As a follow-up study to a cross-sectional national study that established the linkage between gender as well as family factors and the likelihood of being Taiwanese adolescent readers, this study attempted to utilize the same data set with longitudinal data to explore whether the association between family factors and being an avid adolescent…

The current study investigated the effects of interactive picture-book read-alouds on middle school EFL students' word inference ability and attitudes toward reading in English. To this end, two classes of seventh-grade students from a public middle school in Taiwan participated and were randomly divided into two groups: an interactive…

This study unveils a tertiary EFL reading teacher's reader identity and its interconnectedness with her pedagogical decisions through narrative inquiry. Community of Practice was employed to elucidate the sources of this reading teacher's reader identity and the interplay between that and her teaching practice. Findings from the categorical…

PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) is the fourth assessment in the current trend series, following PIRLS 2001, 2006, and 2011. There were 61 participants in PIRLS 2016, including 50 countries and 11 benchmarking entities (e.g., regions of countries as well as additional grades or language groups from the participating…

There appears to be a dramatic decline in attitude toward reading between 2006 and 2011 for ten year-olds taking the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) examination. This "decline", however, is probably not real but is the result of a change in the attitude questionnaire, mentioned only in the fine print in the 2011…

This study examined the relationships among school leadership practices, parental involvement, disciplinary climate, students' perceptions on reading, and student achievement with sample obtained from the combined data of Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011…

This study investigated the effects of varying text difficulty on L2 reading attitudes and reading comprehension. To provide the optimal challenge for L2 reading, comprehensible input hypothesis postulates that choosing text slightly harder than the learner's current level will enhance reading comprehension. Fifty-four freshmen from one university…

The purpose of this study was to explore the learning performance of sixth grade elementary school students using newspapers in science teaching. A quasi-experimental design with a single group was used in this study. Thirty-three sixth grade elementary school students participated in this study. The research instruments consisted of three…

This study examines the enhancing effect of peer annotation on the academic English reading of nonnative-Englishspeaking graduate students. To facilitate peer collaboration, the present study included the development of a strategybased online reading system. Through peer annotation, the students not only achieved enhanced reading comprehension but…

As electronic books continue to attract attention as a pedagogical tool in language classrooms, the impact that e-books are expected to have on higher education cannot be ignored. Despite the pervasiveness of e-book reading studies in higher education, most studies show that students' reactions to e-books are often negative. However, the effects…

As indicated by some studies, the problem of "falling behind" often exists when using computer-assisted learning with children, and gender may be a factor in this. While digital contents presented on various e-readers are promising replacements for paper-and-ink books, the question arises as to whether this emerging technology will have…

This study examined the influence of classroom pedagogic reading practices and out-of-school practices in explaining why the reading attainment of Hong Kong Grade 4 students was superior to that of their counterparts in Taiwan in the 2006 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study. Analyses of scores from 9,301 students (4,712 from Hong Kong…

As a follow-up study to a cross-sectional national study that established the linkage between gender as well as family factors and the likelihood of being Taiwanese adolescent readers, this study attempted to utilize the same data set with longitudinal data to explore whether the association between family factors and being an avid adolescent…

Eighty-two Taiwanese preschoolers aged three and four years (boys?=?40; girls?=?42) were recruited from Tainan, Taiwan, for a parent-child storybook-reading research project. The Taiwanese preschoolers' emergent reading behaviours were videotaped in a solo storybook-reading task. The children's most frequent emergent reading behaviours were:…

This study investigates the effects of extensive reading of e-books on tertiary level EFL students' English reading attitude, reading comprehension and vocabulary. Eighty-nine participants were assigned in two groups, with 46 students in the experimental group and the other 43 students in the control group. In addition to a traditional curriculum…