Use of Pear Deck as an Interactive Tool in Teaching Reading Comprehension During the New Normal Use of Pear Deck as an Interactive Tool in Teaching Reading Comprehension During the New Normal

Good English language proficiency is given attention by the Malaysian government in line with the global challenge where the use of ICT is emphasized. Through the introduction of the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013-2025, the government is keen on ensuring every child is proficient in English. With the on-going battle against COVID-19 pandemic, online learning has become inevitable. However, students get demotivated when it comes to remote classes, especially in English lessons. As such , this research investigated students’ perceptions of the use of Pear Deck during the pandemic. This action research used a pre and post-test and employed a semi-structured interview where 20 Form Three students of average proficiency in an urban area school in Penang were purposely selected which provided needed data that was then analysed accordingly using SPSS for quantitative data and a thematic analysis in analysing qualitative data. Based on the discussion of data, it is revealed that active learning pedagogy practices are important factors in improving students’ success and they have a good perception towards the use of Pear Deck in reading activities during the pandemic. It is hoped that this study can encourage teachers in trying out Pear Deck in their ESL classroom for more engaging activities for the students.


Introduction
The spread of COVID-19, a coronavirus disease, has not only steered worries on safety and health but also cultivated awareness that was not obvious unlike before (Azizan et al., 2020). At education level, its spread has forced the adoption and adaptation of new normalcy in working and educational conditions all over the world, including Malaysia, starting in 2020. As a result of various procedures and quarantine laws, educational institutions are turning to distance learning. The issue has already sparked a surge in online education, putting us in a better position to deal with the situation. English is one of the important languages for many purposes but the main thing here is for education. To be at par with the ever-changing technology and Internet Of Things, one of the moves is to be proficient in English to meet the uncertain job prospects in the future. The Ministry of Education Malaysia has also emphasised the use of English when it introduced the Malaysian Education Blueprint (2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017)(2018)(2019)(2020)(2021)(2022)(2023)(2024)(2025) and in one of the eleven shifts stated that every child is expected to be good in the English language as well as other languages (Malaysian Education Blueprint, 2013-2025. Many students in Malaysia, especially those living in rural areas where internet facilities are at a moderate level, face challenges in learning English as a second language (ESL), particularly online classes. As a result of recent changes, the necessity for students to maintain or create a regular reading habit may become a higher priority (Merga, 2017). In other words, to be able to answer comprehension questions, students should be able to read and understand a passage. Mastering reading skills is important as it is the foundational skills to acquiring knowledge in various subjects. In order to get them to read and understand a text (either simple or comprehensive), reading motivation is required. This can be enabled when teachers are able to identify various interesting and engaging methods that regulate the habits of reading, which will eventually nurture the love for English. In Malaysia, ESL teaching has been given great emphasis with the objective of getting students to be able to read and comprehend different English materials not only for knowledge, information, and enjoyment, but also to prepare them for the challenges of the 21 st Century (Ni et al., 2020). For a lesson to be engaging and fun, this research used technology in order to create fun learning while teaching reading comprehension since pedagogy has been given a new approach by incorporating the internet nowadays. Although students are more familiar with social media and the latest applications like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, Snap Cut, they might not be informed about the possibility of using these social media platforms and applications as ways to enhance their reading. Ni et al. (2020) highlighted that technology has the potential of replacing the traditional way of teaching since the former enhances the learning process. The chalk-and-talk teaching method is likely becoming irrelevant within the present context, especially with the online learning that may shape the future of learning not only in Malaysia but across the globe as an impact of the widely spread COVID-19. Realising an existing gap within these concerns, this research partook in an inquiry to investigate the effectiveness of using Pear Deck in teaching reading comprehension to lower secondary students during the pandemic and students' perceptions on the use of Pear Deck in learning reading comprehension during the pandemic.

Literature Review The Teaching of Reading and its Current Trend
Reading is one of the ways to improve language skills in English. Reading comprehension assists the learning and thinking in English, which not only provides an upgrade in writing but also enriches one's English vocabulary. In fact, reading comprehension is also a good way to practise English conversation, especially when living in a non-English speaking country, reading comprehension can help prepare to live or to study abroad, especially in an English-speaking country part from the fact that it is a fantastic approach to learn about new concepts, facts and experience (Fitriyah, 2021).
Every teacher must possess five competencies, which are (1) technical, (2) pedagogical, (3) communicative, (4) management and (4) investigative skills. According to Ebrahimi and Jiar (2018), the use of ICT in teaching and learning English languages, such as Google Classroom and Pear Deck, arose from the need to develop new facets of education that are suitable for twenty-first-century learning as well as online learning and teaching during the pandemic to combat the spread of a deadly new virus, COVID-19.

Using Pear Deck in Reading Comprehension
Teachers have always struggled to keep students engaged in the classroom. As such, teachers might have to consider alternatives, especially with the new normalcy and demands of engaging online learning that they have to be equipped with 4IR in order to create active learning (Avelino & Ismail, 2021). Active learning in the classroom is extremely beneficial for improving students' participation and success in academic performance. As we all know, students' engagement is very crucial in order for the objectives of the lesson to be met. According to Javed and Odhabi (2018), it is a challenge for teachers to get the students to join online classes with the current pandemic situation since students encounter many difficulties such as issues of internet connection, device-less learning situations and low motivation among students.
Pear Deck is an application that enables effective pedagogy and engaging lessons between students and teachers (Blyznyuk et al., 2021). By providing a link to the students before starting lessons, teachers empower students by sharing equal autonomy at learning by clicking the link to start the lesson. They do not have to install any application on their smartphones. Teachers can share photographs, presentations and videos that have been planned before the class, which allows the application of multimodality where students are able to view the slides on their smartphones at the same time. Students can either draw or type their responses for each slide. Moreover, according to Blyznyuk, et al (2021), the ability to synchronise it with Google slides is an added advantage; for example, teachers can use their own saved material (e.g., images, audio, video, presentations and book screenshots) and immediately add it on to Pear Deck. Teachers can also get the Pear Deck add-ons from one of the google slides functions. Pear Deck is also used as a reinforcement method to help students learn and engage in reading comprehension activities in this article. As a result, Pear Deck is used in this context to help students learn and practise reading comprehension during the pandemic in a fun and meaningful way.

Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL)
It is vital to use teaching/learning technologies to enhance the process of English language learning in order to improve student's learning outcomes. Some of the more common practices include face-to-face language learning, remote language learning and CALL, which can benefit from collaborative learning. CALL is defined as any type of computerassisted language learning activity (Arikan & Khezerlou, 2010).
Among the advantages, students can use CALL technology to access any learning website and learn a language at their own speed, at any time, and from anywhere. They can access a virtual learning environment through the Internet without having to be physically present in a classroom; they can also receive quick feedback, allowing them to get answers to their questions in real-time (Wang & Liao, 2017). CALL can also be used to assess and test students' learning progress in place of tutors and tools (Yamaguchi & Levy, 1999: Lan et al. 2009). Its potential has ranged from creating concept mapping that helped reading comprehension (Liu, Chen & Chang, 2010) to surpassing the conventional methods to teaching reading comprehension (Marzban, 2011).

Approaches in Teaching Reading
A teacher may employ a variety of tactics when teaching reading. Students' ability to grasp their reading may be influenced by the use of the appropriate method. A strategy, according to Harmer (2007), is an activity used by a teacher to achieve one or more of her teaching-learning objectives. Reading strategy can be defined as the general direction established. Reading comprehension teaching styles are crucial in the learning process and can influence students' reading comprehension. Reading comprehension achievement is influenced by teaching styles and levels of curiosity (Gurning & Siregar, 2017). Therefore, teachers play an important role in terms of strategy selection and implementation that allow students to reach their learning goals. A review suggests that the teaching of reading should not be restricted to classroom teachings, thus suggesting a need to improvise on other strategies of teaching reading (Al- Raqqad et al., 2019). As a result, effective reading comprehension teachers recognise that reading may be taught using a variety of ways. There are two commonly used approaches when teaching reading in ESL classrooms.
The first approach is to use a model, which is a decoding process that transfers meaning from smaller units at the bottom (e.g. letters or words) to larger units at the top (e.g. phrases, sentences, and connective linkages) (Carrell & Eistenhold, 1983;Dole et al., 1991). Bottom-up processing is the opposite of top-down processing. Understanding, according to this viewpoint, begins with larger aspects (the title, the primary idea of each paragraph, and so on) and advances to smaller linguistic components. As a result, this type of processing relies heavily on the speaker's prior knowledge as well as the communication context. This model is also utilised when readers need to interpret assumptions and draw inferences, as well as when they need to figure out what the text's overall purpose or main concepts are (Nuttall, 1996). Furthermore, the top-down model recognises that a text's processing begins with a cognitive process in the reader's mind. By identifying the letters and words that appear on the page, the reader's interpretation based on past information, expectations, assumptions, and questions about the text is confirmed (Aebersold & Field, 2011). To put it another way, readers must draw on their own experience, background, and understanding of the world in order to interpret the text.

Research Design
The researchers chose to use action research to reflect on a specific situation that the students were facing at school, to collect and analyse data, and to make changes based on the findings. In action research, the researchers also used a mixed method approach (sequential explanatory), which combines qualitative research with interview and quantitative research with pre and post-test. The reason behind this approach is that quantitative data and subsequent analysis give a broad knowledge of the study topic. The qualitative data and analysis enhance and explain the statistical results by delving deeper into the perspectives of the participants (Rossman and Wilson, 1985;Tashakkori and Teddlie, 1998;Creswell, 2003).

Participants
Twenty pupils were chosen based on their average proficiency level and ability to read fluently. This study used purposive sampling, and all of the subjects have a low degree of proficiency but mediocre reading fluency.

Research Instrument
This research used two different research instruments. They are pre and post-test and semi-structured interview. The pre and post-test that comprised of ten structured questions were given to students in the form of a google form to test their comprehension skills. Then, to answer the second research questions, a semi-structured interview was also carried out to eight students on their perceptions of using Pear Deck in reading comprehension.

Research Procedure Identifying the Problem
This issue is being chosen as based on early observation as well as discussion with a few other teachers, the researchers have found that most of the respondents did not perform well in part 4 question in their mid-year examination. The reason for chosen the part is this part carries the most mark which is ten marks. If the students score good marks for this part, the chances for them to get good marks in their comprehension paper, Paper 1 is high. Therefore, the researchers have decided to introduce Pear Deck to know how effective the use of Pear Deck to teach reading comprehension during the pandemic and how do students perceive the use of Pear Deck in learning reading comprehension to improve students' participation in online classes and ultimately score good marks in part 4 question paper.

Planning an action -the use of intervention
In this preliminary stage, the researchers identified the problem that occurred among the respondents who showed low motivation in answering the comprehension questions. First, in pre-test, the respondents answered ten structured reading comprehension questions on a worksheet. After the pre-test, it was found that only 11 out of 20 students scored six marks and above out of ten marks. Then, the researchers gave some inputs using online platform, Pear Deck. The researchers used Google slides with Pear Deck add-ons for students to write or draw their responses on the slides. The activities in the slides required the students to draw a mind map and type their responses based on the comprehension text and they must not write more than five words. The researchers also gave some clues to students while carrying out the activities like, putting some blanks for each question so that the students will not exceed more than five words.
Students were also taught on how to get the answer correctly from the text to complete the sentences and to make sure the answers are not more than five words. Clues were also provided like images. For example, "In order to reduce water usage, we should try to shower for _____ ________. " So, here the students need to refer to the text and look for clues like shower to find the answers. Besides, the researchers also reminded the students not to repeat the same word if the word has already appeared in the sentence. In this example, the researchers provided a picture of someone on shower to create mental image. The final stage was to get the students to complete a table for questions 33 and 34. Here, the researchers helped the students by giving them clues like the paragraph where the words appeared. The researchers stressed to students that the word must be a word and not a phrase and the word is from the text.

Implementing and Observing the Intervention Process
The researchers carried out the intervention procedure that has been planned during the implementation of the activities. These activities were carried out in one research cycle. After the topic had been discussed in the online platform using Pear Deck, students were given about a week to study the topic before giving them the post-test. The evaluation of the activities was carried out by looking and analysing the intervention process carried out during the remote lesson through google meet, the result from the post-test and online classroom observation. At least 60% of the participants must have a minimum score of 6 and above out of 10 questions, according to the researchers' performance criteria.
Besides, a semi-structured interview was also conducted with all the eight participants through Google Meet to investigate their perceptions on the use of Pear Deck in learning reading comprehension during the pandemic. The researchers then transcribed the interview and used an interview protocol to ask questions and record answers during the interview. Braun and Clarke's Thematic Analysis (2006) was used to analyse data from the interview since it is capable of analysing big and small data sets, as well as homogeneous and heterogeneous populations, like a case study research with 1-2 participants (Cedervall & Berg, 2010) to large interview studies with 60 or more participants (Mooney-Somers et al., 2008). In this study, the data was retrieved from the semi-structured interview of eight participants which addresses the study objective and four sub themes emerged from the analysis at the initial stage. Braun and Clarke (2006) identified six processes to conduct a thematic analysis: (1) data familiarization, (2) initial codes generation, (3) combining similar codes into themes, (4) reviewing themes, (5) defining and labelling themes, and (6) drafting a report of the findings. The researchers have employed all the steps in analysing the data collected from the interview samples. Open coding was conducted by selecting important chunks in the data after familiarising themselves with the data by reading the interview transcriptions a few times. The open codes were then organised into several categories in a table. Then, each category is given a name, for example, words like easy to use, simple and friendly are categorised under advantages to represent the data before merging the categories into other groups to come up with several themes in the next step.

Data Collection Analysis Pre-test and Post-test
The information gathered was tabulated and descriptively analysed. The scores of all 20 students in their pre-test and post-test were recorded and compared. The scores were calculated based on the percentage formula.

Semi-structured Interview
By using Braun and Clarke's Thematic Analysis, the researchers gathered and analysed obtained qualitative data which enabled a derivation of themes. Figure 1 shows how the process of categorising the data that was collected from the interview, put into several groups and finally into four (Advantages, Features, Assessment and In-class activities) that will be discussed further in the discussion section. The first task started with categorising the information (open coding), picking one of the categories and placing it into a theoretical model (axial coding), and then explaining a tale based on the interconnectedness of these categories (selective coding) (Williams & Moser, 2019).

First Research Question
A comparison of pre-test and post-test marks were carried out to determine the effectiveness of Pear Deck as a tool to improve students' reading comprehension. Table 1 shows the results of pre-test and post-test from all 20 participants. The development of the individuals is shown in Table 1 from pre-test to post-test. In Table 2, the participants' ability in answering the comprehension questions before Pear Deck was presented was moderate, according to the pre-test findings, with a mean score of 5.0. The students' post-test results showed a considerable improvement after the introduction of Pear Deck, with the mean score increasing to 7.05. This result suggested that using Pear Deck had a considerable impact, implying that it is useful in assisting students in better comprehending and contextualising the material. After Pear Deck was introduced, students were better able to answer comprehension questions.  Table 3.

Paired sample test analysis on the Pre-test and Post-test
The Sig. (2-Tailed) value in my example is 0.000 as shown in Table 3. This value is less than .05. Because of this, we can conclude that there is a statistically significant difference between the mean for pre-test and posttest. Below are the histograms showing the highest marks for pre and post-test.
So, from the data gathered, we may conclude that after the introduction of Pear Deck, participants were able to answer the reading comprehension questions better than before the intervention because the mean number for post-test was greater than the mean number for pre-test.

Second Research Question
From the interview conducted, the researchers have identified four themes from the analysis of data which are advantages, features, assessment and in-class activities.

Advantages
The employment of modern equipment, technology, and tools in the classroom and outside the classroom promotes student learning and interaction (Raja & Nagasubramani, 2018). Hence, from the data, most students stated that using Pear Deck as an interactive tool has influenced them to learn as it makes it easy to understand the lesson taught. One of the interviewees mentioned that he thinks Pear Deck can help him score higher marks in his  Deuze (2006), with a huge influence on our day-to-day lives, the numerous applications nowadays that involve technologies have existed to assist individuals as one excellent way of using information and communication technology in education. One interviewee said that students can type in Pear Deck and the teacher can correct students' mistakes easily. (We can type in Pear Deck and the teacher can correct students' mistakes easily.) This is in line with Haryani and Ayuningtyas (2021) as according to them, Pear-Deck is an app that works well on smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers. Unfortunately, although ICT has been recognized and addressed to be important in education by teachers and the government, the fact has shown some inconsistencies between the instructions and the teachers' success in the classroom daily. According to Ebrahimi and Jiar (2018), the use of ICT in teaching and learning English languages, such as Google Classroom and Pear Deck, arose from the need to develop new facets of education that are suitable for twenty-first-century learning as well as online learning and teaching during the pandemic to combat the spread of a deadly new virus, COVID-19. All in all, to make the lessons fun and beneficial for the students, teachers have to find ways to improve their teaching deliveries to meet the challenges and to continue being relevant in the future.

Features
In terms of features, one student stated that in normal classes, they normally complete worksheets on reading comprehension and later discuss it with the teacher but in Pear Deck, since it is online everyone can do together and mistakes can be identified because the teacher helps them to type the correct answer in Pear Deck and for that, they think it is easier to use Pear Deck. (In normal classes, we do some worksheets on reading comprehension and we always discuss it but in Pear Deck, everyone can do it together and we can identify our mistakes and the teacher helps us to type the correct answer in Pear Deck and I think it is easier to use Pear Deck.) This is one of the features in Pear Deck where students can discuss answers and get feedback from the teacher and friends if they cannot understand any exercises given. According to Kumari and Hemalatha (2020), ICT works its magic in the classroom and propels itself through different methodologies of language teaching, owing to its ever-increasing need and significance in the field of education. This is also agreed by Ofsted (2004), where according to the study, English being one of the most challenging subjects, teachers must plan and implement an engaging classroom environment to keep students interested in the subject. Since Pear Deck comes with some interactive features like texting and drawing, these have been an added advantage for students and also teachers in creating quality lessons. This is also in accordance with a response that stated the difference between learning reading comprehension in Pear Deck and in the normal class is that learning in Pear Deck is easy and so colourful. In addition, most students said that they can also see many notes in Pear Deck that have been embedded from the slides either from Google slides, Microsoft Powerpoint or Canva, so here the students will have a whole new experience learning the English language in Pear Deck compared to learning in another platform like Google classroom (Haryani & Ayuningtyas, 2021;Blyznyuk, et al., 2021) The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) especially in education, according to Yunus et al (2014), changes the teaching methods in the classroom. The many practices in Pear Deck and the ability for mistakes to be identified by the teacher on the spot are a few methods of teaching that can be carried out in Pear Deck according to some responses from the students. Pear Deck allows students to become self-motivated and active learners by allowing them to ask inquiring and intuition-challenging questions instead of simply relaying facts (Javed & Odhabi, 2018). Students can work on their own and at their own pace in asynchronous learning. This is evidence as according to Azmi (2017), the integration of technology in a language classroom will help learners learn more effectively. However, some features are not available for teachers like Teacher Dashboard where they can monitor the students in the class roster and give feedback to students. Teachers need to upgrade to premium users if they want to get full access. Overall, it is still considered as one of the engaging and interactive tools in motivating and improving students' achievement in both online and offline learning and teaching especially during the pandemic (Anggoro, 2020).

Assessment
For this theme, with the recent Movement Control Order (MCO), classroom activities must be carried out following the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). One of the interviewees stated that it is better to use Pear Deck at school because it is easier to ask anything from the teacher and friends while using the Pear Deck. (I prefer to study Pear Deck at school with the presence of a teacher and also with my classmates where we can discuss activities together.) By using Pear Deck, the teacher can correct students' mistakes easily without them having to hand in their work or assignments after classes. According to Haryani and Ayuningtyas (2021) and Ni et al. (2020), Pear Deck will also benefit the students in maximising their academic performance as well as improving their interpersonal relationships and self-esteem. Classroom-based assessment can be carried out during the lesson with Pear Deck. This can be continued even during physical lessons in the classroom at school. For work submission, one of the students mentioned that it is better to submit work in Pear Deck to ease up teachers' work in checking exercises. (In terms of work submission, I think it is better in Pear Deck to ease up teachers' work in checking exercises or homework given.) In short, Pear Deck has made it easier for teachers to build productive, interactive learning environments. As a result, Pear Deck is used in this context to help students learn and practise reading comprehension during the pandemic in a fun and meaningful way.

In-class Activities
It is critical for students to actively participate in classroom interaction, both between teachers and students and among students working in groups (Mercer, 2000). For this theme, Pear Deck is suitable to be employed in the classroom with the teacher as a facilitator and stable internet connection as it is the best solution, especially during the post-pandemic. Furthermore, students can still use Pear Deck because they can exchange information with their fellow friends and one of the students said that she prefers to study Pear Deck at school with the presence of a teacher and also with classmates. In addition, another student stated that meeting friends and teachers face to face is better and a lot of questions can be asked and the lesson is better understood. (In normal classes, we can meet our friends and teachers face to face and can ask questions and understand the lessons better.) According to Sudiarta et al (2018), students can use online discussion to improve their comprehension and communicate with their peers and teachers. Students are deemed to be engaged when they are engaged with the task's content rather than simply completing the activity given (Ainley, 2012). Therefore, the use of Pear-Deck to assess interactive online learning is beneficial with the presence of a teacher and also classmates to finally achieve the lesson objectives.
After all the themes were analysed, it was found that most of the students agreed that Pear Deck has a lot of advantages over disadvantages. According to them, Pear Deck is effective in improving their reading comprehension as most of the exercises can be carried out in the application and teachers can monitor students' progress during the lesson. Apart from the interesting features in Pear Deck like the drawing function, where they can use to highlight notes or important points, students can simply type their answers in Pear Deck and their work or assignments can be assessed on the spot in synchronous lessons. All in all, if there is a stable internet connection and proper devices provided for students in the classroom, the use of Pear Deck is the answer to more engaging and interactive lessons to be carried out during and after the pandemic.

Conclusion
To conclude, other technological tools such as Quizizz, Kahoot, and Mentimeter, as well as more open-ended written questions, observations, and open-ended interviews, could be integrate with Pear Deck in future for excellent effects. This recommendation is in line with Aiqin (2012), who claims that the most significant benefit of employing technology is that it allows teachers and students to transmit language knowledge and skills while also allowing students to be proactive and engaged in the class. Teachers receive quick feedback from students, allowing them to adjust teaching methods and processes in real-time to match the needs of students' learning progress. Furthermore, additional research and development should be performed in rural and urban primary schools. This method can be used to determine whether the study's findings are transferable to various learning environments. In addition, the proposed study might be expanded to include other types of skills, such as listening, writing, and speaking, as these are the most difficult skills in the English language for ESL students.
Pear Deck can help students improve their reading comprehension skills. It was demonstrated to be beneficial in this study because the majority of respondents had favourable experiences acquiring reading comprehension with Pear Deck, according to the data acquired from the interview. The students' motivation was noted to be increasing, and they gave favourable feedback on Pear Deck's application in reading comprehension learning. Pear Deck is a fun and interactive tool for pupils to practise reading comprehension. For teachers, it provides a platform for creating a student-centred learning environment in which students can participate in hands-on activities. This lowered the teacher's involvement in the learning process and gave students more control over their reading comprehension learning. The teacher can act as a facilitator and monitor the students' learning by using Pear Deck in the classroom. As a result, Pear Deck demonstrates the importance of improving the methods for teaching reading comprehension in a fun, engaging, and relevant way. To answer the preceding research question, we can summarise the main findings as follows. In ESL classrooms, interactive classes with Pear Deck were effective in enhancing students' learning achievement in reading comprehension, as well as their learning motivation and self-efficacy. Furthermore, pupils demonstrated a high level of participation in learning activities. As a result, students were enthusiastic to engage in a Pear Deck-based class and had a high level of technology acceptability.
Hence, to maximise the reading comprehension learning process with Pear Deck, this study concentrated on the pre-class and in-class stages. The study's key contribution was to investigate a new strategy to structuring ESL students' in-class activities in order to provide an interactive learning platform for them to learn passionately. Therefore, the attempt to use Pear Deck to teach reading comprehension contributes to solving a long-standing difficulty in reading comprehension instruction: student weariness caused by working alone with longwinded texts. More practical pedagogical approaches can be implemented in the reading comprehension process in other parts of ESL, such as writing and oral comprehension, in the future, and it will also be possible to develop new digital tools or use existing instruments to accelerate active learning in both teaching and learning.