From Particular to Popular: Facilitating EFL Mobile-Supported Cooperative Reading

This paper reports the results of an action research-based study that adapted a mobile-supported cooperative reading system into regular English as a foreign language (EFL) classes at one Taiwanese elementary school. The current study was comprised of two stages: adaptation and evaluation. During the adaptation stage, a mobile-supported cooperative EFL reading (MCER) system--chosen because of a report about its effects on enhancing the development of young EFL learners' reading abilities (Lan, Sung, & Chang, 2009)--was tailored to be integrated into a regular elementary EFL curriculum based on the suggestions of experienced elementary EFL teachers. During the evaluation stage, an EFL class learned reading via the support given by the MCER system; quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed to evaluate the effects of the adapted reading system on young EFL learners' reading abilities. The results revealed that the adaptation and use of the MCER system was successful and that it might facilitate the acquisition of reading abilities by young learners if used within EFL classes around the entire school.