Struggling Young Readers Like Kindles

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Middle school students in a reading improvement class liked using e-readers for a variety or reasons, and felt their reading improved as a result. Sophie Bushwick reports.

March 29, 2012

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Kindles, Nooks and other E-readers catch flack for threatening the future of printed books. But reading itself may get a boost from the devices. For example, a study of struggling students found that the kids felt better about reading after a course in which they used Amazon Kindles. The research is in the International Journal of Applied Science and Technology. [Twyla Miranda et al, Reluctant Readers in Middle School: Successful Engagement with Text Using the E-Reader]

For two months, 199 middle-schoolers in a reading improvement class in Texas had 15-to-25 minutes every day when they were free to read on the Kindle. In general, the students felt the device improved their reading ability. And they tended to enjoy using an e-reader.

They noted the ease of carrying multiple books in one device, and the feeling that reading was suddenly a high-tech 21st century activity rather than a boring waste of time. And some low-level readers who might otherwise be embarrassed to be seen with a simple book liked keeping their peers in the dark about what title they were reading. In the old days, one had to use a fake book-cover to achieve that level of secrecy.

?Sophie Bushwick

[The above text is a transcript of this podcast]

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