The effect of e-book reading activities on basic English literacy and the learning attitudes of middle school English underachievers

This study investigated changes in the underachievement patterns of four middle school students following participation in e-book reading classes. These students exhibited limited English literacy skills, attributed to factors such as their home environment, lack of structured English learning, and low confidence. The intervention consisted of 24 sessions over a 3-month period, from November 2022 to January 2023, with classes held three times a week for 30 minutes each. The e-books were from the Little Birdie Books series, available on the EBS English website. The primary objective was to examine the impact of e-book reading activities on phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary, reading comprehension, and the learning attitudes of middle school underachievers. The evaluation tools included word tests, pre- and post-tests on basic literacy and affective domains, affective domain checklists, and teacher observation reports. The findings revealed that e-book reading activities significantly improved the students’ phonics and reading fluency, which in turn contributed to vocabulary development. Moreover, engaging with sentence interpretation during e-book reading enhanced the students’ reading comprehension. These improvements fostered increased self-directedness, interest, motivation, and confidence in the students, leading to positive changes in their learning attitudes.