Effects of font size on reading fluency of ESL primary school children

Abstract

Here we tested the hypothesis that in English as Second Language (ESL) Primary school children, font size may affect the accuracy, reaction time, and eye movement patterns in English word and sentence reading. In both word and sentence reading, children showed more dispersed eye movement patterns in reading texts in a larger font size than in a smaller font size. In addition, children also had longer saccade lengths when viewing texts in a smaller font size than a larger font size in both word and sentence reading. In word and sentence reading, there was no significant difference between the two font sizes in reaction time, but there was a higher accuracy and fixation duration in the font size 18 condition than font size 22 condition. In each reading task, we discovered two representative eye movement patterns by using the eye movement analysis with the hidden Markov models (EMHMM) approach. As most school children in Hong Kong attend local schools, they must learn English as a second language. These results helped us understand the learning process of English by ESL children better. Teachers, educational psychologists, and textbook publishers could use this information to identify the needs and challenges of ESL children.