Enhancing reading capability of young Thai students with augmented reality technology: Design-based research

Abstract

The Thai language, which is part of the Indo-Iranian language family, carries on rituals and local knowledge that have been passed down from generation to generation. The Thai National Statistics Office found that 10% of elementary school students in Thailand cannot read. This means that 90% of elementary school students in Thailand can read. The numbers disagree with a report from an international assessment agency that said young Thai students’ reading skills were the 50^th best out of 65 countries. So, it is still hard for young Thai people to read well. The main goals of this research are to: (i) make an augmented reality platform that will help students improve their reading skills and (ii) figure out how well the platform works. This study uses a method called “research design” (R&D) to look at how students feel about an educational product or method that was designed and then used. Research and development can be thought of as going through three different stages (research phase, development phase, and implementation phase). According to the results, the picture word inductive model (PWIM) strategy was put into place because the professionals said it should be. The most popular method of teaching was called “precision teaching.” Reading out loud and reading the same thing over and over were two ways that vocabulary was taught. According to the results of the experiment, the students’ scores after finishing the reading are higher than their scores after the first reading. As part of the second part of the study, reading comprehension skills were tested. The students have also gotten a lot better at understanding what they read as a whole.