Development of the reading guidance system – Growing game in accordance with impressions after reading

Abstract

Fostering children's interest in books is one theme of reading guidance. Even children who do not like reading often enjoy reading their favorite books consistently. Thus, consistent book recommendations that match a reader's interests are important for effective reading guidance. It is not easy, however, to recommend which books are good to read because every child has her or his own interests. In this study, we classified impressions after reading, assigning one or more of 15 book feeling parameters based on expressions in book reviews, and developed the growing game using them as growing elements.

A game character grows by answering questions about a book or characters in it. Through the game, children’s interests will be understood by chosen questions and answering patterns. After each child plays the game, the system displays a list of books that have similar book feeling parameters to the child’s interests. In this way, the growing game serves as a mechanism for recommending books in accordance with children’s interests. The game allows children to choose among books for which they had similar impressions. This will help children keep their reading interest.

We had undergraduate students at the age of 18 to 19 play the game to examine the system, and found that the students enjoyed the game when the level control of the questions was appropriate. The students also had favorable impressions that the game, in many cases, recommended books that attracted/matched their interests. Moreover, they think this system is effective for reading guidance. However, some students pointed out that the details of questions in the game were not satisfactory. For example, some questions might be too difficult for students. Those statements suggested that the system would be more effective with questions from various perspectives and at appropriate student levels. (295 words)