Using mise-en-scène to foster reading comprehension in children e-books

Interactive E-books have been used as a motivational tool for children to read. With their interactive and playful feature, ebooks can engage, motivate, and provide an enjoyable reading experience. However, very few studies have been performed to evaluate the ability of the interactive features in e-books to support the comprehension of the text. Most of these studies have compared the effectiveness of reading from interactive e-books to reading from printed books. There is also a limited research on the design of interactive e-books that support comprehension of the text. This paper reviews the literature on the effects of reading from interactive e-books on comprehension. It follows by proposing an interactive design technique uses the "mise-enscene" expression and explains how this type of interactivity could support comprehension of the reading. The use of "mise-enscene" is explained further in the design of a reading application named Trees of Tales that promotes fun, engagement, and comprehension of text.