The paper substantiates digital reading as a distinct component of the reading literacy of learners of English rather than as a variant of print reading performed on a screen. Three groups of operations are argued to be specific to the digital environment and absent from the linear printed text: navigation in a hyperlinked, reader-constructed text; evaluation of the credibility of sources under conditions of information abundance; and the processing of multimodal information in which meaning is distributed across verbal, visual and auditory channels. On the basis of terminological analysis, conceptual synthesis, comparative analysis of international assessment frameworks and documentary analysis of coursebook tasks, a system of indicators for each group of operations is proposed, together with a typology of classroom tasks and criteria for their assessment. It is shown that the digital component cannot be developed by transferring conventional comprehension questions onto a screen: it requires tasks in which the reader has to construct the reading path, and to justify the selection and rejection of sources