Study on Reading Behavior Aspects According to Text Difficulty Perception in Online Multiple documents Reading: Through Comparison with Text Evaluation

The aim of this study is to examine how the perception of text difficulty inter sects with the relationship between text evaluation and selection. To this end, seven high school students were given an online multiple texts reading task. Their reading screens were recorded, and they performed think-aloud protocols while reading. The students’ reading behaviors were analyzed based on the number of texts select ed, reading time, and note-taking patterns. Text evaluations were conducted after each reading the text, and included assessments of text reliability, relevance, and difficulty. The study results indicated that text selection and reading behavior according to the perception of difficulty varied among participants when compared to text evaluations. Notably, some participants with higher reading abilities and more experience with online reading activities exhibited behaviors where they adjusted text difficulty by using some texts or information of questionable reliability during the reading process. Conversely, there were participants who anticipated the text difficulty of web pages using image categories during the search process, and suc cessfully identified texts that were appropriate for their reading level and highly reliable. Additionally, there were participants who, despite negative evaluations of texts, chose and read texts based on a positive perception of their difficulty. This study has limitations due to the small number of participants analyzed. Nonetheless, it is significant in that it provides a detailed examination of the online multi-document reading processes of readers through metrics such as reading time and note-taking. It also offers a complex view by intersecting the perception of difficulty with the cost aspects of reading in comparison to text evaluations.