The Effect of E-books on Students’ Reading Comprehension

Abstract

Reading, in English, is the source of knowledge for listening, speaking, and writing. It is one of the receptive skills that EFL students need to develop their L2 proficiency. Because of its complexity, students fail to achieve reading comprehension. This research spotlights the problem of students’ deficient reading comprehension of English materials. It examines the effect of reading electronic books on second year EFL students’ reading comprehension. This investigation is based on the following hypotheses: 1/ the null hypothesis suggests that there is no relationship between reading E-books and reading comprehension; 2/ the alternative hypothesis uggests that there is a strong relationship between reading electronic books and the improvement of EFL tudents’ reading comprehension. In order to test these hypotheses, a mixed methodology was selected, ncluding both qualitative and quantitative data tools. First, an experiment was conducted on a sample of 2nd year students of English at Mila University. Then, EFL teachers were interviewed in order to gain more data about the topic. Based on the statistical analysis, the pretest and posttest results, driven from the experiment (the t-value in the paired samples t-test equals =15.18, moreover, the t-value in the independent samples t-test equals =6.44), led to the following conclusion: using electronic books, as reading materials, improved the tudents’ reading comprehension abilities. On the basis of the results of the teachers’ interview, e-books were evaluated as relevant and efficient resources to solve students’ language problems. Moreover, teachers’ consensus revolved around considering scanning and skimming as the best strategies for enhancing reading comprehension. In the light of these research findings, the study was crowned by some useful pedagogical implications, and recommendations for an effective EFL reading teaching and learning