Do digital technology – reading links differ between English and Chinese? Considering language systems and school contexts

Abstract The rapid expansion of digital technology in education has reshaped how students read. Whether its associations with reading differ across language systems remains a central yet underexamined question for research and practice. Drawing on data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 and 2022 in Hong Kong and Singapore, we examined how digital technology used for leisure and for learning relates to reading outcomes in English and Chinese. Digital technology for leisure showed more negative associations with English reading scores than with Chinese reading scores. By contrast, digital technology for learning showed weak or non‑significant positive associations with reading scores at the student level. At the school level, leisure‑oriented digital technology use was more strongly related to reading outcomes than individual leisure use, indicating a contextual effect beyond personal habits. Together, these results point to language as a potential moderator of the relationship between digital leisure use and reading, and suggest that school-level digital context matters for reading performance. Policies and designs should therefore be language‑aware and school‑aware: adapt digital reading tools differently for English and Chinese, and adopt clear, school‑wide limits on digital technology for leisure.