1. Reading electronic books as a support for
vocabulary, story comprehension and word
reading in kindergarten and first grade
Presenter: Chia-Ying Wu
Instructor: Dr. Pi-Ying Hsu
Date: May 6, 2013
1

2. Content
Introduction
Literature Review
Methodology
Results
Conclusion
Reflection
2

3. Citation
• Korat, O. (2010). Reading electronic books as a
support for vocabulary, story comprehension and
word reading in kindergarten and first grade.
Computers & Education, 55, 24-31.
3

4. • Reading a storybook to young children is
regarded as an important activity that supports
literacy development.
(Bus, Ijzendoorn, & Pellegrini, 1995)
Introduction
4

5. Introduction
• Children of today who live in a highly
technological era may be exposed to activate
electronic storybooks (e-books) which are
available on the Internet or on CD-ROMs.
(Korat, 2010)
5

6. • The study investigated the extent to which a
considerate e-book can support kindergarten
children’s language (vocabulary and story
comprehension) and word reading compared to
first graders.
Purpose
6

7. E-books as a support for oral language
• Vocabulary
Children’s rich vocabulary is considered to be
one of the important vehicles for reading
comprehension.
(Beck & Mckeown, 1999)
Literature Review
7

8. E-books as a support for oral language
• Story comprehension
CD-ROM storybooks contain hotspots which
are integrated into the content of the story were
found to foster children’s understanding of the
story-line.
(Korat, 2010)
Literature Review
8

9. 9
Literature Review
 E-books as a support for word reading
• The e-book we developed was designed by
raking into consideration that word level
exposure by highlighting will support a better
word reading ability of young children.
(Korat, 2010)

10. • 1. Can our educational e-book can support
young children’s vocabulary, story
comprehension and early word reading?
• 2. Does this support differs for kindergarten
children compared to first graders?
Research Questions
10

11. 1. Children from both age groups would benefit
from the activity with the e-book compared to
the control group.
2. Children from the older group would exhibit
greater progress in vocabulary learning and
word reading than those in the younger group.
3. That first graders would exhibit higher story
comprehension, especially in the story
production task.
Hypotheses
11

12. 90 Israeli children
Five kindergarten classes
Five first grade classes
Yuval Hamebulbal
(Confused Yuval) by
Roth
Electronic books
Methodology
12

13. Participants
13
Kindergarten
First grade
Control group
E-book
Control group
E-book

14. • Main functions of the e-book
1. Read story only
2. Read story with dictionary
3. Read story and play
Methodology
14

15. • “Yuval, get up, its time, get dressed quickly
and go to kindergarten!”
Yuval yawns, he is still tired,
He collects his clothes very slowly
Straightens …
Stretches ….
Stretches an arm and a leg
Research Tools
15

16. The children were asked to choose the picture
that best illustrates the word’s meaning out of a
set of four pictures.
The total score for this task ranged from 0 to
10.
Research Tools
16
Vocabulary

17. to read nine words, each of which appears with
high frequency in the e-book
4 = correct reading of the word
3 = saying two correct sound of the word
2 = saying one correct sound of the word
1 = reading another word or saying “ I don’t know”
Research Tools
17
Word reading

18. asked eight right/wrong questions pertaining to
the book
When Yuval gets up in the morning he
stretches his arms, collects his clothes and gets
dressed.
Each correct answer received a score of 1.
Research Tools
18
Story comprehension

19. read the printed version of the e-book
was audio-taped
2 = very similar to the story content
1 = only partially similar to the page content
0 = not similar to the story content at all
Research Tools
19
Story production

20. Results
• 2-way MANOVA of 2 (age group) X
2 (intervention group)
20
1.Children from both age groups would benefit from the
activity with the e-book compared to the control group.

21. • Means of children’s improvement in literacy score by age and treatment group
Results
21
M SD P
Kindergarten 3.95 1.12
.002
First grade 1.12 2.47
The improvement in word reading was greater in the kindergarten
group than in the first grade group.
2. Children from the older group would exhibit greater
progress in vocabulary learning and word reading than
those in the younger group.

22. • Means of children’s literacy in story production by age and treatment group
Results
22
3. That first graders would exhibit higher story
comprehension, especially in the story production
task.

23. • The e-book reading by children can be an
enjoyable and fruitful activity.
• The kindergarten children as well as first
graders benefit from this type of e-book.
Conclusion
23

24. Reflection
24
This study
•Electronic books
•Oral test
•Kindergarten vs. first
grade
My future study
•Print storybooks
•Paper test
•Kindergarten vs.
first grade

25. Thank you!
25