Impact of Hypermedia-Based Reading on Professional Writing; An Experimental Study Based on ‘Sri Lanka Sunday Observer’ E-Paper

The application of hypermedia-based learning with electronic newspaper; refers to facilitate the learning with graphics, images, animation, sound and hypertext shows a major role in the performance of the students. This research was conducted to find the relationship between the hypermedia-based newspaper reading under the business English in the Higher National Diploma in Accountancy syllabus with learning strategies: tasks and activities in newspaper corner with poster method and the performance in the professional writing in HNDA course of Sri Lanka Institute of Advanced Technological Education as there were no any previous research studies done in the academic field. Ninety students from HNDA – A were taken as an experimental group and ninety students from HNDA- B were taken as a controlled group. A pre-test was conducted for the groups to find the previous knowledge of the students in the professional writing proficiency and the mean differences were found to be negligible for the groups. Later, the experimental group was used to pursue hypermedia-based newspaper (Sri Lanka Sunday Observer) reading on the strategies; tasks and activities in newspaper corner with poster method for six months with sixty hours learning while the controlled group was taught without the use of hypermedia-based newspaper reading. After six months a post-test was conducted for the groups. When it was conducted the mean was slightly improved for the group – B, and the mean was considerably improved for the group – A. Thus, the research findings imply that hyper-media newspaper reading improves professional writing of the learners.