Introduction
Reading skills are not only essential for career advancement, but are also an essential survival skill. From day-to-day, we have to read a lot of important information from notices, letters, signposts, consumer information leaflets on products and commercials among many others. Therefore, it difficult for a person who does not know how to read to survive. Therefore, reading skills is one of the essential life skills that should be emphasized at institutions of learning. Learners reading skills should be horned during their early years at school so that those who drop out from school also acquire the skills. Institutions need to identify strategies that will enhance the ability of students to read and their interest in reading. One of the strategies that has been proposed to enhance reading skills is adopting colored paper as reading material background as opposed to the traditional white paper. Although the preposition is an old one, it has not been widely adopted. One of the earlier advocators was Evans (1974). Evans (1974) argues that human beings use their five senses to discover their immediate environment. Color is a direct reaction to one of those senses: sight. Therefore, using colored paper stimulates our senses and improves our ability to read. Trials conducted by Irlen (1991) revealed that people find it harder to read on pale backgrounds (including white) compared to reading on brightly colored backgrounds if the letters are black. He points out that the high contrast between white and black reduces reader’s concentration while they are reading. This study seeks to assess the impact of lilac-colored papers on the reading ability of students at Melbourne University.
Duggan (2009) argues that reading skills can be assessed using the speed with which a person reads. However, he further points out that end goal of reading is comprehension. Therefore, the ability of learners to decode the message that the author is passing is important. The ability to comprehend a text is influenced by internal and external factors in the readers’ environment. Jager-Adams (1994) defines reading comprehension as the degree of understandability of a text. Similar sentiments are pointed out by Ouellette (2006). Oullette (2006) argues that the central purpose of reading is understanding the text and not merely mechanically going through the text. Reading is a mental process of decoding information. Therefore, this study is interested in two measures of reading ability: reading speed and reading skills. Specifically, the study seeks to assess the impact of lilac-colored papers on the reading speed and reading ability of students at Melbourne University.
Research Questions
The study seeks to assess the reading speed as well the reading and comprehension ability of Melbourne University students. Reading speed is measured in minutes whereas reading comprehension is assessed using a standardized reading comprehension test. Therefore, the research questions are as follows;
Is there a difference in the reading time by Melbourne university students if they read from which colored papers and if they read from lilac colored papers?
Is there a difference in the reading comprehension test scores by Melbourne university students after they read from which colored papers and after they read from lilac colored papers?
Hypotheses
Question 1
Null Hypothesis (Ho)
There is no difference in the reading time by Melbourne university students if they read from which colored papers and if they read from lilac colored papers.
Alternate Hypothesis (Ha)
There is a difference in the reading time by Melbourne university students if they read from which colored papers and if they read from lilac colored papers.
Question 2
Null Hypothesis (Ho)
There is no difference in the reading comprehension test scores by Melbourne university students after they read from which colored papers and after they read from lilac colored papers.
Alternate Hypothesis (Ha)
There is a difference in the reading comprehension test scores by Melbourne university students after they read from which colored papers and after they read from lilac colored papers.
Research Design
We use a quasi-experimental research design to answer the research questions. The current study is a social study that involves human subjects. Therefore, designing a true experiment will be costly and also raises ethical issues. A repeated measure design will be used to control for historical factors and subject characteristics that would act as confounding variables such as disability, talent, intelligence, good schooling in the past among many others. By using the same participants for both treatments, these variables are controlled for, thus reducing competing explanations for the observed results.
Sampling
The population that the study is interested in is the student body of Melbourne University. Therefore, the effective population size is all the enrolled students at Melbourne University. However, for this study we target undergraduate students in the first half during the spring semester. The study targets this group because they form the bulk of the student population, they are easier to access and they have free time as most of them are fulltime students. Besides, the study presumed students will be more willing to participate since there are no exams and few assignments. The strategy ensured a zero attrition rate of selected participants.
Random sampling was used to select the study participants. A random sample ensures that the sample is a representative of the population. It also allows the researchers to use inferential statistics. The sample size is 35. The sample size is constrained by financial limitations. The selected students were from different age groups, majors and socio-economic backgrounds.
Quasi-Experimental Design
The study was effected through a repeated measure design. This means that the same set of participants were used for both treatments. The subjects will be informed of what they are supposed to do. They were made aware that participation in the study is voluntary and they have the will to withdraw at any time. However, to encourage participation, a participation fee was given to all the participants at the end of each session. It was given at the end so that participants not only take part, but also stay until the end of a session. There were three main periods for the experiment. During the first period, participants were required to read a text and finish reading. The time they take to read the text was recorded. A participant announced they had finished a text by raising their hand. The participant then proceeded to the second round. During the second round, the participant was handed a test will multiple choice answers. Multiple choice answers ensured there was no subjectivity in grading of the papers. Therefore, it eliminates researcher bias. It also made it easier to grade the papers once the participants completed the test.
Strength of the Method
Firstly, the study is conducted in a controlled environment that allowed the researcher to take precise measurements of both time and test scores. Besides, the data was collected simultaneously which saves resources both human, physical and time. A repeated measure design reduces the number of participants since the same set of participants is used for both treatments. For instance, instead of using 70 participants, only 35 participants were needed to complete the study. Therefore, it is cheaper and the logistics are easier compared to dealing with a larger group.
Weaknesses of the Applied Method
It was expensive since participants had to be paid to encourage participation in the study. Experimenter effect could not be avoided since the study had to be supervised to prevent cheating. However, the mere presence of the researcher could influence participants’ concentration which acts as a confounding variable. Lastly, in a repeated measure design learning effects cannot be avoided. The study participants become better in the subsequent sessions since they learned techniques during the first session. Therefore, the observed results are due to the learning effects and not the treatment. We partly countered learning effects by using different texts of comparable difficulty in both sessions. However, the general reading skills and the ability to answer the comprehension questions may have become better over time.
Implementation of the Study
The study was conducted on two sessions of two separate days. In the first session, students were given a white colored paper to read. The time that they take to read the entire text was recorded. They were then given a comprehension test based on the material and their scores were recorded. During the second session, the same procedures were repeated using a lilac colored paper. A different reading text was used to eliminate learning effects. The reading text and test were of comparable difficulty. The study was conducted on separate days to eliminate the effect of tiredness by the participants.
Statistical Analysis
Data for the reading time of each participant was recorded during both sessions in seconds. Time was measured using a stop watch. Similarly, the standardized test scores were graded and the scores for each participant during each session was recorded as a percentage. The data was recorded in MS Excel.
Dependent sample t-test was used to compare the group means for the reading time and the test scores. The hypotheses were tested at 5 percent significance level. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS.
Results
Research Question 1
The mean reading time for the white colored paper was 185.37 seconds with a standard deviation of 3.473 seconds while the average reading time for the Lilac colored paper was 195.4 with a standard deviation of 3.516 seconds (see table 1). The correlation between the paper color and reading time is 0.655 which is statistically significant at 5 percent p-value = 0.000 < 0.05 (see table 2).
The difference in the mean between the two groups is 10. 029 second. The t-statistic = 20.422 (df= 34), p-value = 0.000 < 0.05. Therefore, there is a statistically significant difference between reading time for lilac colored paper and white colored paper. The reading time for lilac colored paper is higher than that of white colored paper.
Research Question 2
The mean test score for the white colored paper was 76.60 percent with a standard deviation of 3.882 seconds while the average test score for the Lilac colored paper was 86.37 with a standard deviation of 3.934 seconds (see table 4). The correlation between the paper color and reading time is 0.954 which is statistically significant at 5 percent p-value = 0.000 < 0.05 (see table 2).
The difference in the mean between the two groups is 9.771 second. The t-statistic = 48.566 (df= 34), p-value = 0.000 < 0.05. Therefore, there is a statistically significant difference between test score for lilac colored paper and white colored paper. The test score for lilac colored paper is higher than that of white colored paper.
Conclusion
This study sought to assess the impact of lilac colored paper on both reading time and test scores. The study reveals that lilac colored paper increases the reading time as well as the reading comprehension test scores. The reason why readers take longer to read text on lilac colored paper than on white colored paper cannot be directly inferred from the study. We can only speculate that a lilac colored paper increases the readers interest in the material. Therefore, they take more time to understand the material compared to a white colored paper where the readers scan through the document quickly without fully understanding the material. However, it is clear that students score higher points after reading a lilac colored paper compared to a white colored paper. Therefore, students get a better understanding of the text when the paper background is lilac.
This study recommends that institutions of learning institutions should adopt lilac colored paper to improve the reading skills of students. Besides, it will also improve the students understanding of their core studies since they will have a better understanding of the reading material.
This study assessed the impact of lilac colored paper relative to white paper and found out that lilac colored paper improves reading comprehension. However, it does not look at different colors of background. Further studies that assess the impact of different colors to white paper are needed to assess which one has the biggest size effect. Besides, a one on one comparison of backgrounds with different background colors is necessary.
References
Duggan, M. (2009). A Critical Examination of the Effects of Colored Paper on the Academic Achievement of Fourth Graders in Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary. Alabama: Auburn University.
Evans , R. (1974). The perception of color. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Irlen, H. (1991). Reading by the colors: overcoming dyslexia and other reading disabilities through the irlen method. New York: Avery Publishing Group.
Jackson, S. (2012). Research Methods and Statistics: A Critical Thinking Approach. London: Cengage Learning.
Jager-Adams, M. (1994). Learning to read: Modelling the reader versus modelling the learner. Reading Development and Dyslexia, 3-17.
Ouellete, G. (2006). What’s meaning got to do with it: The role of vocabulary in word reading and reading comprehension? Journal of Educational Psychology, 554-566.
Rubin, A. (2012). Statistics for Evidence-Based Practice and Evaluation. London: Cengage Learning.
Trochim, W., & Donnelly, J. (2008). The Research Methods Knowledge Base. London: Cengage Learning.
