Josep Ballester and Noelia Ibarra from the Department of Language and Literature Teaching suggest in the article ‘La educación lectora, literaria y el libro en la era digital’ (The reading and literary education and the book in the digital era), published in ‘Revista Chilena de Literatura’ (Chilean Literature Magazine), that reading ‘neither should it become an activity which takes place in the extra time at class nor should it be aimed at the curricular utilities because this can lead to the loss of interest by the children. The digital environment ‘should find its place in the classroom because it is the real context in which children are developed nowadays’.

In order to implement this teaching change in the reading training, the professors of the Faculty of Teacher Training consider that it is ‘essential that there are adults that practice and help to stablish reading as a pleasure in the surroundings of the child. This conception is completely different to understanding and experiencing reading as an obligation.’ In this regard, ‘we don’t have to focus our efforts on speeches about the extraordinary benefits of reading but models and contextualized practices should be provided in order to make the learning significant.’

Ballester and Ibarra say that the e-book is an example of digital format and they explain how the digital devices have modified the teaching-learning process and have started new ways of reading. This is a key tool at class and at home. The study shows the importance of the birth of new professional profiles focused on this new model, such as the teaching staff that wish to have better relationship with students through the digital tools.

Nevertheless, they also recognise that the new model that they suggest, the teaching method in reading training, coexists with a model in which there is a strong link with traditional reading in paper and with the compliance of academic shares when it comes to syllabus and programming at the classroom. For this reason, the professors of the Universitat de València think that the traditional teaching method acts to the detriment of the motivations of the new digital students and it makes difficult the implementation of the new model.

Noelia Ibarra and Josep Ballester say that ‘in this new scene it is understood the importance of thinking about how teaching in the reading scope is acting. In many occasions it is focused on memorising authors, data and books and it should be modified in order to arouse the interest of students.’

Trajectory

Josep Ballester is full university professor and Noelia Ibarra is hired doctor in the Department of Language and Literature Teaching. They are experts in aspects of the reading, literary and intercultural education in multilingual contexts. They have published dozens of works and monographies about this field. They belong to the research group Literary Education, Linguistics, Culture and Society (ElCiS, http://www.uv.es/=elcis/index.html), composed of professors of different Spanish, European and Latin American universities. The study carried by Josep Ballester and Noelia Ibarra has received funding from the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the Valencian Government. Nowadays, Josep Ballester is the president of the Spanish Language Didactics and Literature Society and Noelia Ibarra is vice-dean of the Faculty of Teacher Training of the Universitat de València.

Article:

Ballester, J. i Ibarra, N. (desembre 2016) «La educación lectora, literaria y el libro en la era digital». Revista Chilena de Literatura. Desembre 2016 (94), p. 147-171.