Article-Emily+Dittmar

Improve Reading Skills with Audio Books

Shu-Hsien Chen (2004) discusses how reading skills can be improved through audio books at the elementary level. Reading is a very complex process, and adding audio books into the curriculum can improve the reading skills and reading interests of students. Typically students have problems with text complexity, lack of interest, and lack of prior knowledge. Struggling readings often read word by word instead of phrase by phrase which interferes with comprehension. Using audio books can help students overcome these issues. While a student might be reading at a first grade level, he can comprehend the content of a fifth grade level text is it is read orally. Reading with an audio book can help keep students focused, and not get frustrated by not recognizing a word because it is read to them. They also are not as intimidated by an audio book because they know that they will help.

It is important to use text simultaneously with an audio book to improve reading skills. While following along, students will begin to make connections between physical form of words and the sounds of words from the text. In the library, it is important to have both audio and text copies of a book to assist students in developing their reading abilities. Interestingly, some elementary librarians only look at an audio book as a copy of the book. Therefore, they will not buy a text copy of the book to go along with the audio version because they feel only one copy of the book is needed in the library. To aid student who struggle with reading, this philosophy may need to be reevaluated to see if it is in the best interest of the students. Librarians also need to think beyond fiction when choosing audio books. There are several books audio books in the science and social studies that would be of interest to students as well.

To evaluate an audio book it is important to evaluate the style of the reader. There are four categories: fully voiced (most popular where all characters are characterized), partially voiced (only one character is featured), unvoiced (no vocal role-play), and multivoiced (has multiple readers for characters). To learn from the audio book, it must be in the right voice or else it will just frustrate students like text.

At the high school level, it would be nice to know if using audio books could help comprehension. Often students get intimidated by the length of an audio book, much like they do at the size of a book. Another problem is that content area teachers think that it is “cheating” if students listen rather than read a book. Again, the philosophy might have to be investigated to see what is in the best interest of students.

Reference Chen, S. (2004, September). Improving Reading Skills through Audiobooks. School Library Media Activities Monthly, 21(1), 22-25. Retrieved March 9, 2011, from ProQuest Education Journals. doi: 694219671