Effects of electronic texts on the independent reading comprehension of second -grade students

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether students with varying degrees of reading proficiency scored higher on an oral retelling assessment of comprehension when text was presented in an interactive, electronic format than when text was presented in a traditional print format. The participants were 54 second-grade students from a rural elementary school in the Mid-South.;A repeated measures design was used with each student reading both an electronic text and a traditional print text at their developmental reading level of Low, Medium, or High as designated by their classroom teacher. The order of the text mediums was randomized independently for each student and book titles were counterbalanced to control for any differences in text difficulty. Participants were instructed to read the texts in the manner they would during independent reading. Upon completion of the reading, participants performed an oral retelling. No prompts were given during the retelling that assisted students with content. The oral retellings were audiotaped and then scored by two independent raters using Morrow's 10-Point Scale.;The comprehension data collected were analyzed using dependent samples t-tests at the .05 level of significance. The dependent variable was reading comprehension, as measured by oral retellings, and the independent variable was type of text medium, either electronic or traditional. The results of the statistical analysis indicated that overall mean oral retelling scores were significantly higher for the electronic text format. Analysis of the oral retelling scores for each of the reading proficiency levels showed that mean retelling scores were significantly higher for electronic texts with regard to the Low reading proficiency group. Analysis failed to reveal a significant difference between mean scores on oral retellings for either the Medium or High proficiency level groups.;The results of the study indicate that interactive, electronic texts may facilitate reading comprehension for students that are reading below grade level or are struggling with developing reading skills and strategies. Therefore, the use of electronic texts in the classroom as part of a reading instruction program, literacy center, or for independent reading time could be beneficial for young readers.