Influence Of Column Setting On Chinese University Students’ English Reading Performance

The study investigated the influence of column setting on Chinese university students’English reading performance.89English-majored sophomores participated in the experiment, in which they read two English articles printed in two different page layouts-one in one column and the other in two columns. The results of the independent samples t-test showed that there existed a significant difference in reading time and approaching significant difference in reading speed when one-column and two-column articles were read. But no significant difference in reading comprehension score, reading efficiency and reaction time was found. Therefore our new findings are, as for university students in our country, when reading English articles suitable for their reading level, one-column article is read faster than two-column article, but column setting makes no difference in reading comprehension score, reading efficiency and reaction time.