What explains children’s digital word reading performance in L2?

Ho, Jana Chi-San; McBride, Catherine; Lui, Kelvin Fai Hong

doi:10.1007/s11145-023-10420-8

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…As digital reading requires more cognitive resources for navigation (Coiro, 2011;Gyselinck et al, 2008;Srivastava & Gray, 2012), technical assistance is recommended for younger children in the WordSword Test for the reading performance to be properly reflected by the test results without the interference of the technological difficulty. As for the type of reading devices, our findings were in line with Chen et al's (2014) study and Ho et al (2023) that there existed differences among different types of devices. Ample evidence has advocated the advantage of reading on a bigger screen as it leads to fewer scrolls and less cognitive disruption (Sanchez & Wiley, 2009).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

WordSword: An Efficient Online Word Reading Assessment for Global English

Ho,

McBride,

Lui

et al. 2023

Assessment

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The development of efficient and reliable online assessments has become increasingly important in the digital era. We developed a 10-min online word reading assessment of global English based on the existing paper-and-pencil version of our English silent word reading test. The test includes two parts, namely, random word recognition and contextual word reading. A total of 889 participants (437 children and 392 adults; 62.7% female) took part in the study. They were from various regions including mainland China, Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR, Poland, the United States, and the Philippines. Reliability and validity analyses on various demographics samples (by age and country/region of origin) demonstrated that the WordSword Test is highly reliable and valid (e.g., the correlation of this test with other English reading measures were above .80). Education level was positively correlated with test performance, while the correlations between age and test performance were not consistent. Ninety-seven children participants also took the paper-and-pencil version of the WordSword Test. The correlation between performances on the online and paper-and-pencil versions of the test was .879, one year apart. With more children and adults taking the WordSword Test, we ultimately hope to establish norms by area, grade level, and age.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

WordSword: An Efficient Online Word Reading Assessment for Global English

Ho,

McBride,

Lui

et al. 2023

Assessment

Self Cite

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Online assessment in young children: Challenges and considerations

McBride,

Ho,

McQuade

et al. 2024

PsyCh Journal

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In the years following the COVID‐19 pandemic, online assessment has emerged as an increasingly popular method for testing children. This review aims to review key advantages and disadvantages of online assessment in young children, specifically in the area of literacy and mathematics assessment. We first consider the recent history of online assessment and give evidence from our own experiences with online assessments in both Cebu, Philippines and Hong Kong. We then discuss the benefits of conducting assessments online. One of the key strengths of online assessments is the efficient use of resources, such as ease of staff training, increased participation and decreased costs for both participants and researchers. Difficulties related to testing environment, parental interference and exclusion of certain populations are also highlighted as focal challenges that must be considered when designing and implementing online assessment. The reliability and validity of online assessments are then specifically discussed in relation to the question of how to best ensure that online measures function as intended, stressing the importance of establishing separate norms for the various administration modes. Notably, online assessments delivered via phone screen must have separate norms than those delivered on a computer screen, as device differences may account for differences in performance. Finally, we present broader considerations for designing online assessments with young children. This includes practical tips for pilot testing, user interface design, data confidentiality and automatic scoring, both to enhance the efficiency of future online assessments and increase participation. Specifically, online assessments for children must account for their developing attentional abilities, meaning assessments should be brief, engaging and contain clear task instructions. The implementation of these considerations will support the development of more reliable, valid and inclusive assessments which will allow researchers and practitioners to support equitable and feasible online testing moving forward.

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The influence of age at first regular digital device access on digital reading performance: the mediating effect of cognitive flexibility

Hu,

2024

Humanit Soc Sci Commun

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Younger generations are receiving their first regular digital device access at progressively earlier ages than previous generations on average, whereas disparities in their early digital device access are still being observed globally. The inequality of first regular digital device access may have profound long-term effects on one’s information and communication technology (ICT) skills, but no evidence has suggested how unequal first regular digital device access impacts one’s digital reading, which enables one to process and comprehend information in this digitized world. Thus, the current study investigated the relationship between the age at which children first regularly access digital devices and their digital reading performance at age 15 while considering the potential mediating effect of cognitive flexibility. A multilevel mediation model was proposed and tested using data from a cross-national sample of 156,277 15-year-old students from 18 OECD countries from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The results suggested that first regular digital device access after age 9 exerted a negative influence on digital reading scores in countries that generally had high levels of early digital access, and after age 13 in countries that had lower levels of early digital access. Additionally, cognitive flexibility mediated the association between the age at first regularly accessing digital devices and digital reading performance. Starting using digital devices regularly only after age 6, more evident at ages 9 to 12, was associated with lower levels of cognitive flexibility, which in turn led to worse digital reading performance. These findings demonstrated the importance of early first regular access to digital devices before school age (age 6) and highlighted the need for the cultivation of cognitive flexibility in family and school uses of digital devices.

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What explains children’s digital word reading performance in L2?

Cited by 4 publications

References 59 publications

WordSword: An Efficient Online Word Reading Assessment for Global English

WordSword: An Efficient Online Word Reading Assessment for Global English

Online assessment in young children: Challenges and considerations

The influence of age at first regular digital device access on digital reading performance: the mediating effect of cognitive flexibility

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