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Chapter 9
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-8668-7.ch009
Using Culturally and
Linguistically Diverse
Electronic Storybooks in
ESL Teacher Education
ABSTRACT
In this chapter, a qualitative approach used to investigate the experiences and learning of 110 preservice
teachers in English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) courses when they read electronic storybooks
for their school projects. During their online class, participants were asked to read one culturally and
linguistically familiar electronic storybook (e-storybook), develop a reading lesson plan, and partici-
pate in two online discussions after reading four culturally and linguistically familiar or unfamiliar
e-storybooks. After these discussions, the participants revised their lesson plans. The fndings provide
insight into what ESOL preservice teachers learn and the strategies they use in reading e-storybooks.
The participants revised the original lesson plan based on these reading experiences and learned about
their future students who will study English as a second language. The article concludes by discussing
the infuence of this online task-based instruction on ESOL preservice teachers’ learning and technology
use in teacher education courses.
INTRODUCTION
In the contemporary world, literacy requires the
capacity to understand various forms of presenta-
tions, such as audio, video, and computer games,
as well as both traditional and online written mate-
rial. Adding to this complexity, diverse groups of
people make meaning differently in new reading
contexts (Hamston, 2006; Kellner, 2001; New
London Group, 1996, 2000; Park & Kim, 2011).
In these new literacy contexts, teachers need to
help students understand and improve their facility
Ho-Ryong Park
Murray State University, USA
Deoksoon Kim
University of South Florida, USA