International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation (IJLLT) ISSN: 2617-0299 www.ijllt.org A New Generation of Readers in the Digital age: Attentive or Distracted? Zakia DJEBBARI 1 *& Houda DJEBBARI 2 1 Senior Lecturer, Department of English, Tlemcen University, Algeria 2 Doctoral researcher, Department of English, Tlemcen University, Algeria Corresponding Author: Zakia DJEBBARI, E-mail: djeb13@yahoo.co.uk ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Received: December 07, 2018 Accepted: January 02, 2018 Published: January 30, 2019 Volume: 2 Issue: 1 DOI: 10.32996/ijllt.2019.2.1.1 Within a progressively high knowledge-based society, globally-oriented world, and diverse society, making sure that our students are well equipped with the necessary tools and competences to live in this digital age is, in fact, one of the prevalent challenges facing today’s education. Indeed, the novel nature of reading and readers has enormously changed as digital texts and technologies become more prevalent. Thus, teachers are under the pressure to shape their teaching visions to more mobile-based reading ways that will cope with learners’ new requirements to exist, struggle, and cooperate in a newly global scenario. Thus, the present paper attempts at reflecting upon the challenging task of teachers, from developing world, to incorporate new educational technologies into their typical classrooms in general and reading practice in particular for a better teaching/learning experience. Nonetheless, one should be cognizant of the fact that despite the growing importance of ICTs in education, there is no “magic bullet” that will answer all existing challenges (Schramm, 1977), still there is a lack of a structured approach based on collaboration, innovation, development and implementation of educational technologies. Hence, incorporating technology within the reading process may create a challenging problem at this level; do our learners, in such a technological scenario, read as attentively and thoroughly as required? How do their brains respond to onscreen text than to words on paper? Should teachers be worried about dividing learners’ attention between pixels and ink? This paper will answer these questions and many other concerns. KEYWORDS Reading skills, ICTs, EFL, technology-based reading, digital age, attentive vs. distractive reading, paper or pixel-based reading 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduce the problem Man in general is currently living in a globe which is clearly characterised by a constantly emerging new information and communication technologies ICTs which, in fact, challenge the education sector with novel opportunities. Institutions throughout the world have started adopting and inserting new ways of teaching based on information and communication technologies. Thus, it is not a matter of accepting this kind of colonization or not, it is now a compulsory common place into our educational system and teachers should design their courses and accept these challenges to be able to survive within such a new digital age. Despite the widespread adoption of tablets in schools, ranging from elementary through higher education, research about the effects of tablet use on student learning has obvious gaps. Rapid technological advances and changing features in electronic devices create challenges for those who study the effects of using them; specifically, researchers face limitations in understanding the effects of digital reading on student recall and comprehension. More importantly, increasing our understanding of the influence of electronic devices on learning will inform educators about the implications of test scores and performance. Within this changing time of globalisation where teachers have to deal with digital native learners, it seems crucial for them to be familiar with information and communication technologies to survive in this digital age. A generation ago, teachers could expect what they taught would last their students a lifetime! Today, Because of rapid economic growth and social change, our educational institutions have to prepare learners for jobs that have not yet been created, technologies that have not yet been invented and problems that we don’t know will arise! Our mission is, then, to build a sustainable platform that supports the development of skills for life-long learning in a professional manner.