A Case Study of Three Korean Elementary School Students’ English Reading Experiences Assisted by Hyperlinked Resources

Hypertext plays an important role in modern computer-assisted learning environments by providing interactive navigation to diverse information resources.However, limited research has explored how young readers use hyperlinked online resources in English reading contexts.This study aims to fill this gap by qualitatively investigating the usage patterns of hyperlinked online resources among Korean elementary school students.Three 6th-grade students participated in sixteen sessions, engaging with English expository texts supplemented by three online resources: Naver English Dictionary, Naver Encyclopedia, and YouTube.Post-reading interviews were conducted to explore the students' purposes for using hyperlinked resources during reading.The findings reveal that students primarily used these resources to address cognitive challenges in English reading, particularly lexical difficulties and limited background knowledge.Furthermore, they developed strategies to navigate and select the most appropriate information resources according to their specific needs.Importantly, successful interactions with hyperlinked online resources fostered positive emotions and increased self-confidence in reading.This study provides insights into how young learners engage with hypertext, offering pedagogical implications for enhancing L2 English reading development through age-appropriate hyperlinked online resources. , . . , , . 16 , . , , ., . , 2 .