The study explored L2 writers’ pausing patterns in computer-assisted writing settings and how their pausing patterns related to writing time allocation, writing fluency, and text quality. Results suggest that while the skilled writers allocated significantly less time to the prewriting stage, they paused significantly longer yet less frequently than the less-skilled group in this stage; however, the two groups displayed no significant difference in pause frequency or duration in the composing stage. Text quality was found to correlate positively with prewriting pause duration and writing fluency but negatively with the prewriting time. Web search and dictionary use were identified as important extra writing activities that gave rise to the observed time allocation and pausing patterns.

As children now spend considerable time reading electronic media, digital reading skills and good reading comprehension are essential. However, many studies agree that screen-based reading leads to shallow reading, short attention spans, and poor comprehension. Therefore, this work presents a collaborative reading annotation system with a reading annotation and interactive discussion scaffold (CRAS-RAIDS) for improving reading performance in collaborative digital reading environments.

Analytical results show that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group in direct and explicit comprehension, inferential comprehension performance, and use of reading strategy. Moreover, the experimental group, but not the control group, had a significantly improved reading attitude in the total dimensions and in the behavioral and affective sub-dimensions. Additionally, the experimental group showed positive interest and high learning satisfaction.