The Effects of Using Audience Response Systems Incorporating Student-Generated Questions on EFL Students’ Reading Comprehension

While Audience Response System (ARS) such as Kahoot! can promote learner self-regulation and enhance comprehension by engaging cognitive processing on multiple levels, learning behavior in questioning with ARS was understudied. The present study explores the use of Kahoot! with student-generated questioning, to report the effect on students’ reading comprehension. This study involved two intact sixth grade elementary school classes, with a total of 48 students which were divided into an experimental group and a control group. All students first took the simulated GEPT (General English Proficiency Test)-Kids reading test as a pre-test. Each team was assigned a story commensurate with their reading level by the instructor. The experimental group used Kahoot! as an ARS to generate questions, while the control group presented their questions by PowerPoint. The data were analyzed in terms of the students’ pre-test and post-test GEPT-Kids scores, and the worksheets. The results indicated that although little significant improvement was recorded from the GEPT scores, the quality of the questions generated by the group using Kahoot! increased at a greater rate over time compared to the control group. The question-generation process showed that the Kahoot! group indicated a higher level of engagement and collaboration and also stimulated an active learning environment.