Introduction

Computers are transforming the way in which people interact with the written word not just through online communications, like Twitter or Facebook, but also through the accessibility of digitized texts. Learners, and the public in general, now have access to a proliferation of texts online, from e-books to web pages. As a result, the death of the traditional printed text has been heavily discussed (see Birkets, 2006) and these deliberations show no sign of abating. There may be growing substance in this assertion concerning the printed book. For example, Amazon.com reported in April 2011 that for every 100 print books it sold, it sold 105 Kindle books¹. Reading electronic books on the iPad or tablet device is not just for social pleasure; it can also have an effect on the way in which formal literacy skills are taught within schools, particularly with a growth in computerized educational materials, such as electronic books, e-readers and tablet devices, which offer new and powerful tools for teaching literacy skills.

The ability to read and comprehend textual information remains a crucial skill. It is a core skill underpinning all aspects of education as well as society in general. Reading refers not just to the ability to decode individual words on a written page, but relates to our ability to decipher written text with appropriate speed and expression (fluency) and to understand what is being read (comprehension). In this chapter we explore the extent to which new and exciting forms of computerized and multimedia learning environments can help promote literacy skills among learners and how the focus on teaching reading skills may be shifting from static formats to more interactive media with the introduction of multimedia electronic books (e-books) and touch-screen tablet devices.

Multiple digital devices, such as e-readers, iPods and iPads, have been described by some as a ‘game changer’, providing much-needed educational reform especially for equipping the current generation of learners with much needed literacy skills (Falloon, 2013). We are increasingly placing less reliance on printed texts to provide the knowledge and skills required to become proficient readers. Books are being replaced by electronic-texts and rather more depressingly by the worksheet. But is there any hard evidence to support such claims that technological advances in reading instruction can support reading skills? Clearly, e-readers and e-books have become widely accepted with a marked transition to replace paper textbooks with e-textbooks. Despite an overwhelming quantity of research into the benefits of multimedia e-books for supporting emergent reading, there have, as yet, been very few projects focusing on the role of e-readers and tablet devices to support literacy skills within educational settings. As these devices are the way forward is there sufficient evidence to show increased levels of attainment with readers than for print? A number of key issues are addressed with regard to the extent of this e-reading revolution and whether there is sufficient evidence to support the claim that a shift in multimedia reading instruction can be beneficial to young children. We then ask whether there is sufficient evidence to show that reading acquisition differs from traditional paper formats before, finally, asking whether such digital technologies are able to support struggling readers in their communication and acquisition of reading skills within the current digital age.

E-books: Are they Effective Teaching Tools or an Adjunct to Real Reading Activities?

The use of online digital resources to support the acquisition of reading skills is not a new concept. There is a long history of creating online digital resources to support and promote young children’s reading skills through the implementation of computerized methods, from CD-ROMs to alternative web-based technologies, with an emphasis on improving letter recognition, phonological skills and sight–word recognition. A series of studies by Savage and colleagues at the University of Montreal have shown the affordances associated with web-based resources for teaching a balanced phonics approach to acquiring phonological skills with kindergarten children using the ABRACADABRA software (Comaskey, Savage, & Abrami, 2009; Savage, Abrami, et al., 2009; Savage, et al., 2013). With a focus on teaching phonics, this software has been shown to increase reading skills on a number of levels, from gains in the development of early phonological skills, to vocabulary and reading comprehension using online web-based resources, although some trials of this software have proved less successful as Harper and colleagues (2012) have found. However, teaching phonological skills out of context may not always promote emergent reading. That is, the focus has been on teaching specific components of reading, usually with a focus on teaching phonological approaches such as onset and rime, and phonemes and graphemes in isolation from story texts. This reduces a learner’s reliance on contextual cues and access to story books.

Unlike phonological training programmes, there has been a recent shift towards using interactive multimedia storybooks to support the reading skills of many young children with promising outcomes (see Morgan, 2013). Most e-books are designed to replicate those books that exist in hard copy but have the potential to scaffold literacy through independent reading without any additional adult support. There are a range of terms that appear within the literature to embrace digital story books that includes ‘e-books’, ‘living books’, ‘talking books’ or ‘CD-ROM storybooks’, all of which contain an element of multimedia to teach reading skills to varying degrees (Shamir & Shlafer, 2011). They can range from simple text with static words and pictures presented in an electronic format to more highly interactive electronic story books that embrace dynamic multimedia elements with narration, background visuals and animations. These may include sounds, moving images, narration and even interactive games (Silverman & Hines, 2012). They provide young readers with the option to hear stories narrated as they follow on screen and allow them to attend to the individual written words, phrases or passages that are being read aloud. E-books sometimes include optional hidden hotspots that can be activated by the user and which elaborate on the illustrations or the text. By clicking on the text the child may hear it read aloud. In line with Mayer’s (2003) cognitive theory of multimedia learning, electronic books can offer an array of multimedia content, rather than a relatively static representation found within printed books. These multiple representations (text, voices, pictures and animations) can be highly engaging and can transform the reading experiences of many children who usually read independently or with adult support solely using printed texts. It is now widely accepted that multimedia elements appear engaging and stimulating while offering a motivational aspect to print-based learning. Yet despite difficulties in evaluating electronic books, new media, such as CD-ROM talking books have been found to support young children’s print-based literacy development not just for typically developing readers (McKenna, Labbo, et al., 2003) but also among struggling readers (McKenna, Reinking, et al., 1999).

Why are electronic storybooks so appealing to young readers? Davies and O’Sullivan (2002, pp. 106–107) note several potential benefits for using electronic books to support literacy by enabling young children to:

• enjoy a text and interact with events and characters on screen
• read for meaning and enjoy stories with focused talk and joint attention supported by the explicit nature of the text on the screen
• develop their understanding of print through text which is highlighted as it is read
• develop their own narratives linked to what is happening on screen;
• understand aspects of texts on screen, such as icons, navigational features and ‘hotspots’
• develop ICT skills such as use of the mouse
• collaborate and negotiate with others.

The term ‘edutainment’ has been used to characterize the highly interactive playful qualities and educational goals associated with using online resources to help students acquire some of the core skills associated with reading, writing and comprehension (Underwood & Underwood, 1998). It is this combination of education with engaging multimedia qualities that enthuse and engage learners of all ages. However, we need to look beyond the purely entertainment value of technology to assess the true benefits of teaching literacy skills using multimedia devices and digital tools.

New software affects young children’s language (e.g., vocabulary and story comprehension) and emergent literacy levels (e.g., word recognition and phonological awareness) and the evidence, at first glance, appears rather encouraging (Reinking, 2005). The use of multimedia electronic storybooks appears to promote the acquisition of verbal knowledge and development of phonological skills, which are two of the emergent literacy skills that have been tested among typically developing children using multimedia educational e-books. For instance, Wood, Pillinger, and Jackson (2010) did research into the role of multimedia storybooks on children’s emerging literacy skills and suggest that the use of electronic talking books may not be detrimental to the acquisition of emerging reading skills. In one study, Chera and Wood (2003) assessed improvements in literacy skills in a group of children aged 3 to 6 who were exposed to an e-book intervention during a four-week period compared to a control group. She found that those involved in the intervention did show greater gains, from pre- to post-test, in their phonological awareness when compared to the control group. In a later study, however, Wood (2005) examined differential gains in phonological skills following a short-term intervention using either a phonic-based ‘talking book’ or one-to-one reading tuition with an adult. In this instance, no substantial differences between the groups were noted, and both groups showed gains from pre- to post-test attainment in phonological skill. Although these findings suggest no substantial differences between printed text and electronic storybook activities, they do at the very least suggest that such e-books can provide a much needed tool that teachers can employ to ease demands on their time in large classes.

Any gains found in e-book interventions may also be susceptible to individual child-level factors, such as socio-economic status (SES) and the lack of opportunities to work with digitized literacy software. Often those from low SES families show poorer levels of literacy within the home environment, especially availability of digitized books or educational games, alongside lower levels of parental mediation compared to higher SES families (see Shamir, Korat, & Fellah, 2013). Yet supporting those from low SES backgrounds appears encouraging, at least through the use of electronic multimedia story books (see for example, Biancarosa & Griffiths, 2012; Korat & Shamir, 2007; Segal-Drori, Korat, et al., 2010). Korat and Shamir examined the effectiveness of electronic books with 128, 5-to-6 year olds from low to middle SES when randomly assigned to one of three subgroups. The two intervention groups comprised children who individually read an electronic book and children who were read the same printed book by an adult. A third control condition incorporated a group of children who simply received the regular classroom literacy programme. In line with other studies Shamir and Shlafe (2011) found significant gains in post-test vocabulary scores for both intervention groups, but no gains in phonological awareness or word recognition when compared to the control group.

Korat and Shamir (2008) in a similar study manipulated the level of support by including three conditions in e-book exposure. Children were exposed to either ‘read story only’, ‘read with dictionary’, or ‘read and play’ during three sessions across low and middle SES groups of 5 to 6 year olds. In comparison to a control group, systematic gains in word meaning were found across all three experimental groups. Moreover, Korat and Shamir found that those children from low SES backgrounds made the greatest gains in word reading across the ‘read with dictionary’ and ‘read with play conditions’ indicating how levels of interactivity can support literacy gains.

While there appear to be some advantages in using multimedia e-books for improving phonological skills, there is also growing evidence that e-books can also lead to improvements in children’s whole-word/sight-word reading. There is a suggestion that whole-word multimedia software could be a useful classroom aid for supporting early literacy skills in children who are struggling to learn to read. In their initial study, Karemaker, Pitchford, and O’Malley (2010a) carried out a systematic comparison between the multimedia software, Oxford Reading Tree (ORT) for Clicker, and traditional ORT big books, with a group of 61 5-year-old typically developing readers. Both interventions were delivered over five 1-hour sessions over the course of a week. Post-intervention scores found greater gains in word recognition, word naming, rhyme awareness, segmentation skill and grapheme awareness following the children’s exposure to the ORT for Clicker intervention. Similar gains in word-recognition scores at post-test were associated with the Clicker intervention rather than the big books intervention can also be found for struggling readers (Karemaker, et al., 2010b).

It remains clear that presenting high-quality children’s books on computers with interactive multimedia, such as the text being read aloud expressively with simultaneous highlighting of the words being read, can enable students to acquire vocabulary and phonological skills. E-books are often found to contribute to the enhancement of young children’s phonological awareness (Chera & Wood, 2003; Wise, et al., 1989) and their verbal knowledge (Lewin 2000; Segers & Verhoeven 2002) as well as their ability to recall stories (Underwood & Underwood, 1998). Yet the findings are somewhat inconsistent at best. For some studies, systematic comparisons in reading ability from pre- to post-test scores between printed texts and e-books show a similar contribution in both contexts (de Jong & Bus, 2002; Korat & Shamir, 2007; Wood, 2005) while for others, there are significant gains in word reading for e-book conditions only (Korat, 2010; Korat & Shamir, 2008). Significant gains can also be found for vocabulary (Korat & Shamir, 2007; Lewin 2000; Segers & Verhoeven, 2002) and phonological skills (Chera & Wood, 2003; Karemaker, et al., 2010a, 2010b). However, caution is needed in interpreting these various findings. There are so many different e-formats that it is difficult to make systematic comparisons about the effectiveness of any intervention design (Labbo & Kuhn, 2000). Many researchers have observed that the use of talking books in the course of regular classroom activity is often marginal to the literacy curriculum. This reflects the educational practitioners’ concerns about their genuine educational potential (Littleton, Wood, & Chera, 2006) and what constitutes effective literacy software still remains unclear (Underwood, 2000).

Promoting Collaboration and Peer-group Interactions

So far we have considered the student’s engagement with multimedia storybooks as a way of gaining skills in emerging literacy. It is not simply the promotion of reading skills or the learners’ level of interaction with e-books that promotes learning; the use of multimedia e-books can also facilitate different styles of working and encourage collaborative learning. For instance, we know that peer tutoring can be instrumental to literacy development, particularly in the form of paired reading and peer-assisted learning strategies (PALS), both of which have been noted to raise attainment in reading and phonological awareness (Fuchs, et al., 2001). Often this is because, as Topping and Whiteley (1993, p. 58) acknowledge: peer tutoring promotes more positive social relationships and more independent learning (through co-operation). But, how are collaboration and peer group interactions influenced when working with more digitized and electronic forms of literacy instruction?

Wood, Littleton, and Chera (2005) explicitly examined the effect of collaboration when working with e-books by comparing the types of interactions that occur between ‘equal’ pairs, where the children were of equal reading attainment and ‘unequal pairs’, where there was a disparity between the children’s reading attainment. The pairings were less important in determining interactive styles; it was gender that affected collaborative learning with talking books. Wood and colleagues identified strong differences in girls’ and boys’ use of software with boys showing greater dispute and girls showing greater negotiation and collaboration. These findings echo earlier work by Underwood and Underwood (1998), which also noted similar discrepancies in interaction between boys and girls on multimedia talking books and highlights how interactional styles may well influence the effectiveness of different types of educational software (see also Littleton, Wood, & Chera, 2004, 2006; Underwood & Underwood, 1990).

A further aspect of interaction relates to dialogic reading, which traditionally is an approach found in joint-reading activities. Dialogic reading refers to the strategies used by tutors as they use open-ended questions to prompt a deeper understanding of the story and its narrative during joint reading exercises. There is increasing evidence that dialogic reading interventions can be an effective way to increase receptive and expressive vocabulary scores and develop narrative abilities in pre-school children (Hargrave & Sénéchal, 2000; Hay & Fielding-Barnsley, 2007). Wood, Pillinger, & Jackson (2010) in their initial assessment, looked at the types of interactions on storybook reading among beginning readers by comparing specially designed talking books with one-to-one tuition with an adult using the paper-based versions of the same books. Although there was only a marginal improvement in phonological skills associated with talking-book intervention, they did find different styles of working in pairs and differences in the interactional styles adopted by the children, supporting earlier findings (Wood, Littleton, & Chera, 2005; Underwood & Underwood, 1998) yet no evidence of spontaneous dialogic reading between pairs was identified. As they conclude, evidence of dialogic reading was only found among the adult-led intervention group but not the electronic talking book group, which suggests possible limitations on the use of technology for spontaneous peer collaboration.

Adult Instruction is Still Important

Is electronic storybook software sufficient to promote gains in literacy skills among young readers without any further adult assistance? It is clear that when left to their own devices, electronic storybooks can help to improve children’s reading scores, yet the inconsistencies in findings suggest that implementing e-books alone will have varying degrees of success. Further issues concern the role of scaffolding and whether e-books can be instrumental in acquiring reading skills both with and without adult support. There is some suggestion that adult instruction with e-books is still important in order to achieve success, given that adults may help sustain children’s attention on task and help to avoid distractions.

The majority of previous studies have simply compared e-books and printed books without considering the gains in the provision of adult support. Experimental work by Korat and colleagues (e.g., Korat, 2010; Korat & Shamir, 2012; Korat, Shami, & Arbiv, 2011) has systematically explored the development of emergent literacy among young children and particularly the role of adult instruction in using traditional versus electronic texts. However, adult instruction still appears to be a crucial factor in determining the success of e-book interventions. For instance, Segal-Drori, et al. (2010) compared the effects of reading electronic and printed books with and without adult instruction with a group of 5 to 6 year olds from low SES backgrounds. They found, consistent with other studies (Korat, Segal-Drori, & Klien, 2009; Korat & Shamir, 2012), that over four sessions, significant gains were only found for phonological awareness, word reading and concepts about print among those who received e-book intervention with adult instruction. This was also true when considering the effects of e-books with adult support on emergent writing skills (see Korat, Shamir, & Arbiv, 2011).

However, using electronic books to support and promote specific literacy skills, such as letter knowledge, decoding, concepts about print and phonological skills, provides only a partial explanation of the skills required to become a proficient reader. The process of acquiring reading skills becomes much more complex once we begin to consider how children learn to comprehend written text. Unlike word reading or decoding, research that has examined the effects of using e-readers, computer screens and paper formats on comprehension scores has often found no significant differences between experimental and control groups. Margolin and colleagues (2013), for example, found that these three different presentation media do not differentially affect the comprehension of text and there are no significant improvements in written comprehension when taking a qualitative analysis of students’ written transcripts of text (Connell, Bayliss, & Farmer, 2012). Although, in part, this could be explained by software characteristics and a lack of focus on comprehension skills per se, rather than any lack of improvement.

However, do multimedia storybooks always promote significant gains in children’s emergent literacy skills? There is some suggestion that e-books can have detrimental effects on emergent literacy, one that constrains or inhibits the development of reading skills (Labbo & Kuhn, 2000). For example, animated areas of the screen might disrupt children’s attention and interfere with their ability to connect scenes, make inferences and follow the story-line: they offer detours and distractions from the main story and impact on the comprehension of narratives and reduce memory capacity (Ricci & Beal, 2002). Furthermore potential inconsistencies between the animations and the storyline can impede reading success and students’ comprehension of the text (Labbo & Kuhn, 2000; Underwood & Underwood, 1998). Similar to Labbo and Kuhn, de Jong and Bus (2002, p. 154) found that: the many attractive options of e-books seem to divert children’s attention from text and number of readings of the text in favour of iconic and pictorial explorations. Similarly, as Underwood (2000) notes, any gains in reading proficiency or instructional style are often mediated by software characteristics rather any other instructional factors.

The quality of the animation, therefore, remains an important factor to the perceived success of e-books. There is a subtle distinction, offered by Labbo and Kuhn (2000) between ‘considerate’ and ‘inconsiderate’ types of animations, which are respectively considered to be supportive or distractive. Considerate e-books are those that contain hotspots or activities that are deemed congruent with, and are integrated into, the content of the story. That is, the illustrations, narration, functions and animations need to remain integral to the story narrative for any substantial gains in learning to be found. There is also a strong element of cognitive resourcing: when digital picture books pair text narration with animation, the cognitive load is substantially reduced and the learning capacity markedly improved (Mayer & Moreno, 2003) rather than appearing ‘merely amusing’ or ‘incidental’ to the story-line (Korat, et al., 2011).

The Benefits of Kindles and iPads

While there seems to be growing evidence for the implementation of e-books in schools and their effects on learners’ emerging literacy skills, considerably less research has considered the presentation of text on newer mobile technologies (Connell, et al., 2012). The increase in tablet devices, particularly iPods and iPads, shows a greater potential for promoting ‘anytime, anywhere’ learning. The Pew Research Centre Report (Rainie, Smith, & Duggan, 2013) has shown that among US students aged 16 years and over, 35 per cent own tablet computers and 24 per cent own e-readers, such as the Amazon Kindle, Kobo Aura and Nook Simple Touch. In addition the data show that 95 per cent of US students brought mobile phones and 29 per cent brought laptops to class very day (Aguilar-Roca, Williams & O’Dowd, 2012; Tindell & Bohlander, 2012). Furthermore, these technologies have been embraced, not only within the private school sector but also the state sector, with over 1.5 million iPads deployed in educational programmes in the United States, with comparable figures within the United Kingdom (Brian, 2012).

While mobile technologies have been shown to provide new approaches to learning over a number of years (Johnson, Levine, & Smith, 2009), the introduction of the iPad, and other similar tablets, has changed mobile learning possibilities for teachers and students. Neumann and Neumann (2013) describe tablets as an ideal tool for supporting literacy skills through the versatile functions that develop reading and writing as well as downloadable applications (apps) for alphabet matching, phonics games and stories. They can be interactive, easy to use and engaging. A recent analysis of the growth in children’s use of educational apps certainly supports this assertion, with nearly 72 per cent of apps aimed at pre-school children, and more than 50 per cent of the top-selling apps targetting primary school children (Shuler, Levine, & Ree, 2012). The evidence, however scant, suggests that touch-screen tablets, like the iPad, have the potential to enhance children’s literacy skills, including their alphabet knowledge, print concepts and emergent writing. This raises the question whether touch-screen tablet devices and mobile technologies can be instrumental in supporting reading acquisition in the current young generation? iPads and apps have achieved global popularity among a broad range of users, including pre-school children. As such they offer considerable promise in the educational arena. The iPad was used as an instructional tool to facilitate emergent literacy and seems to be highly engaging, motivating and supportive of literacy acquisition even with pre-school children (Beschorner & Hutchison, 2013). While observational studies, often incorporating qualitative design, show promising and encouraging evidence in support of using iPad apps to transform learners’ behaviours (Hutchison, Beschorner, & Schmidt-Crawford, 2012), other quantitative studies, which have compared iPads apps to traditional books, seem to show a negative effect on reading comprehension (Chiong, Ree, & Takuechi, 2012) and story recall ability (Parish-Morris, Mahajan, et al., 2013). As Kucirkova (2013) rightly acknowledges, a more detailed and innovative methodological approach is needed to assess clearly the true educational potential of iPads as a tool for improving children’s learning:

Researchers interested in finding out how novel features of iPad books affect children’s learning, need to adopt a theoretical framework which facilitates conceptualizing iPad books as unique, 21st century learning tools. This is closely linked to the need for adopting a detailed and innovative methodology to ascertain the books’ value for children’s learning.

(Kucirkova, 2013)

However, unlike multimedia e-books, some devices like the Kindle e-reader simply serve as an electronic presentation method, replicating the printed text but on screen. Kindles and other e-readers do not have any additional requirements such as the need to search or problem-solve or to navigate through hyperlinks. Yet despite the lack of multimedia elements, their appeal concerns their portability and ease of access as well as offering a comfortable size and weight, touch-screen, and Wi-Fi data connection for online access to information. The use of tablets, iPads and other mobile devices are beginning to allow literacy activities to occur outside the classroom, and to connect school and home learning activities. This is helped by improvements in the design of the Kindle as it now provides less strain on the eyes and is more akin to ‘real-book’ reading.

Although there may be a lack of research evidence, there is growing support for the use of iPads and iPods, especially for encouraging early pre-school literacy instruction. We know that parent-child storybook reading can offer early foundations to acquiring literacy skills including enthusiasm for reading and vocabulary skills (Kucirkova, Messer, & Whitelock, 2010, 2012). Early exposure to texts can support children’s awareness of print, modulation of joint attention and early vocabulary growth. But how has technology helped to support these literacy skills? One particular study investigated the role of iPads and the use of a personalized ‘our story’ application with 4- to 5-year-old Spanish children. The ‘our story’ application was devised to support children’s learning through the activity of story-creation and story-sharing (Kucirkova, Messer, et al., 2014). Within this study, Kucirkova and her colleagues found that high-quality engagement often supported joint problem-solving, exploratory talk and collaboration among children using this personalized app in comparison to other available apps. Although little research has been carried out with personalized story apps for pre-school children, the findings appear positive and suggest that early instruction may provide some foundation for acquiring literacy skills later on. Even with older children, iPads have been found to encourage intuitive participation in open-ended literacy-based interactive games (Verenikina & Kervin, 2011) and recent surveys of English teachers in primary and secondary schools are also encouraging in offering a promise of supporting reading skills in alternative formats to traditional print (see Goodwyn, 2013a, 2013b for further details).

Beyond pre-readers, there are very few examples of the successful implementation of iPads or Kindles in the classroom, and at best, the evidence relies on personal anecdotes from teachers or literacy coordinators. However, the trend may be changing: there is some suggestion that incorporating iPads into the curriculum may help to revolutionize students’ literacy learning (e.g., McFarlane, 2013; Simpson, Walsh, & Rowsell, 2013) with clear examples of possible structured frameworks for embedding iPads into formal teaching activities (Northrop & Killeen, 2013) even though the evidence for their success remains anecdotal at best.

However, unlike primary or secondary schools, universities do seem to be taking full advantage of electronic texts and digitized materials. Such materials are now part of the mainstream educational practice across most, if not all, higher education institutions. Increasingly undergraduate students are rejecting textbooks as they move to the use of a Kindle, iPad or other tablet devices that allow easy access to online course materials. However, this is perhaps not out of choice: while academics may see the perceived benefits on electronic resources, some undergraduates still need to be convinced. For example, in their own survey of undergraduate students, Olsen, Kleivset, and Langseth (2013) reported that while the iPad received better scores than Kindle DX, 51 per cent of students still showed a strong preference for relying on traditional printed texts, noting how functions such as commenting, highlighting and annotating non-linear texts remains difficult online. The data suggest that promoting a reliance solely on e-books may not provide the most efficient learning experience in higher education. These findings are similar to previous surveys among university-level students with 61 per cent demonstrating a preference for print on paper as the best medium for engaging in academic study (Camacho & Spackman, 2011). Clearly the preference for using e-books and other electronic resources, particularly among undergraduate students remains a contentious issue and the actual benefits beyond using printed texts remains uncertain. Students do report, nonetheless, that e-texts do support affective and psychomotor learning and provide easier access to module resources that rely solely on printed texts (see Rockinson-Szapkiw, Courduff, et al., 2013). It is argued that as students become more and more familiar with e-books and handheld devices or tablets a dramatic increase in student selection of e-texts is expected (Smith & Caruso, 2010).

Mobile Technology and Second Language Learning

Digital technologies are changing the way we engage with text in its written form and this is particularly true in the case of vocabulary acquisition. There is growing evidence to illustrate how mobile phones, in particular text-initiated vocabulary learning as well as interactive gaming, can help to improve language acquisition, particularly among those who are learning a second or additional language. Quite clearly, exposure to abbreviated forms of language is insufficient for this purpose, but how can digital technologies support language development? Although the quantity of previous work on computer-assisted language learning (CALL) is beyond the scope of this chapter, there have been some detailed texts that discuss the affordances of Web 2.0 technologies for promoting language learning (see Reinders, Thomas, & Warschauer, 2012).

Some examples of vocabulary training for second language learners can be seen through the adoption of mobile phone technology. The use of mobile-based technologies for supporting vocabulary developments has been particularly beneficial in second language learning, especially those from less-privileged areas, such as rural India. In one study, Başoğlu and Akdemir (2010) compared vocabulary learning for target words over 6 weeks presented through SMS text messages on mobile phones (experimental group) or presented on paper flashcards (control group) and found significant improvements in the students’ vocabulary when using SMS text message presentation.

Zhang, Song, and Burston (2011) also present compelling data with regard to the effectiveness of vocabulary learning via mobile phones among a group of undergraduate students attending a Chinese University. Through the intervention study, students received vocabulary training on 130 selected word items either through SMS text messages (experimental group) or via traditional paper methods (control group) and the gains in vocabulary knowledge were compared through immediate and delayed post-intervention test scores. The results confirmed that the experimental SMS group made significantly greater gains in vocabulary learning than the control group, although the retention rates are questionable given that delayed post-intervention test scores failed to show any notable differences in vocabulary gains over time. Notwithstanding the questionable long-term gains in vocabulary learning, these authors acknowledge the potential gains in using mobile technologies to support vocabulary acquisition among those who are attempting to learn English as a second language, not simply through SMS text messaging but also through the access to email via mobile phones (see Lu, 2008).

However, it is not simply mobile phones that promote second language learning, but the use of interactive websites. Although social networking sites have been seen largely as non-educational tools to facilitate social interactions, particularly by teachers and parents, they do offer real and valuable learning opportunities. For example, they can facilitate second language acquisition as they offer the possibility to engage in real-time interactions. Examples of interactive websites include Palabea² and Babbel³ which offer online communities that promote synchronous and asynchronous forms of social interaction. A further example is Whyville⁴, which was developed primarily for educational purposes allowing learners to interact, discuss, share movies and play educational games, all for the sole purpose of language learning. As the previous studies clearly illustrate, the more productive we are in learning new vocabularies, the greater the gains in retaining this information, so interactive game playing may prove fundamental to learning new languages.

What About Those at Risk of Reading Difficulties?

Given the potential benefits of mobile phones, multimedia e-books and iPads for typically developing children, it is likely that such devices or software programmes may also be supportive for those who struggle, especially those children who experience profound difficulties associated with vocabulary acquisition, phonological awareness and concept of print. In fact, Neuman (2009) notes that children at risk of reading disabilities tend to improve when exposed to more forms of media, such as computers, television and radio, in addition to the printed text supporting the multimodality of digital literacy. Others suggest that the use of film-like digital e-books can be highly beneficial for the most at-risk children as well as those who are learning English as a second language (Bus, Verhallen, & de Jong, 2009; Verhallen, Bus, & de Jong, 2006) as well as the use of assistive technologies to support learning among those children with the most severe risk of developmental disabilities (Reichle, 2011).

There is a long tradition of using computerized tasks to support struggling readers and often these tasks have been found to support literacy skills within many primary classrooms (Lynch, Fawcett, & Nicholson, 2000). But what about those who are diagnosed with specific difficulties in learning to read? Is there any evidence that computerized programmes or e-books can facilitate learning for these children with more extreme difficulties in deciphering written text? Children with dyslexia seem to be an ideal population to benefit from the use of multimedia e-books given their apparent difficulties associated with acquiring emergent literacy skills. Such difficulties relate to decoding skills, manipulation of phoneme-to-grapheme correspondence and short-term memory constraints. The majority of previous computerized intervention programmes have revealed promising results for specific phonological skills training among typically developing children (Savage, et al., 2009; Torgesen, Wagner, Rashotte, et al., 2010) as well as children diagnosed with both dyslexia and a specific language impairment (SLI) (Segers & Verhoeven, 2004). Such interventions have often, though not always, focussed on specific word reading skills, such as a focus on improving phonological skills and teaching grapheme-phoneme conversion (GPC) rules. Yet, until recently, few studies have focused on evaluating the effectiveness of electronic story books or tablet devices for supporting struggling readers (see Shamir & Shlafer, 2011). Verhallen, et al. (2006), for example, make strong claims that those books with multimedia features (e.g., e-books) have a greater potential for stimulating early reading development than those containing static pictures (e.g., printed books) particularly for those younger children who show dyslexic tendencies. Similarly, there is a strong narrative to support the argument that animated story books with spoken text can provide a crucial advantage to improving shared reading and story comprehension among many disadvantaged and at-risk readers (de Jong & Verhallen, 2013). Certainly those few studies that specifically assess the impact of e-learning technologies on children diagnosed with special educational needs appear encouraging (Segers, Nooijen, & de Moor, 2006) but the body of evidence is not currently sufficient to make any substantial claims regarding the overall effectiveness of e-books on emergent literacy skills.

Alongside multimedia e-books, text-to-speech software has been recognized as a valuable tool to support struggling readers including those diagnosed with dyslexia (Balajthy, 2005). Computer-mediated text has focused on simple text-to-speech (TTS), which uses voice synthesis software to provide oral reading of ordinary electronic text files, such as word-processed documents, text on webpages, and e-books. Yet the success rate of text-to-speech is variable at best. Some studies that have analysed the effectiveness of TTS on students’ reading acquisition and comprehension skills found significant gains in decoding skills (see Reitsma, 1988); while other studies note that TTS improved comprehension skills particularly among those at risk of developing reading difficulties (Wise and Olson, 1994). Yet other studies have found less favourable outcomes. For instance, in a more recent study, Hecker and colleagues found that results on a formal reading test did not vary across groups exposed to print format versus TTS format for college students with attention-deficit disorder (ADD) (Hecker, Burns, et al., 2002). The research did find, however, that attention to text, as measured by the number of distractions during reading, was improved greatly in the TTS format group as was the time spent reading passages. What remains clear is that while the potential benefits may be found in the use of text-to-speech software, or through the use of e-readers and electronic texts, the choice of software must be aligned to the individual learning needs of the struggling reader for any substantial gains to be made (King-Sears, Swanson, & Mainzer, 2011).

A Multisensory Experience

There is growing evidence concerning the benefits of incorporating tablet devices and iPads into mainstream classrooms to help support the literacy skills development of struggling readers. It is argued that touch-screen tablets do offer a multisensory approach to literacy instruction, which remains a crucial aspect of success for students with dyslexia (Reid, 2011), and new research evidence is beginning to emerge. Assistive technologies, through iPads and personalized apps, are supporting students with dyslexia in higher educational institutions (see Reid, Strnadová, & Cumming, 2013) and can help support struggling readers with literacy skills below age-level expectations to improve motivation, reading comprehension and reading fluency (Elliott, Livengood, & McGlamery, 2012). For example, Schneps, Thomson, et al. (2013) recently used eye-tracking techniques to compare undergraduate students reading on a small-screen e-reader (Apple iPod Touch) with reading on a larger tablet computer (Apple iPad), and found that when students with dyslexia read using the iPod device, oculomotor performance markedly improved over reading using the larger format. In a further study by Schneps, Thomson, et al. (2013) reading on paper was compared with reading on a small handheld e-reader device (Apple iPod Touch) that was formatted to display a few words per line and found that the use of the device significantly improved speed and comprehension, when compared with traditional presentations. A possible argument is that the use of tablet devices, particularly iPads, may provide a more inclusive environment for learning about print, which allows users to regulate the size of text to accommodate their own needs (Langdon & Thimbleby, 2010).

So why would the use of e-readers or iPads lead to such positive outcomes in supporting the literacy skills of students with dyslexia? Unlike the more traditional drill-and-practice reading exercises often found within the school context (Labbo & Reinking, 1999), tablets and e-readers can offer opportunities to increase motivation and engagement for reading (Ciampa, 2012) and also offer greater control over flow of information by containing shorter line widths that reduce extraneous visual demands (Schneps, Thomson, et al., 2013). There is little evidence that touch-screen tablets are being used to support struggling readers within primary-school classrooms, despite positive and encouraging response towards the use of e-readers from primary-school teachers (Goodwyn, 2013a).

However, the affordances of these new technologies in supporting communication and literacy skills extend beyond students with dyslexia. Many students on the autism spectrum disorder face challenges when trying to learn, including problems with attention, lack of motivation and deficits related to word decoding and phonemic awareness as well as difficulties in communication (Yaw, Skinner, et al., 2011). Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) interventions have been shown to improve both communication and social skills in children and young people with autism spectrum disorders and other developmental disabilities with growing evidence for the use of iPads for teaching social communication skills to children with autism (Bondy & Frost, 1994; Flores, et al., 2012; Kagohara, et al., 2013). AAC is considered to provide a supplementation of natural speech and/or writing through alternate means of communication including speech-generating devices (SGDs) or picture-exchange communication systems (PECS), which have been instrumental in supporting learners in home and educational settings. One example of this is the Grace App⁵, which allows the customization of photos and picture galleries on the iPhone or iPad to support communication exchanges and requests. It allows children with autism to build semantic sequences from personalized photographs that can be stored as a book online. Since the introduction of PECS and the exponential growth in educational apps for autism, there have been a growing number of evaluations of the PECS system in supporting and improving communication revealing very encouraging results from both case studies (e.g., Boesch, Wendt, et al., 2013; Greenberg, Tomaino, & Charlop, 2012) and randomized controlled intervention trials (Lerna, Esposito, et al., 2012; Schreibman & Stahmer, 2014).

Although these tools have proved a viable option for improving communication in the mainstream population, are touch-screen devices also able to support young children on the autistic spectrum to develop necessary literacy skills? There are some claims that electronic digital tools can be used to support literacy instruction too. Although based on a single case-study design, there is evidence to suggest that computer-assisted sight-word instruction does seem to support emerging reading skills among children with autism. Moreover, the use of computerized support can lead to improvements, not just in vocabulary learning, but also in students’ motivation levels and decreases in their observable behaviour problems during their engagement with computer-assisted activities (Moore & Calvert, 2000). Indeed, in their own study of four children with ASD, Chen and Bernard-Opitz (1993) found that despite no overall differential gains in learning rates, those children using computer-based instruction showed fewer behavioural problems compared to those undergoing tutor-led instruction. A systematic review of training studies by Ramdoss and colleagues (2011) found ten studies that involved some form of computer-based instruction to teach communication skills to children with autism spectrum disorders. Although limited in number, all of these studies reported some improvement in communication.

There is encouraging support for the use of digital technologies for reading instruction in other difficult to reach populations including children with ADD (McClanahan, Williams, et al., 2012) and those with Down syndrome. The latter show profound difficulties in expressive language and written forms of communication and clearly benefited from alternative text presentation formats (Black & Wood, 2003). Although as noted by Feng, Lazar, et al. (2010), most of the software, games and websites that children with Down syndrome interact with are aimed at typically developing children and such applications are necessarily less effective and at times inaccessible to such children. In their large survey of over 600 hundred parents of children with Down syndrome, Feng and colleagues report that educational software designers must take into account the age, the specific type of difficulties encountered, as well as related design challenges that are needed to support specific populations.

It appears that there are many affordances for the use of electronic texts in supporting young children’s communications, reading and literacy practices, especially among those who struggle with acquiring knowledge of the written text. However, the actual success and outcome of integrating e-books and digital devices to promote easy access to written materials is perhaps an issue that we shall see more and more of in the future.

Risks, Skills and Opportunities

Our access to and engagement with digitized texts seems to be increasing, especially with the growth in touch-screen and tablet devices. There is also some suggestion that such devices can help support literacy teaching in schools. But there are risks. Software that is purchased hastily, without any plan of implementation, will remain less effective in supporting literacy skills. It is pertinent to acknowledge that simply incorporating iPads and tablet devices into the classroom, despite showing motivational effects, will not necessarily lead to any sustained outcome or improvement in literacy skills unless they are embedded into the curriculum in a pedagogical way. The use of e-books, iPads or other digital devices needs to be available to enhance curricular goals and support student learning in new and transformative ways if this is to be at all successful (Hutchison & Reinking, 2011). As Reinking, Labbo, and McKenna (2000) have coherently argued, new technologies are often merely assimilated into existing teaching practices without any pedagogical function. Yet to make full use of its potential, substantial changes to existing structures and practice, including teachers’ perceptions and curriculum, is required However, exactly how these tools can be incorporated into existing classroom practices remains an interesting if not perplexing question. We know that multimedia e-books seem to offer a fruitful way to support and develop literacy practices, and there is also some evidence that the same may be true with regard to digital devices like iPads and Kindles (Hutchison, et al., 2012; Northrop & Killeen, 2013). Recent evidence from case studies demonstrates effective ways to embed tablet devices, such as iPads, into the early years literacy curriculum across pre-school and primary-level classrooms to support not just literacy skills but also other cognitive skills connected to reasoning, problem-solving and deciphering text (McClanahan & Stojke, 2013). Software design and requirements need to consider accessibility issues to ensure they are accessible to all students if they are to be effective (see Ramdoss, et al., 2011).

Conclusions

Assistive technologies in the form of touch-screen tablets, iPads and other digital devices can offer innovative tools to promote communication and literacy skills within typically developing children as well as those deemed at risk of learning difficulties. So how have these new technological advances shaped our definition of reading and emerging literacy skills? With the focus on multimedia electronic books as one method for supporting reading skills among typical and atypical populations, the evidence appears to be promising despite contradictory results. There is some evidence to suggest that multimedia e-books may provide a viable resource to support literacy skills in phonological awareness, vocabulary and word reading (e.g., Chera & Wood, 2003; Karemaker, et al., 2010) For others, a reliance on educational books alone remains insufficient to promote gains in reading: adult instruction is still required to ensure that multimedia books work efficiently for improving reading skills (Korat, et al., 2009; Korat & Shamir, 2012). While the evidence in support of other digital devices like e-readers and iPads remains less compelling, there is some suggestion that these tools create personalized child-parent storytelling opportunities in children yet to receive formal school teaching. If the future is with electronic texts what does this mean for our current generation of learners? We are aware that practitioners can support early literacy development across multiple media formats through e-books and touch-screen devices like iPads to support decoding, comprehension and collaborative interaction (Plowman, Stevenson, et al., 2012). However, the optimal use of tablets or touch-screen devices for early literacy learning may be dependent upon the type of scaffolding used by parent or teacher and the availability and quality of tablet applications (Neumann & Neumann, 2013).