Prevalence of online reading among high school students in Qatar: Evidence from the Programme for International Student Assessment 2009

INTRODUCTION AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKRecent research has suggested existence of an explanatory relationship between prevalence of online reading and reading literacy (Gil-Flores, Torres-Gordillo, & Perera-Rodriguez, 2012; Hsieh & Dwyer, 2009; Lee & Wu, 2013; Moyer, 2011; Pfost, Dorfler, & Artelt, 2013; Silva, 2009) even though in many cases that relationship is not direct or potentially as strong as that for traditional (hardcopy) reading (Baron, 2013; Coiro, 2012; Robertson, 2006). Hsieh and Dwyer (2009) for example used the theory of self-regulated learning to explore the indirect effect of online reading on reading literacy within context of an intermediary role of meta-cognitive reading strategies. Using a sample of 169 undergraduate students they showed that online reading had a significant effect on learning objectives. A conceptually similar study by Lee and Wu (2013) based on PISA 2009 used nationally representative samples from 15 countries and showed that not all types of online reading activities contributed similarly to reading literacy. Specifically, they found that information seeking activities led to an improvement in reading literacy while social entertainment activities worsened it. This finding was also supported by Gil-Flores, Torres-Gordillo, and PereraRodriguez (2012) who focused on the Spanish sample from PISA 2009 and showed that information searching activities resulted in better digital reading performance as compared to online social activities. On the other hand, in contrast to the findings of Hsieh and Dwyer (2009) and Lee and Wu (2013), a German study by Pfost, Dorfler, and Artelt (2013) based on a sample of 1,226 secondary school students found evidence that supported existence of a negative relationship between online reading and reading achievement. The same study also suggested that traditional book reading remained a significant and positively correlated predictor of reading achievement. Regardless of whether the effect of online reading on reading literacy is direct or indirect, since the ultimate aim of most educational policies directed at the individual level is to improve literacy, from an empirical point of view it is important to examine significant determinants of such literacy. Thus, given this reasoning, prevalence of online reading as a potential predictor of reading literacy on its own merits an in-depth examination.An obvious predictor of online reading among students is frequency of computer use. However, not all types of computer use involve online reading. For example, when a student uses a computer to play a single-player game, little or no online reading may be involved. On the other hand, activities such as reading online news, reading emails, or chatting online cannot be accomplished without involving some degree of online reading (Gil-Flores, Torres-Gordillo, & Perera-Rodriguez, 2012). Similarly, when online reading does take place not all of it may contribute to reading literacy. One may categorize online reading activities into two distinct groups: social entertainment activities such as interacting with social networking websites or chatting online that contribute little to reading literacy (Pfost, Dorfler, & Artelt, 2013), and information-seeking activities such as using an online dictionary or searching online information to learn about a particular topic, that contribute to such literacy (Lee & Wu, 2013). It is also important to consider whether online reading activities occur at home or school because the nature of such activities may not be the same at the two locations. For example, when at school students may have limited opportunities to engage in activities such as chatting online, reading personal emails, or searching for information not directly related to schoolwork. An increasing body of recent literature suggests that students' use of computers at home has surpassed such use at school with students reporting frequent use of computers for online activities such as reading email or searching the internet for information (llomaki, 2011; Kent & Facer, 2004; Lahtinen, 2012; OECD, 2005; Slewyn, 1998). …