The advancement of technology can bring new and interesting tools for learning into the second language classroom. However, it can also bring intimidation and uneasiness to students who are not confident in their technology skills or who just feel reluctant to change what they are already comfortable doing on their own. How can we motivate students to embrace change and to try something new and unfamiliar? Not giving them a choice is one way. English language learners in three first-year reading classes (63 students in total) at Nanzan University were all required to read an e-book of their choice and then give an end-of-quarter presentation on it to their classmates. This article discusses feedback from students who were forced to set aside their paperback graded readers and familiarize themselves with the university’s newly purchased e-book and e-reader system.

Students were introduced to the concept of extensive reading at the beginning of the school year and were required to read level-appropriate graded readers that they borrowed from the university’s library. Through extensive reading, students focused on strengthening their reading fluency in English as they read books that they chose on their own and (hopefully) enjoyed. The first two quarters of the course were spent getting students used to the idea of extensive reading and comfortable with choosing interesting and appropriately leveled graded readers for themselves to read. During the third quarter, however, students were introduced to the university library’s new e-reader system in which they began to choose graded readers online to read.

To introduce the new e-reader system, the instructor gave students a step-by-step demonstration of how to use it by showing the class a PowerPoint presentation (thoughtfully created by the instructor’s colleague Marie Kjeldgaard) that guided them through the process. The instructor showed each step on a display at the front of the classroom as he had students follow the steps on their own smartphones. Afterward, students were given about 20 minutes to get a feel for the e-reader system and to begin downloading or choosing e-books they wanted to read. The instructor felt it necessary to show students who were not comfortable with new technology that the online system was actually quite user-friendly. It is the belief of the instructor that had he asked students to learn how to use the system at home on their own, some students would not have done so out of the anxiety learning to use new technology may cause for some people. Even in this day and age, it is never safe to assume that every student in our classroom is tech savvy and eager to embrace learning to use new technology for class. As Brown (2007) writes, “We are well acquainted with ‘technophobic’ learners and must not assume that everyone finds computers and computer programs easy to operate” (p. 201).

The university’s new e-reader system can be accessed by students directly from the university’s library website, and e-books can be read on students’ smartphones, personal computers, or tablets. Initially, students were limited to the number and types of e-books they could choose from, with only four available reader options offered during the system’s first year:

• Page Turners – Cengage Learning (Levels 1–10)

• Foundations Reading Library – Cengage Learning (Levels 1–7)

• Macmillan Readers – Macmillan Language House (Levels 1–5)

• Cambridge Experience Readers – Cambridge University Press (Levels 1–6)

After the new online system and e-books were explained to students and they had time in class to begin using it and choosing e-books to read, a survey was conducted among the instructor’s three reading classes (N = 63). This was done initially to learn whether any students had experience reading e-books, to find out how they planned to read them for class, to gauge their interest before they started to read them, and to find out what students thought the good and bad points of reading e-books would be. Interestingly, students wrote many more negative comments about e-books than positive ones in the survey’s written response section. This indicated to the instructor that students were a bit hesitant, if anything, with being forced to learn to read books in a new way with a new system. In the following section, we will look at the questions and answers to the first survey given to students.

1. Did you know what an e-book was before your teacher told you about them?
   
   Yes: 4 No: 59

2. How do you plan to read an e-book for your presentation?*

• On a smartphone: 56

• On a computer: 9

• On a tablet/iPad: 2
  
  *Some students circled more than one answer.

3. Would you like to keep reading e-books for this class after your presentation?
   
   Yes: 20 No: 43

4. Can you think of some good or bad points about reading e-books?
   
   Examples of positive comments

• “It’s a good point that I can read it anywhere.”

• “Don’t have to go to the library.”

• “We don’t have to bring some books because we can read by using smartphone.”

Examples of negative comments

• “Using battery and money to connect to the Internet.”

• “We can’t read all the books in the school’s library.”

• “I don’t know how to use it well.”

• “E-books are difficult to read because it’s too small and not clear.”

The initial survey results indicated that the overwhelming majority of the students had not heard of e-books before, which was surprising to the instructor. The results also showed that most students planned to read the e-books using their smartphones. At this point, we can see that students’ enthusiasm for reading e-books was not very high, with more than half of the class reporting that they planned to continue reading paperback graded readers as soon as their e-book presentations were finished.

Now that we know how students felt before reading their e-books based on the initial survey results, we will turn to the results of the second survey, which were collected after all students had read at least one e-book and finished their end-of-quarter presentations. (Note that one student missed the final class; therefore, the second survey includes responses from only 62 respondents.)

1. Did you enjoy reading an e-book for your presentation?
   
   Yes: 41 No: 21

2. Did you read any other e-books after reading the one you did your presentation on?
   
   Yes: 15 No: 47

3. Did you have any problems with reading your e-book? If yes, what kind of problems?
   
   Yes: 32 No: 30
   
   Examples of problems students reported

• “It’s difficult to look at the character list while I’m reading the story.”

• “I can’t open the e-books which I downloaded.”

• “I didn’t know how to get to the e-books site.”

• “The letters were dim.”

4. Do you want to read an e-book for next quarter’s presentation? If no, why not?
   
   Yes: 35 No: 27
   
   Examples of why students did not want to read e-books for the following quarter’s presentation

• “I don’t like e-books because my eyes get tired.”

• “I like paper books because it’s easier to read them.”

• “I need to look back some pages when I write the summary. I am comfortable to read a paper book more than an e-book.”

• “On smartphone the book isn’t easy to read, too small.”

• “Now there are not a lot of books.”

Conclusion

From the initial survey data, we can see that many students were not very enthusiastic about having to read e-books and that many planned to go back to doing extensive reading with paperback graded readers as soon as their e-book presentations were completed. Furthermore, the initial survey indicated that many students were skeptical about reading e-books, which can be seen from the majority of the written comments being negative. As time went by, however, and students learned how to use the e-book reading system, they gradually became comfortable with the new technology and 15 students even read more e-books after their presentations were finished without being prompted to do so by the instructor. The second survey at the end of the quarter showed that the majority of students overwhelmingly enjoyed extensive reading using e-books and wanted to continue to read them during the following quarter. An implication of this study is that learning to use new technology can be stressful for some students at first, but if we, as teachers, can guide them through the process and show them that it is not as intimidating as they may believe or fear it is, students can become comfortable with using new technology in class and many may even begin to enjoy doing something new.

Learning about the types of issues that students had when learning to use the new e-reader system made it easier to manage after introducing it to future students. The instructor was able to anticipate some of the various technical problems that had the potential to arise and was able to either stop them or avoid them from happening beforehand. With the introduction of any new system or technology-based change in the classroom, the first quarter or semester implementing it is always a time for learning and reflection, for both students and teachers alike.

Reference

Brown, H. D. (2007). Principles of language learning and teaching. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education.

Joseph C. Wood currently teaches at Nanzan University in Nagoya, Japan. Dr. Wood has been teaching at the university level in Japan now for the past decade and his current research interests include (but are not limited to) sociocultural theory, extensive reading, and CALL.