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CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter encompasses four sections. The first section reports the theoretical background by the introduction of the Internet reading, including its impact on reading, its advantages and disadvantages, and its comparison with paper-based reading. The second section presents previous empirical research on language
learners’ paper reading habits and Internet reading habits. The third reviews previous research on language learners’ perceptions and attitudes towards paper reading and Internet reading. The last section concludes this whole chapter with a summary.
The Nature of Internet Reading: Features, Disadvantages, and Advantages As discussed previously, it is the feature of nonlinear hypertext that distinguishes the Internet reading from offline reading or screen reading. Therefore, it is essential to introduce the nature of the Internet reading based on the attribution of the hypertext.
Hypertext is characterized by two features: nonlinearity and multimedia. The first feature is its non-sequential text and structure organized to allow readers or users to freely explore banks of nonlinear information through a myriad of hyperlinks which are usually indicated by a keywords set in underlined blue type, and meanwhile take their own control of these dynamic hyperlinks to construct their personal pathways in this open-wide system (Altun, 2000; Son, 1998). Additionally, Sutherland-Smith (2002) claimed that hyperlinks enable online readers to instantly jump from a text to a footnote or reference, to an online dictionary, to a picture or a movie, to another language, another country, or even outer space. The possibilities of hyperlinks seem so limitless and enticing that all types of information seem just a click away. This particular feature not only lends itself to various orders of information processing but also distinguishes itself from traditional printed text reading.
The second feature, based on Altun’s (2000) concept, is that hypertext is
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interactive, digitized, and displayed in various forms accompanied by hypermedia or multimedia with movie clips, audio, video, animation, and graphical files, which allow users or readers to be exposed to various formats of information-dense contexts.
Hypermedia, according to Beatty (2003), involves linking only two types of media (e.g. text + sound or text + photographs) while multimedia tends to feature several media types simultaneously. In brief, hypertext is an electronically presented text connected to other sites throughout the World Wide Web in a variety of forms, so it is available in every language and on every topic imaginable every time to everyone.
Nevertheless, Hanson-Smith (2003) proposed that not all Internet reading materials are accompanied with multimedia or hyperlinks. Instead, she viewed Internet-based materials as of three types: (1) text repositories, (2) electronically mediated texts, and (3) computer-mediated communications (henceforth, CMCs). Text repositories, in conformity with Son’s (2003) term of non-hypertext, are online
materials virtually replicating the format of paper materials, with the addition of hyperlinked references and search capabilities. They are often comfortably read by being downloaded and printed out. Electronically mediated texts are created and edited by authors, both amateur and professional, for their own purposes, whether informational, emotive, or propagandistic. These documents are characterized by hypermedia and linking, so they are supposed to be read online. CMCs, native to electronic media, offer interactive authentic language on blogs, BBS, electronic lists, e-mail, chat rooms, instant messaging, and so on, which can present their own perplexities for the reader.
All in all, with the features of nonlinearity and multimedia embedded in the Internet, McPherson (2005) listed how the Internet has impacted students’ reading respectively as follows.
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Internet’s impacts on reading
(1) A nonlinear hypertext environment places greater demand on a reader’s shot-term memory.
(2) Hypertext encourages student control over and engagement with content.
(3) Students report being more engaged with content when multiple presentation modes (e.g., reading, viewing, and listening) occur simultaneously.
(4) Internet-based learning activities make reading enjoyable for students, foster use of critical reading skills, and promote reading fluency.
(5) The Internet provides authentic reading materials that, in turn, encourage students to read more.
(6) Reading is contextualized in multimedia environments. (p. 60)
In addition to these Internet’s impacts on reading, McPherson (2005) further outlined the following disadvantages and advantages the Internet brings to readers.
Disadvantages
Readers sometimes get lost and waste time navigating the links.
Advertising can be distracting and have ethical implications.
Webpage design often parallels information text structures, making it difficult for young readers to read.
Readability of Webquests and linked websites is often more difficult than students’ independent reading ability. (p. 60)
Advantages
Multimedia can increase the readability of text-heavy pages.
Webquests often link to authentic reading materials and deal with essential questions.
Students are motivated to read online materials.
It exposes students to information text structures.
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Materials can be incorporated into a home literacy program. (p. 60) As seen from the nature of Internet reading reviewed above, reading on the Internet seems more complicated than reading in print in that online reading does demand readers to be more critical and interactive to cope with hyperlinks embedded in hypertexts and to enhance their online reading comprehension by making good use of existing Internet resources. To better understand how complex the online reading processing is, the differences between the two reading modes are explicated in the next section.
Differences between Internet Reading and Printed Text Reading
Given that this study aims to delve into EFL learners’ perceptions on paper reading and Internet reading, the differences between Internet reading and paper reading needs to be addressed. The discrepancies are divided into two dimensions: (1) reading behaviors and (2) additional skills and strategies demanded to facilitate online reading.
With respect to reading behaviors, Hanson-Smith (2003) elaborately compared different reading behaviors between reading printed texts and reading Internet-based materials such as electronic media and CMCs as displayed in Table 2-1. Table 2-1 clearly shows that instead of turning pages for linear and static information displayed in books, online readers need to scroll down web pages for the rest of the reading content, decide whether to click the embedded hyperlinks for multiple forms of further information and references, and have more accesses to communicate with other online users through asynchronous BBS and emailing or synchronous discussion groups.
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Table 2-1 Comparison of Print Reading and Electronic Reading2
Reading Paper Print Texts Reading Electronic Media Reading CMCs (1) Single or multiple (2) Illustrations (2) Embedded or linked
graphics, animations,
(3) Links to other pages, other portions of the
(5) Static advertising (5) Commercial distracters (5) Animated advertisements,
2 This table is excerpted from Hanson-Smith article: Reading Electronically: Challenges and Responses to the Reading Puzzle in Technologically-Enhanced Environments, which can be accessed through: http://www.readingmatrix.com/articles/hanson-smith/.
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Different reading formats demand different reading skills and strategies.
Consequently completely relying on the L2 traditional paper reading skills such as skimming and scanning cannot suffice for the successful Internet reading. It involves even more perplexed cognitive processing in which learners’ learning literacy is remolded with the rapid advancement of technology. With this concern, Leu (2007) advocates New Literacies Perspectives to accentuate the prerequisite skills needed to read on the Internet. Leu (2007) defines the new literacies of online reading
comprehension as:
“the skills, strategies, and dispositions necessary to successfully use and adapt to the rapidly changing information and communication technologies and contexts that continuously emerge in our world and influence all areas of our personal and professional lives. These new literacies allow us to use the Internet and other ICT to identify important questions, locate information, analyze the usefulness of that information, synthesize information to answer those questions, and then communicate the answers to others.” (Leu, 2007, p.10)
Viewed in this light, reading on the Internet requires not only L2 learners’ command of the target language but also web literacy in terms of finding, scanning, digesting, and storing Internet information.
Aside from the new literacies perspectives, Sutherland-Smith (2002) also recommended additional eight techniques that are necessitated to teach students to read web-based texts. Students should be guided: (1) To use the “snatch-and-grab”
reading approach, meaning that readers should skim or scan text to identify keywords or phrases and grab the demanded text. This method emphasizes the broad nature of searching and the desire to obtain a great deal of material in a limited time frame. (2) To focus on refining keyword searches narrow the scope of their search to find information more efficiently. (3) To follow clear search guidelines and purposes to help overcome their deficiency of technical and task orientation skills. This technique,
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in line with Hammond’s proposition (1993), can promote the use of available information, prevents passive browsing, and increases the possibility of making well-motivated choices when searching for information (cited in Picchio & Blasón, 2003, p.88). (4) To use the “chunking” technique to search for online information by breaking down a complex topic into manageable chunks. This technique can
encourage students with poor search or organizational skills to perceive a problem from other perspectives rather than head-on about assigned topics. (5) To overcome frustration with technology, especially when the results they click on do not live up to their expectations. Hence, it is vital for teachers to help students develop a range of strategies to tackle traditional unmet reading predictions in the online reading
environment. (6) To employ preset lists of shortcuts or bookmarks to reliable websites and hints for them to effectively organize their lists of useful website addresses. (7) To limit the number of links to lessen their confusion, accordingly to help them refocus on keywords, questions, or tasks. (8) To critically evaluate nontextual features such as images, graphics, or any multimedia components to assist them to discern credible and reliable visual elements. To boost students’ ability to assess online information, this technique can be further integrated with Fellog’s (2000) and Kirk’s (1996) six criteria for students to evaluate a website: authorship, publishing body, point of view or bias, referral to other sources, and currency of the information (cited in Picchio & Blasón, 2003, p.89).
To sum up, as Sutherland-Smith (2002) pointed out, even though, compared to paper texts, the Internet indeed provides students much more opportunities to enrich and expand concepts of literacy, to what extent the Internet technology can advantage them remains dependent on how teachers help them maximize their online reading skills.
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Research on Reading Habits
To date, there is a paucity of research with specific and exact reference to investigating L2 learners’ Internet reading habits, referring to reading frequency, reading attitudes, reading preferences, reading purposes, reading sources, amount of reading time, and factors influencing reading choices. As a result, this section initially reviews several empirical studies on L2 learners’ reading habits to glean a general snapshot of their reading phenomena. Finally, several studies which are specifically delved into Internet users’ reading habits are red to unveil research niches.
Studies on L2 Learners’ Reading Habits
Several studies have been conducted to explore learners’ general reading habits for L2 educators to gain insights into L2 learners’ reading practice in an attempt to help them improve their reading proficiency and skills. Findings derived from these studies have revealed that L2 students’ reading habits are associated with such influential factors as gender (Camiciottoli, 2001; Hung, 2003; Pandian, 2000), age (Pandian, 2000), education level (Mokhtari & Sheorey, 1994; Pandian, 2000), other foreign languages proficiency (Gallagher & Dickens, 2006; Mokhtari & Sheorey, 1994), academic profession (Pandian, 2000), types and topics of reading materials (Hung, 2002; Kaur & Thiyagarajah, 1999; Lee, 2005; Pandian, 2000; Smithies, 1983), reading attitudes (Camiciottoli, 2001; Hung, 2002), experiences in English contacts (Camiciottoli, 2001; Pandian, 2000), and other home and ethnicity variables (Pandian, 2000). Overall, to clearly display a picture of variables taken effects on university students’ reading habits, Pandian (2000) formulated an explanatory model of reading behavior, which is presented below as Figure 1.
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Figure 1. An explanatory model of reading behavior
Viewed from this model, it is obvious that the development of reading habits is intricate since it must interact with at least four factors: (1) individual background characteristics, (2) home factors, and (3) school factors, and (4) other intervening variables such as attitudes to reading and language and exposure to language.
Studies on English as a Second Language Learners’ Reading Habits
To precisely inquire into on L2 learners’ reading habits, several studies have focused on English as a Second Language (hereafter, ESL) learners were found (Kaur
& Thiyagarajah, 1999; Mokhtari & Sheorey, 1994; Pandian, 2000; Smithies, 1983).
Smithies (1983) conducted a survey to investigate the non-textbook reading
preferences and habits of about 400 students at a technological institution in Papua New Guinea. The result showed that the students read relatively little. They did read attentively only when they knew there would be a check upon their reading in terms of a quiz, a test, or examination, or planned integration of required reading in lectures, seminars, and tutorials. It indicated that reading was associated with work rather than
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with pleasure. With regard to reading preferences, those who did read for pleasure inclined to read fiction (67%), comics, magazines, and newspapers (22%), and study-related books (18%). The author suggested several ways to promote students’
general reading habits. First of all, teachers should make sure that course texts are actually read by giving short quizzes and incorporating prescribed reading into classroom presentations. Secondly, requiring students to do reading reports on books they read in regardless of academic materials or non-academic materials. Thirdly, books selected for students should cater for their language level for better
understanding of contents. Finally, Smithies (1983) argued that notwithstanding recent technological advances, the essentials of reading will never disappear.
Enlightened by Smithies’ research, Mokhtari & Sheorey (1994) conducted an empirical study to survey 158 ESL international students in different levels of English proficiency (high vs. low) and education (63 graduates vs. 95 undergraduates) to find out whether different English proficiency and education levels would significantly affect their reading habits. The first finding respecting the amount of reading time and the types of reading materials revealed that high English proficiency group spent significantly more time reading and read a wide variety of academic reading materials than low English proficiently group. However, the researchers further found that, however well or poorly these students read, they spent more time on academic reading than any other type of reading in college. Otherwise stated, ESL students either did not devote time to doing non-academic or pleasure reading in English is not their language of choice when it comes to reading non-academic reading materials.
Moreover, the education level also made a difference in that the result showed that graduate students read more widely and spent more time reading for study than undergraduates. The second result concerning the students’ perceptions of reading ability in English and first language was that the participants with high English
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proficiency tended to rate themselves higher in evaluating their reading skills than those with low English proficiency. In other words, the participants who felt positive about themselves as readers spent more time reading and read more widely than those who rated themselves lower in their English proficiency. With this regard, the
researchers stressed that reading is an activity involving a strong connection between behavior and attitude. The third finding regarding the students’ perceptions of
weakness in reading exhibited that the low English proficiency students viewed a lack of adequate vocabulary as the major barricade to their reading fluency. In addition, more graduate students thought a dearth of adequate reading speed thwarted their English reading efficiency and thus overall English proficiency. The final finding pertaining to the perceptions of needed improvements in reading skills was that the students, regardless of education levels and English proficiency levels, needed
assistance with reading their textbooks with the subsequence of newspapers, journals, research papers, and other reading materials. On a whole, it is noticeable that even ESL learners who normally use English in their daily lives still have linguistic difficulties reading in English, spend less time reading nonacademic materials, and require instructions to leverage their reading speeds and comprehension in academic reading.
Likewise, Kaur & Thiyagarajah (1999) aimed to survey and interview 63 Malaysian ESL freshman undergraduates, recruiting from the Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature Studies (ELLS) programme, to probe into their general English reading habits. The first finding relating frequency of reading showed that most of them devoted around 3-5 hours per week to reading literary works (such as poetry and drama) and ELT books (69.8) with the following of newspapers (28.6%), and novels (25.4%) while they spent less an hour reading comic books (60%), letters (38.1%), and journals (38.1%). Only 1-2 hours per week were spent on the reading of
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magazines with female students preferring magazines such as Cleo, Home Scene, Motherhood and Reader’s Digest and the male students favoring Time, Newsweek, and so forth. Through the structured interviews the researchers found that this discrepancy resulting from the participants’ deficiency of confidence in reading literary texts prescribed by their lecturers. Besides, the participants mentioned they had read more diverse types of English materials before entering the university. The second result respecting the students’ perceptions on their reading ability manifested that the participants generally perceived themselves as being efficient readers of the various types of reading materials like newspapers, magazines and letters.
Nevertheless, it was interesting to find that nearly half participants did not rate themselves as highly in reading and comprehending the prescribed course texts such as literary works (48.6%) and ELT books (44.4%). The reason for this finding is that the participants claimed they had to grapple with difficulties caused by linguistic load, long texts, semantic problems, terminology, and unfamiliarity with poems and plays.
The third discovery regarding the students’ motivation to read in English revealed that most of the students were aware of their roles as mature students and showed very positive attitudes towards reading. Most of them read in English because they feel it can improve their English language abilities and some want to become good English language teachers upon graduation. Likewise, most of them (74.67%) read for
obtaining good grades in all their courses and only 42.8% for pleasure reading, which truly reflect their Asian characteristics of being goal-oriented and expecting to
succeed at the university. The last finding about preparation time spent on courses indicated that 84.1% of the participants spent 6-10 hours more a week in doing assignments, 42.8% claimed to spend 3-5 hours reading relevant course texts, and 41.2% of them spent the same amount of time making notes for their courses.
Surprisingly, it was found that very little time was spent working on the computer. As
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a result, the researches advocated that students should be encouraged to capitalize on the Internet as a tool to tap valuable reading resources which can promote
autonomous learning.
To delineate a profile of habitual readers in English from three dimensions of personal factors, school factors, and home factors, another research in ESL setting done by Pandian (2000) implemented a questionnaire survey on readership behavior among 674 undergraduates (277 male and 397 female students) and 975 secondary students (537 female and 438 male students) with multiethnic, multicultural, and multilingual background in Malaysia. According to Pandian, readership behavior denotes reading ability and willingness to read for information and leisure as well as reading practices that engage different print and audio and visual contents. The finding revealed that Malaysian undergraduates and secondary school students are more likely to be a habitual reader in English if they:
come from a family with a higher socioeconomic status (henceforth, SES).
come from a home where there is a greater variety and amount of materials in English, more home influence and reading models at home.
have attended a school with a greater variety and amount of materials in
have attended a school with a greater variety and amount of materials in