meaning from the text. With a hypermedia text, the developer is able to
build in pop-up references that flesh out the text being read. These might take
the form of an example or an elaboration, or information about the historical
background, or an explanation of a procedure, or a note about theory or a
discussion of cultural values. In a traditional text, such digressions would become
clumsy and distracting. In hypertext, however, they are backgrounded and only
become available if and when the reader decides to access them.