E-book Activities and Vocabulary Development for Arabic-speaking Children with Learning Disorders and Typical Students in Bilingual Contexts.

• In Event: Multilingual Education in K-12 Contexts

Proposal

Arabic-speaking students in Israel face unique literacy challenges, involving both diglossia between spoken dialects and Standard Arabic and the simultaneous requirement to acquire Hebrew as a second language. For students with Specific Learning Disorder (SLD), this dual demand creates a “double difficulty”, further intensifying their language and literacy gaps (Shemesh-Olenik et al., 2020; Saiegh-Haddad, 2022). Such complexity may negatively affect their academic achievement and increase the risk of educational exclusion (Maunsell, 2020).
Research on digital learning has highlighted the potential of e-books to improve literacy skills among students with learning difficulties. For example, studies have shown improvements in vocabulary, reading comprehension, and phonological awareness among students with SLD (Escribano-López et al., 2021), and significant gains in vocabulary among kindergarteners exposed to various types of e-books (Bar Zvi-Shaked & Shamir, 2020). Moreover, bilingual children who read e-books in two languages acquired more knowledge compared to those reading in one language only (Priyashri & Yow, 2019).
Most prior investigations into the impact of e-book activities for students at risk or with SLD have concentrated primarily on Hebrew-speaking populations (Shamir & Dushinski, 2022). In contrast, research addressing Arabic-speaking students remains limited and at an early stage of development, highlighting the need to broaden the evidence base in this unique bilingual and diglossic context.
Research shows that students with SLD encounter particular difficulties in second-language acquisition (Liontou, 2019), underscoring the importance of innovative, culturally and linguistically adapted interventions (Huri-Al, 2012). Furthermore, reviews of digital tools emphasize that cognitively oriented technologies foster the development of phonological skills in early childhood (Fernández-Otoya et al., 2022).
The study aimed to examine the contribution of e-book activities to promoting literacy and language acquisition among Arabic-speaking fourth graders with typical IQ, whose mother tongue is Arabic and the second language is Hebrew, with typical developed students, as
compared to students with (SLD) depending on the type of book (printed book/E-book).
The study involved 324 students from five Arabic-speaking elementary schools, in grades 4, between the ages of 9 and 10) M = 9.44, SD = 0.20(, with a typical IQ level. Of whom, about half had typical development (n = 168) and the rest had SLD (n = 156). Each group was divided randomly into two sub-groups, one worked with a printed book and the other with an e-book (n ≈ 80 in each group).
A research design was constructed comprising fourth experimental groups (2x2). The research procedure consisted of five parts. In the first part, Logat al-Kara'a tests were passed. This kit includes diagnostic indicators of the reading skill at the accuracy and speed; these tests are designed to identify students with SLD. In the second part, tests were given to examine the basic cognitive level and to evaluate the students' literacy skills. In the third part, tests were given to assess early literacy skills (vocabulary and word Reading) before exposure to the book. In the fourth part, an intervention was held, where students were instructed to read a book, either electronic or printed, in Hebrew or in Arabic. There were four reading sessions of 35 minutes each. In the fifth part, tests were given to evaluate early literacy skills (vocabulary and word Reading) after exposure to the book.
The research questions were: Will there be differences between the study groups in the two measures of the study (vocabulary and word Reading),) before and after the intervention, comparing students with SLD and with typical development, book type (electronic or printed).
The research findings indicate that the use of electronic books led to significant improvement in students' achievements, both those with SLD and those with typical development, across all literacy skills examined in the study, in accordance with the research hypotheses. Additionally, it was found that the achievements of students with typical development were higher compared to students with specific learning disabilities; the achievements of students who used electronic books were higher than those who used printed books; and the achievements of students who used books in their mother tongue (Arabic) were higher than those who used books in Hebrew.
In the vocabulary task it was found that the degree of improvement among the students with and
without SLD who used an e-book in Arabic was higher compared to the groups of students who
used an e-book in Hebrew, the second language. In the intervention task in the word reading index,
it was found that the degree of improvement among students with and without disabilities who
used an e-book in their mother tongue (Arabic) is higher compared to the groups of students who
used an e-book in the second language, Hebrew. It was also found that the achievements of the
students in the word reading task who used the electronic book were higher among the group of
students with SLD compared to the group of students with typical development.
The unique contribution of the study is multidimensional and carries significant implications for the fields of education. First, the study offers new and in-depth insights into the effectiveness of using technological tools, particularly digital books, to enhance language and literacy skills among Arabic-speaking students with learning disabilities. Second, it underscores the importance of utilizing the native language as a means of empowering learning and improving literacy performance. Finally, the study’s findings contribute to the existing body of research and offer directions for future inquiry into the impact of technology on learning in multilingual and multicultural contexts, and particularly students with SLD.
The findings will be discussed at the conference.

Author

• Manal MOHAMMAD Serhan, Bar Ilan University