Motivation of parents towards reading multilingual eBooks to pre-school children

Abstract

The use of mobile devices for language learning, within Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL), has been found to motivate children to read digital print. However, parents need to be convinced of the benefits of this new technology-assisted learning method within a multilingual learning context. A case study was conducted to propose a MALL framework in which teachers and parents created a shared meaningful learning environment to develop young children's emergent multilingual literacy skills, using mobile devices installed with interactive multilingual eBooks. This paper reports the findings, specifically on the parents' attitude and motivation towards reading multilingual eBooks with their children. A group of 25 multi-ethnic families, together with their 5-year-old children participated in this study. A mixed-method explanatory research design obtained data on parent's attitude and motivation from a questionnaire, interview, and feedback form. The results show a high level of parents' acceptance toward reading eBooks with their children. Parents attributed their positive attitude and motivation towards MALL to the use of the multimedia, multilingual, and mobile platform. The MALL framework was also found to encourage parents and other adults to scaffold the children's multilingual skills development. However, some parents expressed a stronger preference for printed books and were concerned with health issues associated with the children's use of eBooks. Areas for improvements and future research are also made in this paper.