Abstract:

Digitalization has become an integral part of our everyday lives and started to influence all spheres of acquiring and transmitting information, including reading. Using different digital devices for reading influences the changing character of this process – people prefer scanning instead of in-depth reading, different digital reading patterns are used for reading a printed text, reading a hypertext forms new habits of reading, etc. As good reading comprehension is one of the key features of academic performance, there is no doubt that changing reading practices do not only influence information perception, but the learning process in general. Moreover, changing reading practices form a new type of a reader, whose distinctive features are being examined by researchers. The current study is an attempt to answer the questions whether new reading practices influence the way people read and perceive texts, what more efficient digital reading strategies are and what possible implications the transition to digital reading may have. This article is aimed at summarizing recent research on digital and online reading and determining if the change of reading strategies (from print to online or digital) influences reading comprehension. The findings of the current study can be applied by researchers, educators, and classroom teachers in their work.

Keywords:

Reading, digital reading, online reading, comprehension, education, technology.