CICTE 2004

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CICTE 2004 IMPLEMENTATION OF ONLINE READING
PROGRAM IN A PRIMARY SCHOOL Teddy So
teddy_at_cite.hku.hk
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Introduction In the last decade, many local
teachers and education professionals noticed
that there was a continuous decline in the
performance of students language abilities not
only in English, but also in their native
language - Chinese. This decline in language
proficiency does not only happen in Hong Kong,
but also worldwide (????, 2003 ?????, 2003).
Cunningham and Stanovich (1998) found that
students reading volume the amount that they
read in and out of school significantly
affects the development of reading rate and
fluency, vocabulary, general knowledge of the
world, overall verbal ability, and academic
achievement.
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• Aims of this Study
• This paper studies the effectiveness of an online
  reading
• program in promoting Chinese language learning in
  a class of
• primary six students in Hong Kong. The research
  context of this
• study is in the domain of measuring change in
  reading
• motivation and comprehension ability of the
  students under the
• impact of online learning technologies. The aims
  of study focus
• on three aspects
• Does the online reading program enhance students
  reading
• motivation and attitudes?
• Does the online reading program improve students
  language performance in reading comprehension?
• What are the factors affecting the effectiveness
  of the online reading program on learning
  Chinese language?

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Significance of this Study Although the use of
Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) has
been established for a long time and proved to be
effective in promoting foreign language learning
amongst ESL students (Chapelle, 2001), the use
of specific organized online reading program to
promote language learning is comparatively a
rather new attempt especially in learning Chinese
Language, and little research has been done on
this area locally.
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Significance of this Study This study is even
more significant as it suggests a possible
solution to the problems identified in other
research conduct by The University of Hong
Kong. ??????????????? Research on Bilingual
Reading Ability of Hong Kong Primary Schools
Pupils Faculty of Education, The University of
Hong Kong Sample 4,300 P. 4 pupils from 66
primary schools
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Significance of this Study Data found Reading
ability vs. Maid employed at home Number of
books in home Private tutorial
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Reading Ability and Family with
Maid Average Scores compared with
overall Hong Kong students
score Students Chinese English with maid
(43) 5 25 Without maid (52) -2 -19
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Reading Ability and the Numbers of Books in a
Family Average scores compared with
overall Hong Kong students score Students
with Chinese English 0 10
books -15 -22 11 25 books - 2 -
1 26 100 books 5 29 101 200
books 15 66 gt 200 books 20 77
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Obviously, whether the family can afford hiring
a maid and buying many books for their kids is a
financial matter. If you are rich ? higher
reading ability ? How could we narrow the
gap? Is there any role for Information
Technology to play?
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Methodology The study focused on a class of
primary 6 students with mixed ability in a
period of five months. The class selected for
this study comprised 32 Primary 6 students (16
girls and 16 boys with their ages between 11 and
12). The methods adopted to evaluate the
intervention included (1) statistical analysis
of student performance before and after the
intervention (pre-test and post-test
analysis) (2) two self-administrated
questionnaires for collecting data about
students attitudes, reading habits and related
information before and after the project (3)
observation of students participation and (4)
in-depth interviews with several students to
reflect their perceptions and opinions about
the reading program.
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Results The reading habits of the participants
before the implementation
Do you like extracurricular reading? Girls Boys
Total Fond of 75 37.5 56.2 Neutral 25
62.5 43.8 Dislike 0 0 0
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Results The reading habits of the participants
before the implementation
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Results The reading habits of the participants
before the implementation
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Results The reading habits of the participants
before the implementation
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Results
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Results The reading habits of the participants
after the implementation
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Results Students performance in Chinese reading
comprehension test Difference in performance
between pre-test and post-test Test
Score Mean sd t p T1 Comprehension
Score 11.17 3.68 2.01 0.027 T2 Comprehension
Score 14.91 3.89 T1 Total Score 75.98 13.5
3 1.19 0.122 T2 Total Score 80.48 13.36
Note Comprehension tests are scored from
0 to 20 points Total scores range from 0 to
100.
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• Discussion
• Participants reflected that
• they had a lot of homework to do thus they had no
  spare time to read.
• Another problem is the availability of reading
  materials. Although library is a good resource
  for reading, participants did not often go to
  the library because they found that it was
  inconvenient. Since they were too young to go
  alone and their parents could not accompany them
  too often, their opportunities of accessing good
  reading materials were greatly reduced.
• The students were generally very positive about
  using the
• online reading program as an enhancement to their
  more
• traditional extracurricular reading.

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Conclusion The findings of this study are
consistent with other researches on the
relationship between reading comprehension
ability and the amount that students read in and
out of school Findings indicated that ORP had
significant and positive effect on students
reading comprehension ability. In addition,
incorporating parents help in promoting
students accessibilities to online resources at
home is necessary.
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The Influence of IT in Language Writing Can
you translate/decode the real meaning of the
following message ?  My smmr hols wr CWOT. B4,
we usd 2go2 NY 2C my bro, his GF thr 3 - kds
FTF. ILNY, its a gr8 plc.
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My smmr hols wr CWOT. B4, we usd 2go2 NY 2C my
bro, his GF thr 3 - kds FTF. ILNY, its a gr8
plc. My summer holidays were a complete waste of
time. Before, we used to go to New York to see my
brother, his girl friend and their three
screaming kids face to face. I love New York,
its a great place.
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March 3, 2003. SMS Essay
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March 2, 2003. SMS Essay http//www.scotandrews.co
m/C1946641658/E2055506051/ British Girl Baffles
Teacher with SMS EssaySun Mar 2, 914 PM ET Add
Technology - Reuters Internet Report to My Yahoo!
LONDON (Reuters) - An English essay written by
a British teenager in text messaging short-hand
has reignited concern among teachers that
literacy standards are under threat. The Daily
Telegraph newspaper reported on Monday that the
13-year-old's teacher could not decipher what the
youngster had written. "I could not believe what
I was seeing. The page was riddled with
hieroglyphics, many of which I simply could not
translate," the teacher told the newspaper. The
teenager's essay which caused the problem began
"My smmr hols wr CWOT. B4, we used 2go2 NY 2C my
bro, his GF thr 3 kids FTF. ILNY, it's a gr8
plc." In translation "My summer holidays were
a complete waste of time. Before, we used to go
to New York to see my brother, his girlfriend and
their three screaming kids face to face. I love
New York. It's a great place." Judith Gillespie,
of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, told the
newspaper a decline in grammar and written
English was partly linked to the text messaging
craze. "Pupils think orally and write
phonetically," she said.
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Finally THE END Thank you