Children growing up today do not only read printed books but also electronic books (e-books) which are offered to them through the internet or applications on tablets. The purpose of this study was...Show moreChildren growing up today do not only read printed books but also electronic books (e-books) which are offered to them through the internet or applications on tablets. The purpose of this study was to research whether a reading voice in combination with highlighted print in e-books has a positive influence on the reading development of beginning readers. The study involved 54 fluent Dutch speaking students without any learning- and/or behavioural problems who were in third grade of regular primary education. The research was a randomised pretest posttest within subjects design. During the pre-and posttest, word recognition and reading comprehension skills were measured by means of one standardised and three book bound tasks. The intervention is the reading and listening to e-books via the computer with a built-in reading voice and different levels of highlighted print (one line, half a page or no highlighted print). Results indicated that reading e-books leads to better word recognition and reading comprehension skills. Different levels of highlighted print do not have effect on the proficiency in word recognition and reading comprehension. Similarly, there is no difference found between the most and least skilled readers in the extent to which they profit from highlighted texts in e-books. Students read better independently when they were able to read along with the spoken text several times. It seems that reading along the spoken text before reading the text independently is an appropriate way to stimulate reading development and could be a valuable addition to current reading instructions.Show less
