Does E-Reading Enhance Reading Fluency?

Abstract

Extensive reading is reading as much as possible, for one's own pleasure, at a difficulty level at which one can read smoothly and quickly. In the domain of reading, this paper investigates the effect of extensive reading from e-books, through utilizing a number of downloadable reading application programs on the students' e-devices, as opposed to traditional book-reading in an ESL context. It aims at providing answers as to how e-book reading affects the students' reading rate, their reading comprehension, and their attitudes to reading. A group of 40 freshman female students studying in the College of Basic Education, in the English Department participated in the study. Students' writing diaries together with two questionnaires made up the tools of the study. The data was analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The findings indicate that e-reading may accelerate the progress of the students' reading rate, which might be due to the utilization of the reading application features that trains the students to practice faster rates of reading. As for the comprehension level, the students reported lower levels when they read from an e-resource. On the other hand, the students' attitudes towards e-reading tend to be less positive when compared to conventional book reading, due to a number of extraneous factors that were not part of the inherent nature of the e-reading activity. Future studies on e-reading, whereby confounding factors will be rigorously controlled for are highly recommended to reach out more conclusive findings on the matter.

Exploring EFL Students’ Preferences in Extensive Reading

“…Silent reading helps students to be more focused on their reading process. Silent reading maintains the reader's concentration on reading longer text (Hiebert et al, 2014, p. 8;Akbar et al, 2015). 8) Reading is its reward.…”

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

“…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). The e-books provide language learners with useful multimedia features that can enhance vocabulary, reading comprehension, reading rate and listening comprehension (Akbar et al, 2015;Chen et al, 2013;Hsieh & Huang, 2020;Leacox & Jackson, 2014;Liu et al, 2019;Wood et al, 2018;Wu, 2016;Yow & Priyashri, 2019).…”

“…One of products of such technology integration in instructional design is e-books. E-books, in English language teaching context, help both learners and teachers to have an interactive teaching and learning environment that triggers learning motivation (Almunawaroh, 2020), develop learners" reading comprehension (Yow & Priyashri, 2019) and listening comprehension (Hsieh & Huang, 2020), increase learners" reading speed (Akbar, Taqi, Dashti, & Sadeq, 2015), and accelerating vocabulary (Leacox & Jackson, 2014).…”

Reading Practices of EFL Students: A Survey of Kuwaiti College Students

“…In a recent study, Akbar et al (2015) surveyed 40 freshman female students studying in the College of Basic Education in the English department, PAAET, Kuwait. Data drawn from students' writing diaries together with two questionnaires were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively.…”

“…Spencer (2006) reported negative aspects of e-reading in an academic setting. Akbar, Taqi, Dashti, and Sadeq (2015) investigated e-reading usage as opposed to traditional book reading in Kuwait and highlighted the fact that e-reading may accelerate students' reading rate and progress, but they also cautioned that there might be a lower level of comprehension when reading e-resources. The authors concluded that students' attitudes toward e-reading tended to be less positive than toward conventional book reading.…”