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Interactive whole language e-story for early literacy development in ethnic minority children

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Abstract

This study investigated the effects of using an interactive e-story for early literacy instruction on word recognition, story comprehension and story application. The study was conducted in two classrooms in the southern border provinces of Thailand with ethnic minority children at the kindergarten level. The samples consisted of 60 children who used the Pattani Malay language as a mother tongue, and who had little experience with Thai, the language of instruction in the kindergarten classrooms. The experimental classroom had 30 children who learned with the interactive e- story. The control classroom had 30 children who learned with the paper version of the e-story. Both groups were taught using a whole language approach for 45 min per day over 8 weeks. This research used a pretest-posttest design on word recognition and story application, and only a posttest design on story comprehension. The results showed the positive effects of using an interactive e- story and present an alternative method to foster the early literacy learning of ethnic minority children. These results showed the children’s improvement after using interactive e-story and a significant difference in word recognition and story application. The comparison of the early literacy improvement between two groups revealed a significant difference in word recognition and story comprehension but no significant difference in story application. Implications for future study and education are discussed.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from the Strategic Scholarships Fellowships Frontier Research Networks (Specific for Southern region), Office of the Higher Education Commission, Thailand.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ph.D.Candidate (Learning Innovation in Technology), Faculty of Industrial Education and Technology, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, 126 Pracha Uthit Rd., Bang Mod, Thung Khru, Bangkok, 10140, Thailand

    Muneeroh Phadung, Surachai Suksakulchai & Wacheerapan Kaewprapan

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  1. Muneeroh Phadung
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  2. Surachai Suksakulchai
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  3. Wacheerapan Kaewprapan
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Correspondence to Muneeroh Phadung.

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Phadung, M., Suksakulchai, S. & Kaewprapan, W. Interactive whole language e-story for early literacy development in ethnic minority children. Educ Inf Technol 21, 249–263 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-014-9318-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-014-9318-8

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