Examining elementary school students' hypertextual reading processes

Ill ABSTRACT Hypertext is digitized, linear or nonlinear interactive texts, where readers have the options of choosing their own path of reading. Hypertext enviroments are media- rich reading enviroments, where elemantary school students will be exposed to more as The Ministry of National Education initiated and is implementing The Informaion Technology Classrooms Project. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to examine the fifth and sixth graders' hypertext reading processes. More specifically the effect of instruction on students' navigation and the issue of dissorientation was explored. A total of 45 fifth and sixth grade elementary school students particaped in this study. A pre-test, post- test quasi experimental research design was applied. Data were collected through three instrurements, which are Hypertext Dissorientation Scale, memory test and a reading time log. The results indicated that students percieved themselves as undecided about dissorientation and no gender difference was observed. The more they spend on hypertext reading, the more they remembered and the less they felt dissoriented. No gender difference was observed in their reading times. Moreover, instruction on how to navigate in hypertext enviroments did not have an effect on students' dissorientation and memory retrieval scores. Keywords: Reading, hypertext, hypertextual dissorientation, navigation, instruction.