Desirability of Multimedia Hyperlinks in Fiction to Foster Pupil Reading Motivation and Immersion

Abstract

Reading from digital screens has become increasingly common practice in educational and recreational reading. The response to this digital shift has been twofold. Some suspect it will harm children's ability to perform deep reading; others highlight its potential to support reading among different groups. Digital reading tools, such as fiction with multimedia hyperlinks, could engage particularly reluctant readers or children from low-literate families. This chapter presents the results of an experimental, mixed-method study that identifies hyperlink type and frequency desirability in literary texts. A comparative analysis of respondent perspectives revealed that teachers mark on average more explanatory and enriching hyperlinks than pupils. Pupil and teacher hyperlink type desirability are significantly influenced by respectively literary genre and reading motivation, and importance of pupil reading motivation and media use. Pupil and teacher explanatory hyperlink frequency are significantly influenced by respectively literary genre, and importance of pupil reading motivation.

Hyperlink desirability in adolescent fiction: location and absorption

“…In other words, during the most suspenseful passages the teachers might become so absorbed in the story world that they read the novel from their own perspective, and thus no longer mark any hyperlinks, not even those they might otherwise consider useful for certain pupils. A partial explanation for the very limited number of enriching as opposed to explanatory hyperlinks may be that experienced readers evaluate literary value differently than less experienced readers: teachers' literary knowledge might withhold them from marking stereotypical phrases and clichés in problem novels as enriching hyperlinks, as opposed to most pupils (Vanhees, Simons & Joosen, 2020). For instance, P008 marked "But my heart was still in my mouth (p. 157)", P088 selected "It felt like a weight off my mind (p. 163)", and P010 opted for "A shiver ran down my spine as I understood what he meant (p.170)" At the same time, in the less suspenseful passages, the teachers are likely to experience lower absorption levels and may have less difficulty on the annotation task, which shows in the hyperlink scores at some of the peaks in the teacher curve (Figure 9a), which are even more elevated than those of the pupils.…”

“…For instance, P008 marked "But my heart was still in my mouth (p. 157)", P088 selected "It felt like a weight off my mind (p. 163)", and P010 opted for "A shiver ran down my spine as I understood what he meant (p.170)" At the same time, in the less suspenseful passages, the teachers are likely to experience lower absorption levels and may have less difficulty on the annotation task, which shows in the hyperlink scores at some of the peaks in the teacher curve (Figure 9a), which are even more elevated than those of the pupils. A possible explanation is that, in the less suspenseful passages, the teachers adopt the perspectives of the differing pupils in their class, whereas the latter only mark hyperlinks they personally consider useful and/or interesting (Vanhees, Simons & Joosen, 2020). As T54 put it: "You ask yourself if the pupils will understand.…”

“…More specifically, more linear story structures with limited numbers of hyperlinks, interactive elements applied in function of the story, and narrative closure improved readers' overall grasp of plot and story, and facilitated narrative absorption. A metareflective study on hyperlink desirability by Vanhees et al (2020) showed that both hyperlink type and frequency desirability were influenced by the literary genre of narrative texts.…”