Redefine reading comprehension with TARSIA: an innovation / Noorfatin Zakaria ... [et al.]

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 Setapak, 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. This language innovation aided collaboration and cooperative learning among learners, which is parallel to active learning. TARSIA, is indeed a great teaching tool that may assist ESL educators to enhance their students’ reading comprehension since it is versatile, adjustable and userfriendly, despite a few limitations that can be improved. It also has a great potential for usage in language classrooms in assist Malaysia in achieving the goals set forth in its English Language Syllabus. Hence, it is reasonable to conclude that TARSIA may have significant commercialisation potentials.