The answer is sort of, kind of, maybe. Audiobooks can be wonderful. I have a subscription service for audiobooks. I love listening to novels when I'm traveling. I also like to listen to audiobooks when I'm working in the garden or doing mundane housework. Audiobooks are completely acceptable forms of entertainment.
But academically, is it acceptable for your student to listen to an audiobook as a novel reading assignment instead of reading a book? The short answer is "no." The more complete answer is "yes, as long as the student is reading the book as they listen to the audio." So, if your student wants to listen to an audiobook for school, then the text needs to be in front of them, and their eyes must be following along with the audio.
What's the difference? There is a lot of difference, actually. Reading requires a person to recognize symbols associated with a language's rules and translate those symbols into words, sentences, and paragraphs to develop meaning. There is a lot of brain work occurring when reading. Listening does not require the understanding of complex symbols. A student who can read a fourth-grade level book can easily listen to a high school-level book, like Dickens's Great Expectations, and comprehend most of the story. But a fourth-grade reader would struggle with reading Great Expectations on their own because of the more advanced sentence structure and vocabulary.
Is there anything to gain by listening and reading a book at the same time? Absolutely! A person who is listening to text and reading the text together is activating two sensory portions of the brain: the visual and auditory. And when that happens, it increases a person's retention. So, by using both audio and text when reading, a person will remember what they read more completely.
if it is important to retain the information being read, then add a third element: writing. If a person reads and listens to a piece of text, then writes a summary or their own personal thoughts about the text, that will also increase retention.
To recap, listening to an audiobook is fine if it is just for entertainment. If the purpose of reading is academic, then it benefits any student to listen to the audio and read the text simultaneously. If it is important to retain the information from the text, listen, read, and follow up by writing a summary of what was read.
Comments