The impact of interface on ESL reading comprehension and strategy use: A comparison of e‐books and paper texts

Abstract

The use of e‐books in postsecondary education is projected to increase, yet many English as a second language (ESL) institutions have not yet incorporated e‐books into their curricula, in part due to a dearth of research regarding their potential impacts on ESL reading comprehension and strategy use. This study fills a gap in the existing research by investigating the impacts of contemporary e‐books on ESL strategy use and reading comprehension, in comparison to paper texts. Twenty‐two high‐intermediate ESL participants were separated evenly into a paper text group and an e‐book group. They were given pretests, support strategy mini‐lessons, reading sessions with observation, posttests, surveys, and delayed posttests. Independent‐sample t‐tests revealed no significant difference between the groups’ reading comprehension rates; however, reading strategy use and frequency varied between groups. Though the majority of e‐book participants had not previously used e‐books for learning, they reported preferring them over paper texts after the reading sessions were completed. The study's findings offer some support for the incorporation of e‐books in ESL curricula. In addition, the findings suggest that instructors provide e‐book strategy lessons to students so they can appropriate the technology effectively.

Remote Testing of Reading Comprehension in 8-Year-Old Children: Mode and Setting Effects

“…Consequently, different cognitive explanations have been put forward for the inferiority of digital text comprehension. For example, some authors suggested that the light emitted by digital media might contribute to visual fatigue and, consequently, increases cognitive load ( Benedetto et al, 2013 ), while others emphasized inferior learning strategies that people adopt on digital devices, thus, resulting in higher reading speed but shallower processing of the reading material (e.g., Isaacson, 2017 ; Morineau et al, 2005 ; Singer et al, 2019 ). Alternatively, it has also been suggested that people are more overconfident about their performance when reading on a computer that might lead to poorer test results ( Ackerman & Goldsmith, 2011 ).…”

Developing an E-book with Past Tenses Materials for the Students of English Education Study Program in the Indonesian Context

“…Some studies investigated the implementation of e-books to various levels of students, from young learners to adult learners, to support their learning experience. The studies implementing the ebook in English learning were mostly conducted experimentally ( Hsieh & Huang, 2020;Isaacson, 2017;Liu, Liu, & Chen, 2019;Wood et al, 2018;Yow & Priyashri, 2019). The other studies were survey study (Nie, Armellini, Witthaus, & Barklamb, 2011;Rogerson-Revell, Nie, & Armellini, 2012) and research and development (Hussain & Al Saadi, 2019;Wu, 2016).…”

Fostering Low English Proficiency Learners’ Reading in a Freshman EFL Reading Class: Effect of Using Electronic and Print Textbooks on Taiwanese University Students’ Reading Comprehension

“…In the EFL environment, the reading comprehension between print and e-books are a major concern, as some ambivalent results on reading comprehension were found (Reich et al, 2016). Past studies cannot conclude whether e-book use was positive, negative, or neutral to the second language reading experience (Isaacson, 2017).…”