چکیده:
Cette recherche vise à étudier et à évaluer la compétence des étudiants iraniens à comprendre le français en tant que langue étrangère au moyen du système SMI BEGAZE™ EYE TRACKING. Il met en évidence l’importance des informations issues du regard de l’apprenant quant à la description de ses intentions et de sa compréhension. Pour mieux comprendre les changements de comportement de l'apprenant, la trajectoire des mouvements oculaires des apprenants lors de la lecture du texte en langue maternelle et en langue étrangère a été analysée. Le scanpath est primordial pour repérer l’ordre des opérations mentales et renseigne sur la séquence des éléments extraits de la page pour construire la représentation mentale et la récupération de l'information recherchée. Cette technique permet d'extraire les stratégies utilisées par les apprenants de langue lors de la lecture du texte dans leur langue maternelle et en langue étrangère. Selon les résultats de cette étude, les apprenants iraniens ont des difficultés dans la production des inférences, le problème qui affecte aussi l’apprentissage de la lecture en langue étrangère. L'enseignement des processus cognitifs et des stratégies efficaces pour comprendre le sens du texte aux enseignants et aux apprenants de langue conduit à l'amélioration de la compétence de la compréhension du texte.
پژوهش حاضر به مطالعه و ارزیابی مهارت خواندن و درک نوشتاری به زبان فرانسه، به عنوان یک زبان خارجی در بین دانشجویان ایرانی توسط دستگاه «ثبت حرکات چشم» میپردازد. این مطالعه بر اهمیت اطلاعات حاصل از پردازش بینایی زباناموز، بر درک و تفسیر مفهوم متن، صحه میگذارد. برای درک بهتر تغییرات رفتار زباناموز، مسیر حرکات چشم زباناموزان در هنگام خواندن متن به زبان مادری و زبان خارجی، تجزیه و تحلیل شده است. ردیابی مسیر حرکات چشم، برای شناسایی ترتیب عملیات ذهنی ضروری است و اطلاعاتی در مورد توالی عناصر استخراج شده توسط حرکات چشم زباناموز و در نتیجه بازنمایی ذهنی و بازیابی اطلاعات مورد نظر ارايه میدهد. این تکنیک، استخراج راهبردهای مورد استفاده زباناموزان، در حین خواندن متن به زبان مادری و زبان خارجی را میسر میسازد. بر اساس نتایج این تحقیق، زباناموزان ایرانی در استنباط مفهوم متن با مشکل مواجه هستند، مشکلی که یادگیری مهارت خواندن و درک مفهوم متن به زبان خارجی را نیز تحت تاثیر قرار میدهد. بنابر یافتههای این پژوهش، اموزش فرایندهای شناختی و راهبردهای موثر در درک مفهوم متن به معلمان و زباناموزان، منجر به بهبود مهارت درک مطلب میشود.
This research work is part of the field of reading and written comprehension in French
as a foreign language in the Iranian context with the “SMI BEGAZE™ EYE TRACKING” device. It highlights
the importance of information from the learner's gaze in describing their intentions and understanding. To better
understand how changes in reader behavior take place when reading in the mother tongue and in the foreign
language, we analyzed the scan paths when reading the text in the mother tongue and in the foreign language. The
scan path is essential for identifying the order of mental operations and provides information on the sequence of
elements extracted from the page to build the mental representation and the retrieval of the information sought.
This technique allows us to extract strategies used by learners during the reading of the text in the mother tongue
and in the foreign language. From the results of this research, Iranian learners have difficulty in making inferences,
the problem that also affects learning to read in a foreign language. Comprehension competence can be improved
by educating teachers and learners about the cognitive processes of text comprehension and effective strategies.
The experiment was carried out at the cognitive psychology laboratory of Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran.
It was essential to find a homogeneous population where the candidates have similar cognitive profiles. We have
chosen ten second-year students in French language and literature from Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran as
the audience. The students concerned are between the ages of 18 and 30. At this level, learners are able to read a
simple narrative text in French. The learners filled out an information sheet. This task also allowed us to establish
the profile of the different participants. We put the participants in two groups of five students; the first group first
reads a tale in Persian, then the same tale in French. It is the same tale in Persian, without being the word-forword
translation of the French text. The second group read this tale directly in French, without any intervention
and helps from us. With regard to the general parameters, there are significant differences between the two groups.
The participants in the second group read much more slowly, the number of fixations is significantly greater and
their saccades are shorter. Indeed, we observe this type of configuration among readers who are offered a difficult
text or one written in a foreign language. These data simply confirm that our subjects in the second group have
difficulty reading, which seems logical to us.
Regarding the fixation points, we observe that the participants tend to position their gaze halfway between the
beginning and the middle of the word. This point has been referred to as the preferred place of attachment (Rayner
21-30)
It seemed interesting to us to observe which boxes the gaze of the different participants was on at the start of the experiment. It appears quite frankly that most subjects, whether for the Persian text or for the French text, begins the experiment by looking at the center.
In order to verify whether certain subjects used a strategy by going from the center to the periphery, or on the contrary from the periphery to the center, we observed how often the participants looked at the center, at the periphery and at the level of the intermediate boxes. Most subjects used a center-to-periphery strategy.
Most subjects used a center-to-periphery strategy. If we look at the different types of strategies linked to the center-periphery, we can distinguish several types of behavior. Indeed, some subjects will have a tendency, during their journey, to favor the squares of the center first, to finally go to the periphery. Note that some participants use this type of strategy but without going through the intermediate boxes.
During this study, we saw that contrary to what we thought, it was not very easy to define strategies as categorical as those identified in certain studies. However, it was possible to obtain other more general information relating to the behavior of the participants during the experiment. The results showed that it was difficult to state with certainty that the subjects consciously used this strategy.
To the global variables of the processing of a screen page, studied until now, can be added the processing of a particularly relevant zone from the point of view of the evaluation of the interface because important information is placed there ( areas of interest).
Words constitute particular visual objects, they are assemblies of letters which, once perceived, must be decoded and interpreted. The recognition of a word therefore depends on the visibility of the letters constituting it but also on its lexical and semantic properties. As a result, long and low-frequency words are extremely difficult to read and the whole reading becomes very impaired and difficult, even painful at times.
The high duration of fixation on the title in Persian is explained by the use of a low frequency title (stone soup).
The title is fixed more than three times by some subjects, as if it were blocked, which greatly disrupts all the memory processes involved in reading. This could confirm the fact that the eye movements of the participants are the consequence of their reading difficulties.
By comparing the data of these two tables, we understand that the average duration of fixation on the title is higher among the participants of the first group.
In this research, we explored and analyzed non-verbal behavior during learning in order to show the importance of data from the eye tracker.
Words constitute particular visual objects, they are assemblies of letters which, once perceived, must be decoded and interpreted. The recognition of a word therefore depends on the visibility of the letters constituting it but also on its lexical and semantic properties. As a result, long and low-frequency words are extremely difficult to read and the whole reading becomes very impaired and difficult, even painful at times.
We then calculate the number and duration of fixations on this zone, the frequency of inspection of the zone or the probability that the gaze returns to the zone (zones receiving several non-consecutive fixations). Viviani (Viviani, 353-393) thus showed that the duration of fixations increases according to the importance of the elements present in a visual scene. All these measures of the scanpath, which can also be correlated with each other, provide information on the quality of information gathering and on the elements of the document that have attracted the subject's attention.
Our study has enabled us to arrive at results that make it possible to link non-verbal behaviors to cognitive states amenable to cognitive diagnosis. As is the case in our study, this type of analysis allows us to access task-specific visual processing. This helped to emphasize the importance of non-verbal data in learning and the possibility of using them in a learning environment. We have demonstrated the existence and relevance of other sources of information, such as gaze tracking, which can be integrated into scientific research on acquisition/learning. The technique makes it possible to track in real time the quality of information intake, attentional shifts, difficulties and cognitive strategies of readers.
It is noted that this oculo-motor reading program has a certain degree of flexibility, which makes it adjustable to demands unrelated to the text itself, as is the case in our experience. One can think that the same characteristics of flexibility generally allow the adjustment of the ocular path to the local or global properties of the text read.
It seems that Iranian learners have difficulties in making inferences. The problem that also affects learning to read in a foreign language. Comprehension competence can be improved by educating teachers and learners about the cognitive processes of text comprehension and effective strategies.
Finally, our study does not claim to establish generalizable rules; human behavior always involves processes that are difficult to interpret. The experiments carried out with the selected audience have enabled us to identify
rules that can serve as an initiator for more in-depth research in the field of reading/comprehension in the mother tongue and in a foreign language.