Reading in a new technology environment: Are reading assessments still in the ballpark?

Using digital technologies for daily activities such as communicating or learning has become ubiquitous today. This trend is also clearly visible within the field of reading habits, especially among adolescents: Recent studies underline that traditional text types (e.g., fiction books) are no longer part of the more commonly read text materials (Duncan et al., 2016). The question addressed in the presentation will deal with the degree to which different reading habits impact on adolescents’ reading competence, and is intended to encourage a discussion about the construct of reading competence as generally operationalized in reading competence assessments. We base our considerations on the analyses of two data sets: The first one deals with the extra-curricular reading habits of 3074 9th grade students, and the impact of these practices on their German reading competence. The corresponding data are taken from a survey regarding their reading habits in terms of ten different types of texts (e.g., non-fiction books, e-mails). A regression analysis reveals the strongest impact on reading competence for narrative texts, whilst reading digital texts – although highly attractive among the students – is found to be of minor importance. The second data set differentiates between the reading habits of around 4500 adolescents regarding 1) traditional (printed) texts, 2) digitalised texts (e.g., e-books), and 3) text types that have emerged with new technologies (e.g., social media texts). The ensuing discussion compares particularities of classical and digital texts, and raises questions concerning the construct of reading competence (to be) targeted by standardized tests.