A Study of Differences in Teen Reading Formats and Their Effects on Interest, Engagement and Comprehension By Jessica E. Moyer University of Minnesota May 5, 2009
Research Questions Are teens really not reading as much today as they did in the past? Are teens reading, but in nontraditional formats that cause underreporting? If the surveys focus on book reading, what about all the teens who do all their reading online or in digital formats? What about the teens who listen to audiobooks? If the questions are only concerned with literature, then how are we counting the many people who read nonfiction, newspapers, magazines, and websites?
Reading Formats and Comprehension, Interest and Engagement One way to address these questions and start to gain deeper understanding of the new ways of reading is to study readers’ preferred formats for reading. Do they prefer to read print books or e-books, or do they prefer to listen to audiobooks? Can they comprehend at the same level across all formats? Do they comprehend best when reading in their preferred format, or is there a single format in which most teens comprehend best? Do teens report being more engaged and/or interested in leisure reading texts in one format over another?
Data Sources Format preference ranking ACT scores Format experiment Comprehension measures Interest and engagement measures EDA or other neuroscience data General reading questionnaire Selected follow up interviews for case studies
Experimental Design