DESIGNING A PICTURE E-BOOK INTERFACE WITH A READ-ALOUD FUNCTION TO IMPROVE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS' READING INTEREST.

This study used the online software system, Publuu, to design an e-book reading interface, with the aim of enhancing students' reading interest and motivation through applying the reading aloud strategy in the process of reading picture e-books. We used a pilot study to test our e-book interface design for this purpose. The participants were four elementary school fourth-grade students who experienced using the e-book interface to read the text and the picture of the assigned e-book material. Meanwhile, they were instructed to use the read-aloud strategy in order to enhance their interest in reading. The preliminary results showed that this e-book design helped enhance students' reading performance and interest in reading. In the future, we plan to further improve the e-book interface design for elementary school teachers to teach reading activities in the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]