Engaging Children With Pleasure Reading: The E-Reading Experience

Abstract

Traditional definitions of reading seem inadequate in today’s world as children encounter and interact with electronic screen-based reading using handheld devices such as tablets, smart phones, and so on. This study builds upon the context of reading engagement for pleasure and targets Malaysian bilingual children at the early stage of learning to read in English as their second most important language. The following research questions are put forward: (a) What drives children engagement with reading apps? and (b) how do children exhibit their e-reading experience? First- and second-grade children from primary school who had previously shown high achievement in English subject were selected for this study. Field observations and interviews were employed to capture children’s reading activity for pleasure in individual or shared reading settings using e-storybooks and educational reading apps. The findings indicate that children’s e-reading experience encompasses both motivational constructs and behavioral engagements. Children exhibit their e-reading experience through reading aloud or reading in silence along with screen manipulation.

Keywords

e-reading experience reading engagement and motivation reading apps iPad

Technology has changed the nature of text, and reading and literacy are being redefined by the arrival of digital technology. For example, a tablet is a portable device whose context of use is different from that of non-tablet reading systems (Pitt, Berthon, & Robson, 2011). Tablets now constitute platforms ready to be taken into children’s everyday life, and they have become a common venue for children’s interaction as well as in child–parent reading activities. There are several varieties of content that address entertainment and education in sustaining children’s attention. Telling, reading, and understanding stories are activities through which we grow in our childhood. With the growing amount of available digital information and the increasing amount of time that people spend in reading electronic media, the digital environment has begun to affect people’s reading behavior (Liu, 2005). Studies by Clark (2005) and Cremin (2007) reported that reading for pleasure is in decline because of lack of motivation to read. Moreover, Guthrie and Wigfield (2000) pointed out that motivation to read declines as children grow older, and therefore, the following sections specifically discuss characteristics of electronic reading, reading engagement, and characteristics of reading behavior that have been found to influence children’s e-reading experience while using reading apps in handheld devices such as iPads. This study addresses the term reading for pleasure as referring to school-age children being engaged in reading for leisure time entertainment, not as an activity within study and professional contexts.

Electronic Reading

Reading from an electronic book is an act defined by vision. Sound, pictures, and video are mediums of perception. Reading is an exclusive, possibly high-absorbency practice, monopolizing much of one’s attention. Reading apps are perceived through the time controlled by visual objects. A visual object affords perception and (re)cognition (Have & Pedersen, 2013). Several studies on electronic reading were conducted using such devices as reading media; for example, De Jong and Bus (2004), Grimshaw, Dungworth, McKnight, and Morris (2007), and Korat and Shamir (2007, 2008) explored electronic reading and concluded that these new platforms were able to provide individualized and on-demand multimedia features that could promote learning effectiveness. Similarly, Markopoulos, Read, MacFarlane, and Hoysniemi (2008) determined usability characteristics of interactive mobile apps, including audiovisual representation that supports the app content, efficient screen layout, visually pleasing visible indicators, and consistent, logical, and minimalist navigation.

However, several studies (Chiong, Ree, Takeuchi, & Erickson, 2012; Korat, Shamir, & Heibal, 2013) have reported that incongruent multimedia features of some e-book or reading apps can distract children from story content, encourage passive reading, and disrupt reading comprehension. This is mainly because some e-books or reading apps serve to amuse rather than to encourage children to focus on the story, resulting in shallower and less focused reading experiences.

Other studies have investigated the affordance of electronic devices for literacy development; these include a review article on techonlogy and literacy in early childhood (Burnett, 2010), an e-book and print book reading comparison (Ihmeideh, 2014), and a review article for tablets supporting emergent literacy (Neumann & Neumann, 2014). A study by Ciampa (2012) investigated the impact of online electronic storybooks (e-books) among sixth-grade students with respect to reading motivation and listening comprehension at school, with results showing that comprehension scores increased when participants read online storybooks; they both enjoyed reading online and were inclined to continue reading at home. A review article by Miller and Warschauer (2014) examined general topics, including young children’s literacy development and enhancement in both pre-tablet and tablet eras and reported that members of the younger generation are increasingly interested in using the latest technology popular on the market. Touch screen devices for reading are now in high demand. It is therefore important to investigate the effectiveness of new reading platforms, particularly for those who are at early stages of reading and implicitly learning to read.

Reading Engagement

Reading engagement is an important component in a child’s literacy development (Wigfield et al., 2008). The level and amount of time a child spends engaging in literacy activities affects his or her motivation to read and thereby gain in reading achievement. With respect to motivational constructs, a study by Deci, Vallerand, Pelletier, and Ryan (1991) noted that students become engaged in an activity primarily because it is interesting or enjoyable (intrinsic motivation), and they desire the outcome and may want to receive a reward (extrinsic motivation). A study by Massimi, Campigotto, Attarwala, and Baecker (2013) characterized reading for enjoyment as involving concentration and highly emotional involvement with the text. That study also suggested that a reader may be reading for pleasure, for a need to learn or amuse, to find specific information or to browse, to pass exams, and to pass the time.

Comparably, Skinner, Kindermann, and Furrer (2008) studied engaged behaviors reflecting effort exertion as well as persistence and indicators of mental effort such as attention and concentration. Several studies described the positive effects on cognitive and language development in children engaging in reading behaviors such as reading aloud and telling stories (Crosnoe, Leventhal, Wirth, Pierce, & Pianta, 2010; Melhuish et al., 2008). For example, in a family context, Klein, Biedinger, and Becker (2014) investigated effects on the development of vocabulary skills of children reading aloud. Their findings showed a more positive influence in this regard on bilingual immigrant families compared with native-born families. While a study by Roskos, Burstein, Shang, and Gray (2014) and Roskos, Burstein, and You (2012) focused on children’s e-reading using tablets in classrooms, to the best of the author’s knowledge, there has been no other recent qualitative research on bilingual first and second grader e-reading engagement for pleasure using tablets qualitatively.

Reading Behaviors

It is often assumed that there are positive relationships among enjoyment, attitude, behavior, and attainment. It is implicitly assumed that school-age children who enjoy their reading and writing experiences develop required literacy skills by engaging in additional related activity (Clark & De Zoysa, 2011). Reading motivation and reading behavior are usually seen as potential mediators of effects of reading motivation on reading achievement (Schiefele, Schaffner, Moeller, & Wigfield, 2012). Several studies have investigated shared and individual electronic readings. For example, Massimi et al. (2013) emphasized collaborative e-reading in a social context and developed a prototype for design of e-readers to support shared reading experiences with children. A study by Roskos et al. (2012) derived typology of e-book reading to compare shared and individual settings using iPads and iPods and reported that children generally exhibited similar types of behavior as they engaged in interactive settings. Roskos et al. (2014) also investigated children’s electronic reading and determined that looking, touching, moving, and gesturing behaviors differed significantly with respect to different devices, particularly between computer touch screens and iPad or iPod devices. There is thus a need to investigate the affordance of touch screen devices for reading and determine what reading behavior children exhibit when they are exposed to such platforms, particularly when using reading apps in their leisure time.

On the other hand, Malzkuhn and Herzig (2013) explored the Baobab storybook app in iPad in order to evaluate user characteristics or experiences and determine the effectiveness of such storybook for deaf and bilingual children. Data collection was conducted in a way to capture reader’s behaviors including tapping on highlighted words or pop-up videos using iPad. According to Morales, Calvo, and Bialystok (2012), bilingual children outperform monolingual children in working memory tasks when the task contains additionally executive function demands. They indicated working memory of bilingual people in language processing works based on monitoring their attention to the target language in the context of joint activation of the other oral language.

This article aims to describe children’s e-reading experiences as they engage with apps using iPads for pleasure. In addition to conceptual contributions, this study aims to present practical contributions through the identification of important notions deemed to support first- and second-grade bilingual readers’ motivation in electronic reading experience for fun. The following research questions are put forward: (a) What drives children engagement with reading apps? and (b) how do children exhibit their e-reading experience?

Theoretical Lens

The foundation of this study will be the work of Guthrie and Wigfield (2000) on an engagement model of reading development focused on motivational construct and behavioral engagement in classroom practice and intrinsic motivation by Malone and Lepper (1987). Guthrie and Wigfield’s model is based on the following five categories of engagement processes in reading: instructions (choice, success, and collaboration), motivation in reading (efficacy and value), cognition in reading (word recognition, fluency, and literal), reading engagement (effort, enthusiasm, and self-regulations), and reading achievement (reasoning, fluency, and vocabulary). The taxonomy of intrinsic motivation is concerned with motivating factors and divided them into individual (self-directed) and interpersonal factor. Malone and Lepper (1987) synthesized the classic literature on motivation and proposed taxonomy of factors to explain what it takes for an instructional or learning activity to be fun and motivating. They argue that fun activities promote intrinsic motivation through challenge (goals, feedback, and self-esteem), curiosity (sensory and cognitive), control (choice and power), and fantasy (emotional and cognitive aspects).

Reading is an activity that often involves choice, so motivation is crucial to reading engagement (Wigfield, Guthrie, Tonks, & Perencevich, 2004). An engaged reader appears to take pleasure in using skills to understand a text and to invest effort to make connection with the reading contents (Meyer & Rose, 1999). There are significant interrelationships among reading enjoyment, reading attitudes, reading behavior, and reading attainment (Clark & De Zoysa, 2011). Integration of collaboration and social interaction in reading and writing activities are often referred to as personal behavior patterns (Guthrie et al., 2007) and suggesting enjoyment of participation and engagement in group activities and ability to work efficiently with others in reading tasks. The tendency to challenge and novelty to explore and to learn are considered to be intrinsic motivations (Ryan & Deci, 2000). These two models could provide important clues as to what drives children engagement in on-screen reading in which constitute a motivational approach for pleasurable and fun reading experiences.

Methodology

This study employed a qualitative research approach using observations and interviews to understand the children e-reading.

Participants

A total of 12 children (five boys and seven girls) participated in the study with 5 of them from first graders (7 year olds) and 7 from second graders (8 year olds). The children had been identified by their teachers and selected from those who had performed at a good or moderate level in their English literacy achievement tests. The selected children met the following criteria: (a) those who could read at or above an average level according to their English subject grades in the class, (b) those from bilingual families who could speak and communicate in English as their second language, and (c) those whose parents gave permission for them to participate in this study.

Reading App Selection

As suggested by More and Travers (2012) in studies related to early childhood, professionals need take into account that reading content should remain challenging and interesting to the child, as selecting apps for them. Similarly, the National Association for Education of Young Children (2012) stated that in order to use technology and interactive media tools for young children, “giving careful attention to the appropriateness and the quality of the content, the child’s experience, and the opportunity for co-engagement” is one of the main concerns in childhood research (Radich, 2012, p.11).

On-screen readings were conducted using tablet (iPad) because of its acceptance among children and the availability for researcher to use the device during the time of observations. This study selected apps that incorporated literacy skills through storybooks and educational contents in English. The apps were all selected by researcher, and the list of selected apps was refined through supervisor’s feedbacks. They included free versions from educational categories with highest review rates and appropriate for age of 6 to 9 years old in English language. The decision to use free type was made due to the financial cost. In reality, it is likely that a similar scenario would exist for most families. Final selected reading apps are shown in Table 1.
Table 1.
Selected Reading Apps Used by the Study.

Cover page Page preview Type of app Publisher

Storybooks Category: Storybook Rated: 4+ StoryFun.com

Educational app Category: Animals Rated: 4 DK Publishing

Storybooks Category: Book Rated: 4+ Wissl Media

Billy Space Cat is a relatively long 17-page storybook with static colored text, background noises, different font sizes, exclamatory words, and illustrations. The Fishy Tales is an educational app about sea animals and their body parts. It takes a journey through a coral reef, where kids can watch small fish swim in and out of the coral and jellyfish float up and down in the waves. The narrator read the story with moderate reading speed and with each word illuminated as it was being read. A clear male voice read the text in third person narration style. High-resolution pictures of undersea animals under the sea made it more appealing to children. The Jungle Book app has three main pages with interactive elements on the right side of the page and text on the left. The reading tools include “Explain to me,” “Show to me,” and “abc” provide extra guidance for young readers who learn new vocabulary.

Procedure and Setting

This qualitative study was conducted to investigate first- and second-grade children’s behavior and their engagement with reading apps using iPads. The main method of data collection was observations followed by interviews. Consent letters from parents were obtained prior to data collection sessions. Data collection was conducted in the library and computer room. These facilities were available within the school campus. However, in the case of school external activities, some of the sessions were carried out in the school common room. The library or computer room is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Library or computer room facility in the school (taken by S. Ghazal Ghalebandi).

Through the arrangement with the teachers, children were called to come over and take part in reading sessions or interviews. First, an introductory session was conducted to brief the participants on the purpose of the study, followed by an icebreaking session between the researcher and the participants. The interview sessions were conducted to gain information about the participant’s previous e-reading experience and behavior. In the first set of interviews, participants were asked about their usage of touch screen devices and their favorite reading apps or e-storybooks. In the second set of interviews, participants were asked for additional details about their preferred reading topics and amount of time they spend in e-reading. Interview questions are available in Appendix A. Observational sessions were conducted using a video camera to capture participants’ e-reading experience and their behavioral and nonbehavioral interaction with the reading apps provided. These reading apps were selected in accordance with their user ratings (rated 4.0 and above) and popularity (well-known storybook topics or children’s TV programs such as Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, and the three Little Pigs).

Reading for pleasure is a way that people can connect, find entertainment value, and spend time for entertainment, aspects closely tied to motivation (Clark & Rumbold, 2006; Massimi et al., 2013). Hence, in this study, participants were examined in both individual and shared settings. In the individual setting, participants were provided with two reading apps: (a) storybook (Billy Space Cat) and (b) educational reading app (Fishy Tales). The storybook was designed for “READ it MYSELF” mode, and the educational app was designed for “READ to ME” mode. Participants were asked to choose either read aloud or listen to a narrator. In the shared setting, two to three participants from the same class were grouped together, and each group was given one storybook (The Jungle Book) from which to read. They were asked to choose whether they would rather take turns in reading or listen to the narrator.

Data Analysis

The aim of this study was to understand children’s e-reading experience while reading for pleasure. The objectives of this study are thus to investigate (a) What drives children engagement when reading apps and (b) how children exhibit their e-reading experience. All observation and interview data were transcribed and analyzed using Nvivo software. All raw data (audio and video) were transcribed using word processor, and then all files were uploaded into Nvivo software. Sources and nodes were created according to the research questions.

Responses to research questions were triangulated from interview and observation. The fundamental unit of analysis for this study was the children’s e-reading behaviors. Data analysis consisted of coding and categorizing as described by Miles, Huberman, and Saldana (2014). The data were first analyzed separately, and the results were compared to identify commonalities and differences in response patterns. After several reviews of the audio and video transcriptions, recurring words, phrases, and patterns were highlighted and coded. The codes representing categories in response to objectives of the study were developed over two cycles. In the first cycle, descriptive coding was applied to assign labels to chunks of transcribed data summarizing words or short phrases and developing a general sense of the data. Using nodes in Nvivo allowed the researcher to retrieve the most meaningful data. In the second cycle, summarized and ordered data were grouped together into themes related to the research objectives and conceptual constructs; four themes for engagement (effort, enthusiasm, identified regulations, and environment) and two themes for reading experience (reading aloud and skimming). Using an inductive approach, codes emerged progressively, and pattern codes identified were used for explanations and inferential findings. Figure 2 shows the emergent theme from data analysis.
Figure 2.
Emergence themes and subthemes of the data analysis.

Two intercoders were accountable in categorizing the data into themes. The percentage of intercoder agreement was calculated by dividing the number of times they agreed by the total number of units of analysis (Freelon, 2009). The first percent of agreement was 69.3% and indicates a need to improve the subthemes to correct ambiguous definitions and remove redundant subthemes. The subthemes were subsequently revised, and as a result, several new subthemes were included, inappropriate subthemes were removed, and overlaps subthemes were removed or merged. For example, there was one theme called edutainment which referred to education and entertainment. It was considering the reading activities as a source of education and amusement in free time. However, after discussion, it resulted to two separate themes: Enthusiasm and Identified-Regulation. It is believed that new themes are more representative of adopted theory. The second stage has shown an increased in intercoders’ agreement to 85.6%. The minor existence of disagreement was solved through mutual agreement by both intercoders to assign the data (transcript) to the most appropriate theme.

Results

The main aim of this study was to investigate children on-screen reading using apps that offer pleasant reading experiences. The results are presented in the following.

What Drives Children to Engage With Reading Apps?

To address the first research objective, determining the engagement components related to reading activities, both interview and observational data were employed. The finding mapped four main categories that engaged children with e-reading: (a) effort (physical and mental), (b) enthusiasm (entertainment or spending time or emotional awareness), (c) identified regulation, and (d) environment.

Effort

Reading act from a handheld touch screen device requires both physical and mental effort. The reading behaviors were captured during individual and shared reading activities to characterize reading engagement.

Physical effort refers to the iPad physically which resembles a book and carrying it in their hands is enjoyable for children. Physical efforts were identified in terms of multisensory skills needed in browsing, exploring, and reading text on a touch screen device (looking, enouncing, and listening) as well as using touch-based gestures for screen manipulation of interactive elements (swiping, tapping, and dragging) in a natural way to interact with a tangible object and operating the device. Some instances of the physical effort expended as reflected in their touch-based gestures are as follows:
Mujtaba touches the screen to swipe the page. A toolbar is displayed at the bottom of the page showing the preview of all pages. He taps on the screen and toolbar is disappeared. He keeps reading. (Mujtaba, Grade 2, Fishy Tales, Individual Reading)

Farish swipes the page. New page is displayed. The narrator starts reading the text. Farsih tries to tap/touches the highlighted text on the screen. (Farish, Grade 1, Fishy Tales, Individual Reading)

The narrator starts reading the page. Farish pulls the screen closer to themselves. They both are listening to the narrator. After few seconds animation is activated and characters are moving and jumping. Farish quickly taps on animation and try to drag them and also makes a sound like a bird. (Male Group, Grade 1, Shared Reading)
Mental effort is identified as effort required during attention and concentration on reading activities including: asking questions (i.e., to get more information about device, app, features, and tools of the reading app), commenting (utterance about the character, events, and activities of the reading material), and selective attention (preference for vision over audition or illustration over text in allocating attention or vice versa). Some instances of such mental effort, as when giving comments and demonstrating selective attention, are as follows:
New Page is displayed. Illustration shows Jelly Fish under the sea. Maneesh said “Yaaakk … I don’t like them … their body is too soft”. (Maneesh, Grade 2, Fishy Tales, Individual Reading)

Naveesha indicated that she likes to read storybooks alone. “I like to read alone … i dont want anybody disturb me when i read.” (Naveesha, Grade 1, Interview1)

New page is displayed. It shows shark in the middle of the page. Farish asks: “is there a white shark in this book as well?”(Farish, Grade 1, Fishy Tales, Individual Reading)

Sometimes his eyes are moving to the right side of the page where narrator still is reading from the left side of the page; because He is following visual changes on the screen. (Irfan, Grade 1, Fishy Tales, Individual Reading)

New page is displayed. Illustration shows the Billy Cat fell into water. Background noise of falling into the water is heard. Irfan is not looking at text on top of the page. He is looking at the illustration in the middle of the page. After few seconds he starts reading the text. (Kyrie, Grade 2, Billy Space Cat, Individual Reading)

Najwa was reading the new page. she taps on the left side of the which shows an illustration. The animation was activated. all participants were looking at the animation on the left side of the page for a while. (Female Group, Grade 1, Shared Reading)

Naveesha doesn’t not focus on the illustration (located on top of the page), mostly she reads (fast) and then quickly swipes the page. (Naveesha, Grade 1, Billy Space Cat, Individual Reading)

New page is displayed. Nadia looks at the illustration on top of the page for few seconds and then she looks at the passage on bottom of the page and starts skimming the texts. (Nadia, Grade 2, Billy Space Cat, Individual Reading)

Enthusiasm

Affective component of engagement refers to attitudes, feelings, and emotions. It demonstrates children’s sensitivity to the reading apps as stimuli. The behavior indications of it include attentiveness and take interest or not interested to experience. Children’s ability to react and attend to the reading apps as they interacting with them and then demonstrating enthusiasm and motivation to proceed, perform, contribute, or otherwise. Some instances of participants being entertained by reading apps are as follows:
“I like to read with my family … my mother and father … then they can listen to my reading … and it is fun also reading with my brother.” (Daniya, Grade 2, Interview1)

“ … I like to use iPad … I read storybooks on it … you can see lot of things on page … It has some different activity in the apps.” (Maneesh, Grade 2, Interview1)

“Cinderella story … I like that one … it is a sad story … so many things happened to her.” (Aina, Grad 2, Interview1)

“I can play when read storybook in tablet … it comes with some quizzes and games.” (Hiba, Grade 2, Interview1)

“after I finish my homework … my dad allow me to have iPad … sometimes I choose musical stories.” (Naveesha, Grade 1, Interview 1)

Identified regulation (perceived benefit)

It refers to external motivation where action is accepted when it adds values and emphasizes defined goals. It shows persistency and commitment. Some instances of the children’s perception toward reading books are as follows:
“reading is good … we learn and discover things … if I learn more … I can be good at everything.” (Irfan, Grade 1, Interview2)

“reading storybook is good … it makes me smart.” (Kyrie, Grade 2, Interview2)

“ … I can learn new words and spelling and writings.” (Farish, Grade 1, Interview2)

“it is good … because we can learn … about good manner.” (Aina, Grade 1, Interview2)

“my grandma wants me to learn more languages, then my English get better … she (grandma) knows other language … she speaks French as well.” (Hiba, Grade 2, Interview2)

Environment

It refers to providing nurturing environment for children. Parents at home get involved informal learning or reading activities where they provide literacy-related material for children after school. Some instances of participants’ home reading for pleasure habits are as follows:
Maneesh was asked what he is doing in his free time. He stated that “ … after I have done my homework, I use iPad … to read stories … now I am reading Wood Cutter who is losing his hammer in the river.” (Maneesh, Grade 2, Interview1)

Mujtaba was asked about what reading medium he uses at home. He replied that “my father would download some online book from internet in laptop, or even sometimes he would print for me.” (Mujtaba, Grade 2, Interview1)

How Children Exhibit Their E-Reading Experience?

Participants exhibited two types of reading behavior during their e-reading experience based on the following notions: reading aloud and reading in silence (skimming). Reading aloud experience was captured according to participants’ word enunciation from text with their voices being heard. Such reading activities occurred in both reading modes (READ to ME and READ it MYSELF). Participants were asked to choose to read text in either activated or deactivated narration settings. If the narration was active, participants were enunciating words along with, before, or after the narrator. In cases where narration was deactivated or not included among the app features, reading acts were captured while participants were enunciating words alone. Some instances of participants’ reading aloud experiences are as follows:
Aina enounces highlighted words as narrator reads them. Her eyes are following the highlighted text on top of the screen. (Aina, Grade 2, Fishy Tales, Individual Reading)

The narrator starts reading the words on illustration. He reads aloud words on illustration before narrator reads them. (Maneesh, Grade 2, Fishy Tales, Individual Reading)

First page of the story is displayed. She started reading the text aloud. She used her finger pointing each word as she reads them. (Aina, Grade 2, Billy Space Cat, Individual Reading)
Reading in silence indicated word enunciation from text, with unheard voice along with lip movement. This reading act occurred in both reading modes. Participants were asked to read text in either activated or deactivated narrator settings. The activity included participants’ eyes movements that followed the text. Some instances of participants’ reading in silence experiences are as follows:
The narrator reads last page of the app. it shows glossary. Irfan enounces some words in silence. He is following the highlighted words as narrator reads them. (Irfan, Grade 1, Fishy Tales, Individual Reading)

The narrator reads the words on illustration. Nadia is looking at the words, and she enounces only one word “Flipper” in silence, before narrator reads that. (Nadia, Grade 2, Fishy Tales, Individual Reading)

Discussion

This study has applied the engagement model of a reading development and intrinsic motivation in e-reading for pleasure contexts in terms of what motivate children engagement with reading apps using iPads. Individual and shared reading settings were designed to capture behavioral and nonbehavioral indicators of children’s e-reading engagement. In the individual setting, two types of reading apps, including both storybooks and educational topics, were selected to identify how children exhibit reading behaviors related to their engagement with reading materials. In shared reading, focus was more on what reading behavior children exhibit during engagement with reading apps when they had partners in reading and were required to share a reading screen. The results showed some light on these issues and helped to develop reading engagement indicators described in previous studies.

Children preferred to manipulate screen during both reading activities, that is, reading from the storybook app or the educational app. Participants were able to identify navigation tools and explore or browse pages and operate the device easily with minimum help. They exhibited behavioral engagement including multisensory skills for the purpose of operating device, browsing, exploring, and reading text on screen and touch-based gestures for on-screen manipulation. The sensory motor skills included looking, enouncing, pointing, and listening as they engaged in reading activities. The engaged readers’ eyes always followed the highlighted text and moved from left to right along the line when narrator was reading the text, although sometimes readers would also look at the animation or pictures as they were spotted the other side of the page. Engaged reading acts included integration of enunciating words with using fingers to point to the highlighted words. Touch-based gestures were captured when participants were stimulated to move interactive objects on the screen or flipping or swiping to a new page. Readers stated that the page-turning function provided by the reading app that required using only one tap on the screen to flip the page made it easier for them to read.

The mental effort refers to attention and concentration with the reading content. Engaged readers would ask questions and make comments to obtain more information about the characters or events in the storybooks or the topics in educational reading apps. Their selective attention (preference for vision over audition or text in allocating attention or vice versa) indicated cognitive curiosity toward character or object movements and background noises that supported the events on the screen. Most participants spent time on animation or illustration even after the narrator had finished a page. This is consistent with the study of Guijarro (2011) that emphasized the combination of words and images in picture books, “images seem to contribute more than words to the identification of the viewer with the main characters in the story” (p. 2989). Some children did not like to follow narrator, but they had more focus on the illustration and making comments or asking questions about that.

Increasing diversity in leisure activity sustains children’s engagement. Reading from an iPad is an example of reading for pleasure, and in this study, participants exhibited a positive attitude toward reading for pleasure. They spent time and were entertained and amused by variety of reading features. Participants were able to relate themselves to events and characters and to exhibit emotional awareness (understanding the cause of one’s feelings) and to some extent experiencing emotional attachment to characters. Similarly, in shared settings, participants became competitive in taking turns to apply touch-based gestures (i.e., swiping the page, tapping on play or pause button, or tapping on the interactive objects) on the screen when required. The shared reading setting was also fun for them as they engaged in reading acts with their friends or classmates. Some readers exhibited high levels of excitement as they watched illustration or animation together. They seemed to be more comfortable in shared settings. They engaged less with the text in shared setting, but they exhibited more excitement related to the activities. The interview data revealed they preferred to read alone if they wanted to learn about contents while, in contrast, they preferred to read together if it was related to spending time and having fun.

At the stage of identified regulation, the benefits derived from the reading activities were seen. Interview data reflected participants’ perception toward reading for pleasure using reading apps. Participants indicated engaging in more reading activities, not only for spending time and enjoyment but also as an opportunity to gain additional formal and informal knowledge. The findings show that reading for pleasure positively relates to acquiring cognitive competence and developing the ability to read (self-efficacy).

In interviews, participants described their previous reading experiences using tablets and reported enjoyment in spending time selecting and installing a reading app and then using it to read. Participants stated that they chose reading using new apps as one of their free-time activities that gave them their pleasure; this was true for both storybooks and educational apps. Those activities could include either reading through all pages or only browsing while discovering different sections or features and looking at pictures or animations. In general, participants showed amusement when engaged in reading acts. An iPad provided a popular reading medium that increased their intention to attend all reading sessions. It was evident that they had fun and enjoyed the activity because they always asked about the next anticipated reading activities at the end of each session. Participants indicated that reading experience after school, particularly at home, includes reading before bedtime at night or free time activity after completing homework. Reading habits included reading storybooks from tablets or paper books as well as a daily routine between parents and child. The participants stated that their parents’ attitude has encouraged them to spend more time on reading material, and it was evident that children with more home reading activities are more inclined to active reading. Generally, participants were comfortable engaging in reading activities.

According to Ulutaş and Ömeroğlu (2007), basic emotional intelligence abilities include expressing, understanding, and managing emotions. The findings of this study indicate that participants were able to understand character’s feelings and connect themselves to whatever happened to the characters. They also highlighted some sad or happy events they remembered from previous reading of stories. For example, one of the participants (Maneesh) was excited to share a previous story (Golden Swore) and retell some part of that. However, participants showed more connections to reading material in individual settings than in shared settings. They expressed themselves better in individual settings but exhibited more excitement in shared settings.

As Tait (2011) determined, identified regulation is considered as self-determined motivation that influences overall learning. Grolnick, Gurland, Jacob, and Decourcey (2002) also stated that individuals identify with the value or worth of behavior and engage in it accordingly. As such, participants in interviews highlighted the importance of reading activities based on what they heard from their parents about the benefits of reading and learning, that is, to read to gain cognitive achievements and reading ability developments. In Malaysia, English as a second important language requires bilingual families to contribute their children’s English learning process at early stages of learning to read in primary school. This finding echoed the study by Guthrie, Wigfield, Jamie, and Cox (2009) and Kim (2004) that suggested that benefits of reading activities are bidirectional: Reader’s become more accomplished as they spend more time in reading outside of the school. Similarly, in this study, those participants whose parents encouraged reading and provided them with reading material exhibited better self-efficacy in reading. Moreover, Wollscheid (2014) highlighted that, in the family environment, children may be exposed to print materials such as books and newspapers and observe and imitate the reading behavior of their parents. Parents not only provide a role model for their children (regardless of whether parents are regular readers or not) but also unconsciously transmit to their children their own values and cultural preferences related to activities such as reading literature.

In this study, two reading behaviors, reading aloud and reading in silence (skimming), were identified during observation of e-reading experience. Results suggest that listening and looking at the reading content (text and illustration or animation) at the same time may more effectively sustain children’s engagement with the story because an audio or visual channel can facilitate making connections with characters and features. Greenfield (2012) suggested that multimodal reading experience, including repeating passages or going back to a certain page and hearing a section read out loud while engaging children with animation and sound, may provide additional support for readers. This study included activated narration in which participants read along, before, and after a narrator. However, observational data show that most of the time participants enunciated words for a few seconds and then preferred to just listen to the narrator. This was triangulated by interview data indicating that some participants stated that listening to a narrator is easier because they can finish the story faster. This is supported by the study by Have and Pedersen (2013) that defined listening to narration as a lazy way to read entailing self-construction of the narrative voice and abandonment of control. On the other hand, finding shows that in individual reading sessions, reading aloud activities involved enunciating words in a lower or moderated voice, and the voice could get lower or even remain silent as a reader tried to enunciate difficult words; this may indicate reader’s concentration on content and word recognition. Faster readers enunciated words properly and linked them all in a sentence form. Slower readers enunciated words nearly properly their reading exhibited pausing, word by word (cut-off), or delay in enunciation while looking at words for a few seconds before continuation of reading.

Shared readings exhibited less attention or disengagement. The reading sessions were conducted in two modes; listening to narrator or take turns and read one page each. With respect to listening mode, the reading acts included only of listening to a narrator and looking at multimedia elements. Sometimes one of the participants could be bored and start tapping on different spots on the screen using a finger to identify interactive objects. Similarly, in the case of reading mode, if one participant was enunciating the words and reading through them, the partner(s) would tend to have less focus on the story or text and might be talking, laughing, or just looking at multimedia elements (animation or illustration). Nevertheless, as reported by Baker, Mackler, Sonnenschein, and Serpell (2001), shared reading experiences are beneficial because the talk that accompanies them promotes vocabulary building, comprehension, and, perhaps, word recognition, contributing directly to reading achievement.

Conclusion

To conclude, this study attempted to understand the behavior of children engaged with reading apps and in particular as they engage with reading apps while using iPads. The iPad as a popular electronic device undoubtedly played an important role in children’s motivation to use it as a reading medium either by participating in this study or at home. Results confirmed previous findings that all children enjoy learning to use app structure or features and embedded multimedia elements. The importance for bilingual readers of parental support and encouragement by providing English reading materials for their children at early stages of reading was also recognized. Participants perceived reading storybooks as a way to learn to read more English words, thereby gaining more knowledge and becoming smart. Being amused was determined as vital factor for children in choose a reading activity as a desired free time activity. The role of media indirectly influenced participants’ choice of reading topics or content and their intention to read. Obviously, participants were more drawn to choose those currently popular reading apps from recent TV shows or kids’ movies or programs. These outcomes suggest that the next study should be to investigate children’s reading comprehension, considering that they may or may not stayed engaged with reading apps when using iPads.

Appendix A

Tablet ___________________________________________
How do you feel when you use tablet?

What do your parents use it for?

What do you use it for?

How do you like to read a storybook? (paper or pc or tablet)

Reading Activities _
What is your most favorite topic for reading? Why?

What is your least favorite topic for reading? Why?

What is your favorite language for storybooks? Why?

Do you like to read story from tablet or from a paper book? Why?

What we can do when reading from a tablet but we cannot do when reading a paper book?

Do you like to listen storybooks or read it yourself?

Do you like to read storybooks that has more text or more animation? Or combination? Why?

Do you like to read storybooks that you can use your hand to move objects on the screen or only animation and text? (show the an example)

Do you like to read short stories or long stories? Why?

Do you like reading with someone (friends, siblings, parents) besides you or reading alone?

Do you like to select/download storybook yourself or you like your parents to do that?

Do you think you can learn from storybook? What you can learn?

Parents Perspective _
What will your parents think about you if you read?

Do you think your parents do reading? Mother or father?

What do they read about?

Children’s Perspective _
Do you think reading is good or bad? Why?

Who is a good reader?

Who is weak reader?

Previous Reading Experience __________
Name 2 or 3 storybooks that you read in tablets/mobile and a paper book

Do you remember the Billy cat? What do you remember? (EI)

Do you remember little red riding hood? Do you want to live like little red riding hood? (EI)

Cover page	Page preview	Type of app	Publisher
		Storybooks Category: Storybook Rated: 4+	StoryFun.com
		Educational app Category: Animals Rated: 4	DK Publishing
		Storybooks Category: Book Rated: 4+	Wissl Media

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was funded by the University of Malaya High Impact Research Grant (No: UM.C/625/1/HIR/MOHE/FCSIT/16/H-22001-00-B00016).

Author Biographies

S. Ghazal Ghalebandi is a PhD student at the University of Malaya. She has started her PhD at the Department of Library and Information Science, Faculty Computer Science and Information Technology since September 2013, under the supervision of Dr. Noorhidawati Abdullah. Her master's degree was in the field of Data communication and Computer Systems at the same faculty.

A. Noorhidawati is an associate professor at the Department of Library and Information Science in the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, University of Malaya. Dr. Noorhidawati obtained her PhD in 2008 from the University of Strathclyde Glasgow. Her research interests include information behavior, digital library, social media, information management, open access and scholarly publication, and bibliometric.

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