The Impact of Augmented Reality Storybooks on Children's Reading Comprehension and Motivation.

While existing literature extensively explores the application of augmented reality (AR) technology in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields and higher education, research on its use in children's reading remains relatively limited. This research gap urgently needs to be addressed, particularly in understanding how AR can enhance children's reading comprehension, story retelling, and reading motivation. To address this gap, this study examined the effects of AR Chinese picture storybooks on second-grade students' reading comprehension, story retelling, and reading motivation. A quasi-experimental design was employed with 60 second-grade students from a primary school in central China, where 30 students used AR storybooks and 30 used traditional paper storybooks. The results indicated that students who used AR storybooks demonstrated better reading comprehension, particularly implicit comprehension, than those who used paper storybooks. However, there was no significant difference between the two groups in explicit comprehension. Additionally, the AR storybook group outperformed the paper storybook group in both story retelling and reading motivation. These findings suggest that AR technology can create more interactive and immersive reading experiences, positioning AR as a promising tool for enhancing literacy development in young learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]