EREADERS AT CLASSROOM: EXPERIENCE OF READING EBOOKS WITH EREADERS IN ENGLISH CLASSES FOR PORTUGUESE STUDENTS

Technology is getting closer to the classroom. Laptops, tablets, smartphones and mobile phones are devices that go hand in hand with the student’s books and notebooks. The ereaders, which are tentatively entering the Portuguese market, have some characteristics that may make them a useful tool for teachers and students. In some countries the digitization of educational material is a reality and the feeling to be more up to date is the motivation to exploit these technologies among Portuguese students.

The purpose of this study was to determine what impact has the use of ereaders and ebooks on learning, more specifically in the interpretation of texts, vocabulary, pronunciation and the reading speed of 23 students in the advanced levels of Cambridge Advance Certificate (CAE) and Cambridge Proficiency Exam (CPE) at International House of Coimbra. To this end, a plan was drafted with four sessions, one for each of the four weeks of the intervention. A survey was also carried out, we observed the sessions and at the end of the intervention, interviews were conducted with six students and the teacher.

The results obtained at the light of the theoretical framework in which this experiment was based and it was concluded that the ereaders and ebooks can be an important factor in motivating students to read and a useful tool for the classroom, due to the similarity with the traditional book and the portability and the large capacity file storage, enabling the effortless transport of several books, dictionaries and other documents.

Regarding the technology and according to the testimony of students and teacher, the ereaders still need many improvements, there being some skepticism when compared to tablets with multimedia capabilities for audio, video and web browsing similar to the computers.

Paper is still the format that offers greatest comfort to students, especially when it comes to underlining and note-taking. However, in general, they all feel that the e-book and digital format will eventually play a key role in schools.