Reading written texts in traditional reading materials like books might be demotivating for many students. Teaching reading in such circumstances is not easy. With the emergence of technology and its fast development, teachers have to integrate technology and the use of computers in teaching reading (Park and Kim, 2011). “It became a must to utilise technology in
education” (Sahin and Alsancak (2011: 347). It makes it easy to access new
information. However, Ertmer (1999) points out some factors that may hinder the implementation of technology integration in classrooms. These factors can be extrinsic to teachers or intrinsic to teachers. External factors include lack of adequate access, time, training and institutional support while internal factors include teachers’ personal beliefs such as teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and teachers’ willingness to change and use technology in education practice. Besides, Tsai and Chai (2012) highlight the importance of taking into consideration the dynamicity of students and classroom contexts; therefore, teachers should adapt to the instructional needs for different contexts or varying groups of learners by re-organising learning materials and activities.
Using technological devices like computers and tablets in learning can make it possible to design and develop learning environments that take the
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differences among the individuals into account and that could be modified according to the personal needs of the users (Brusilovsky, 2003). Compared to printed material, computers are preferred by many people because of the accessibility of the information, the ability to change text to the desired size, ease of organisation, the avoidance of paper costs, and environmental benefits by the reduction of paper use (Dundar and Akcyir, 2012). Using computers in teaching English can increase learners’ motivation, promote language awareness, stimulate learners’ responses to literary texts and aid comprehension (Zainal, 2012).
Nevills (2011) argues that teachers should maximise the use of technology and media for instructional purposes. Technology, particularly the Internet, can enrich materials and help the students to understand native speakers to improve the foreign language they learn (Wu et al., 2013). The Internet is also one of the effective resources for EFL teachers (Chen, 2008). According to Abdi (2013), some of the benefits of using the Internet in language teaching and learning include motivating students and teachers, increasing the participation and interaction of students in the classroom, allowing a deeper integration with the culture of the target language, and encouraging students to go deeper into the themes under discussion. In line with this, Lo et al. (2013) reveal that online technology allows EFL readers the flexibility to interact with the text in ways not possible with printed texts only. In spite of these advantages, Spencer (2006) claims that some readers like the scent of the paper and prefer to read books that they can hold in their hands rather than spending an extended amount of time looking at a monitor. This is a viewpoint.
98 3.9.9.1 Reading online and hypertext
According to Naumann et al. (2008:197), “hypertexts are non-linear
computer-based texts that consist of individual pages connected via hyperlinks. Readers may navigate from one page to another by clicking on a hyperlink”. Reading of hypertext is very different from reading on a paper (Sandberg, 2011). Kang et al. (2009) claim that online reading comprehension is superior to traditional reading comprehension. Reading on- line may require developing new skills and strategies to read and understand texts (Coiro, 2011; Huang et al., 2009). Wright et al. (2013) support the use of online materials based on the results of their study which concluded that students are more likely to utilise reading resources when engaged with digital text. Consistently, Genc and Gulozer (2013) conducted a study on Turkish students and found that students who read the hypertext performed better on the test than students who read the printed text. Therefore, it is believed that students benefit from strategic reading instruction offered in a technology-enhanced learning environment (Levine et al., 2000).
Sandberg (2011) suggests that researchers and practitioners need to work together to find out the most effective strategies for reading online. For example, Castek (2013) highlights the effectiveness of adopting the approach of Internet reciprocal teaching in helping students become skilled readers. According to Wright et al. (2013), providing online material to students can be either by selecting appropriate materials from the resources of the Internet or by converting printed materials to hypertext. They also support the use of online bilingual dictionaries to help facilitate students’ learning. However, Park and Kim (2011) claim that research into L2 reader’s reading strategy
99 use in this field is scarce.
According to Abdi (2013), reading on-line needs the existence of appropriate access to Internet, which is not the case in Libyan universities. Using technology in education provides accessibility to a wide range of materials in the English language, which will probably help develop the quality of learning and teaching methods and techniques. This will also help the Libyan teachers to shift from traditional methods with ‘talk and chalk’ mode to technological approaches. However, some problems prevent the teaching staff in Libyan universities from using technological aids. Emhamed and Krishnan (2011) point out that time constraints and lack of administrative support are some of the difficulties that face Libyan English language teachers when trying to integrate technology in teaching EFL students.