Session Information
SES G 05, Paper Session
Paper Session
Contribution
The Internet and digital information sources has increased and reading of electronic texts has become necessary and prevalent in society (Education Council, 2006). Research has shown that this development of technologies make new demands on reading literacy and broadens its concept (Leino, 2003). In other words reading has changed due to the new digital medias especially regarding how information is approached and comprehended. Electronic reading includes not only traditional literacy but also the ability to ‘read’ images, videos and the whole context that the text is a part of.
This study has an exploratory thrust since reading on the Internet is not very well investigated. It aims at investigating and describing reading strategies that the students use for such reading. Some questions are: What strategies do the students use and does it depend on type of text and activity? Do the students use strategies that differ from the traditional ones? How do the student use the tools provided, for example the mouse cursor, to facilitate reading on the Internet?
The results are discussed and interpreted within a sociocultural perspective (Vygotsky, 1986; Rogoff, 1990) and also related to Kress’ theoretical framework on literacy and multimodality (2003). Reading on the Internet is consequently seen as a sociocultural activity and this activity constitutes the unit of analysis in the present study. Each individual, their social partners as well as the historical traditions and materials are interacting in an inseparable whole. However even though the parts make up the whole activity they can be studied individually if the interdependence is not lost (Rogoff, 1995).
Rogoff’s (1990) concepts ‘guided participation’ and ‘apprenticeship’ has inspired the design of the study. “The concept guided participation refers to the processes and systems of involvement between people as they communicate and coordinate efforts while participating in culturally valued activity.” (Rogoff, 1995, p. 142). The activity reading on the Internet in the present study can also be seen in the light of apprenticeship since a more mature participant guides the less experienced participant in the activity. One of the three planes (community/institutional, interpersonal and personal) can be in focus but without forgetting the whole sociocultural activity (Rogoff, 1995) and in the present study it is mainly the two latter planes that are of interest.
Kress (2003) has examined how the conceptualisation of textuality is changing as images seem to dominate text and as screens overtake paper for distribution of text. In his theoretical framework he stresses that resources has changed by technologies’ affordances and that concepts as “blocks” of information and “entry” (p.136) are important in the composition of electronic documents and consequently to readers’ approach to electronic documents.
The present study investigates if the traditional reading strategies covers reading on the Internet or if new strategies can be seen. The traditional reading strategies can be previewing text for content, skimming, making decisions in relation to what to read closely, using context clues, using text structure, and using other textual features to enhance reading comprehension (Mokhtari & Reichard, 2002).
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Kress, G. (2003). Literacy in the New Media Age. New York: Routledge. Leino, K. (2003). Computer Usage and Reading Literacy. In S. Lie, P. Linnakylä, & A. Roe (Eds.), Northern Lights on PISA (pp. 71-81) . Oslo: University of Oslo. Mokhtari, K., & Reichard, C.A. (2002). Assessing Students’ Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies. Journal of Educational Psychology. (2) 249-259. Rogoff, B. (1990). Apprenticeship in thinking. New York: Oxford University Press. Rogoff, B. (1995). Observing sociocultural activity on three planes: participatory appropriation, guided participation, and apprenticeship. In J.V. Wertsch, P. Del Río, & A. Alvarez (Eds.) Sociocultural Studies of mind. (pp. 139-164) . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Silverman, D. (1998). Harvey Sacks: Social science and conversational analysis. Cambridge, MA: Polity Press. Vygotsky, L. (1986). Thought and language. (Trans. A. Kozulin). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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