Redefine Reading Comprehension with Tarsia: An Innovative Approach in Understanding Reading Text

Abstract

In the global context, students in Malaysia scored lower than the OECD average in reading, mathematics, and science in PISA conducted in 2018. In the field of English education, reading is perceived as a boring and complex process as well as one of the challenging components where students find it difficult to comprehend and tend to give up easily when they look at complex or longer text. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to describe how Tarsia is used to facilitate students' reading comprehension and to explore the effectiveness of Tarsia in improving students' collaboration and communication in ESL classrooms. By using the ADDIE model as the research model, 34 participants from lower secondary students in Kuala Lumpur were selected based on convenience sampling. The significant impacts on students' reading comprehension were proven through pre and post-tests and a simple survey. TARSIA benefited the students in understanding the reading text easily and inculcating the elements of the 4Cs besides acting as useful teaching aid among teachers. TARSIA could potentially be game-based materials, designed for English reading classrooms for A2-B1 achievers. It is fair to deduce that TARSIA might have high commercialisation potentials.