Reflctions from readings (June 2 2009)

Hypertext and Linear Text

Hypertexts offer a different way from linear texts in terms of online-reading and multiple related links. In linear texts, readers have to look up a dictionary or other references when they had some questions. But in hypertexts, it has become much easier for readers to access information and enables readers to save their time to look up a dictionary. One of the issues that this article raises is the role of readers’ abilities. Compared with skilled readers, poor readers’ decoding skills is less effective and they are likely to more depend on the context to understand the text. I believe that one of the reasons is poor readers have less background knowledge than skilled readers.

Reading hypertexts requires extra processing load to readers by making readers navigate the text. In other words, there are a lot of choices which information readers will take in hypertexts. That can be a great advantage for skilled readers whereas that freedom can be disadvantage for poor readers. This is because poor readers are likely to be controlled by interference from the additional task of navigating the text. Therefore, since readers’ ability plays a key role in hypertexts as well as in linear texts, readers should recognize difference between texts and hypertexts and learn readers’ strategies to enhance reading comprehension.