Digital Pathways to Literacy: E-Reading Interventions for Junior High School Learners
Abstract
This study developed and evaluated Digital Pathways to Literacy: E-Reading Interventions for Junior High School Learners, a voice-assisted mobile application designed to support struggling readers through interactive reading activities, text-to-speech, speech recognition, real-time feedback, assessment, and progress tracking. The study was anchored in socio-constructivism, cognitive theory of multimedia learning, self-determination theory, and the technological pedagogical content knowledge framework. A pre-experimental pretest-posttest design and developmental research approach within a research-and-development framework were employed. Respondents comprised 30 Grade 7 struggling readers, 11 English teachers, and one Public School District Supervisor selected through purposive sampling. A researcher-made, expert-validated questionnaire assessed usability and acceptability, while an assessment adapted from the Philippine Informal Reading Inventory measured reading comprehension before and after the four-week intervention. Students and educators rated the application as highly usable, with weighted means of 3.93 and 3.96, respectively, and highly acceptable, with weighted means of 3.92 and 3.83. Learners also demonstrated improved reading comprehension from pre-test to post-test, although difficulties with longer sentences were initially observed. The study concluded that the application is a usable, acceptable, and effective supplementary tool for supporting junior high school reading comprehension. Further development, classroom integration, institutional support, larger samples, and longer intervention periods were recommended. The study supports SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities) by applying accessible digital technology to literacy support for struggling learners. Its sustainability impact lies in supporting continued literacy development, independent reading practice, accessible learning support, and technology-assisted literacy intervention within public secondary education.