Page 35 - iRead EL in Research Paper

Away from the computer, student engagement routines,
such as Thumbs Up or Down and Pick and Point, help young learners reinforce skills by prompting them to engage in active physical responses such as pointing or gesturing. To build letter formation skills through kinesthetic reinforcement, for instance, as students learn each new letter at the alphabetic stage, the iRead program encourages them to trace the letter with their nger in the air on the screen, or by using the mouse. In other cases, children are prompted to generate a letter name or letter sounds orally after hearing or seeing a model.
Throughout its decoding and word study units, iRead encourages students to orally generate phonemes and words to help establish the linkage between text and its corresponding sounds.
Interactive Learning Tools
The Professional Guide also includes Learning Center ideas that promote foundational skills development through the use of games and manipulatives. Additionally, many of the downloadable resources available in SAM Central encourage interacting and manipulating letters, sounds, and words.
Multimedia Technology
Multimedia technology that delivers and integrates early literacy activities in various modes (auditory, textual, graphical), when properly designed, can be e ective in promoting reading success. Gami cation techniques that make reading tasks feel more like games, such as adding meaningful choice, increasing challenge, rewards, and adding narrative, engage students and motivate them to solve problems in order to learn.
Research Evidence and Expert Opinion
“The multimedia principle,” as proposed by Richard Mayer (2005), suggests that instructional designs that combine words and images are more e ective than those based on words alone. This principle is “well supported by ndings from empirical research” (Fletcher & Tobias, 2005, p. 128). Extending Mayer’s multimedia principle to early literacy, educational technology that helps young readers establish linkages among words, sounds, images, and meanings can be an e ective tool in support of literacy development.
To date, the most extensive ndings support the value of using digitized or synthesized speech as a means for helping young readers master basic reading skills. In surveying the research literature, Reinking (2005), observes:
Using the capability of a computer to provide beginning readers assistance in the form of audio pronunciations of words and word parts under various conditions clearly seems to bene t decoding skills at least as much as adult-led activities using conventional printed materials (p. 367).
A comprehensive literature review conducted by Strangman and Dalton (2005) suggests that digital voice technology supports struggling readers by providing access to texts that might otherwise be unavailable to them, and by helping them learn to read with understanding. Korat (2010) found that a group of children who read eBooks with pronunciation features “exhibited signi cant progress in word meaning and word reading” compared to a control group (p. 24). In addition, research by Silverman and Hines (2009) found advantages for young English language learners receiving multimedia enhanced read- aloud instruction.
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