Are Audiobooks Really Reading??

Listening to audiobooks and reading are two different paths that lead to the same destination.

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Audiobooks have emerged on the reading scene with a vengeance. But are students learning valuable reading comprehension skills by using this mode of deliverance? Again and again, studies have shown YES.

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Increasing Reading Enjoyment

One of the biggest benefits of reading, is sheer enjoyment. However, when reading the printed word is a struggle for you, that enjoyment is lost. Instead, a strong avoidance and distaste fills that spot. This distaste negatively impacts our children when it means they lose exposure to others’ perspectives, complex vocabulary, and knowledge. With the use of audiobooks, we can bring that enjoyment back, squelching the distaste and giving our children back the love of reading. In a research report by the National Literacy Trust, Emily Best writes, “There are several factors that could contribute to this but the technological aspect of audio (the device on which it is played, such as a smartphone or MP3 player) may be particularly appealing in terms of its ‘cool factor’, which is seen as particularly pertinent for reluctant male readers.“

Improving Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension skills are a higher-level set of skills that good readers use to understand and glean knowledge from a text. Unfortunately, if a reader is still struggling at the word level, they can never get to those higher-level skills. Once a child transitions to third grade, reading instruction changes from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.” However, if a child has not mastered that “learning to read” phase, they will lose out on the knowledge needed to be successful in the higher grades and in life beyond. By using audiobooks, we can allow children to bypass the word-level skills to focus on the deeper comprehension skills they need. In a research article by The American Educational Research Association, it showed that “the overall difference between reading and listening comprehension was not reliably different.” This means that the difference between a good reader reading the text versus listening to the text was marginal. When you present it as a poor reader reading the text versus listening, the difference is great.

Expanding Vocabulary

Reading provides us access to complex vocabulary we wouldn’t usually be exposed to in our everyday lives. This exposure greatly enhances our vocabulary banks. Without reading, we are depriving our children of this expansive databank of rich vocabulary. This deprivation will be evidenced in both their oral and written expression, as well as their knowledge of the world around them. According to a report by the National Library of Medicine, “there is empirical evidence that, for older children and adults, much learning of new words occurs through exposure to written texts (Nagy, Herman, & Anderson, 1985; Sternberg, 1987).”

Developing Moral Identity

In the digital world we are currently being thrown into, there are noticings of a tragic realization: we are losing our empathy. Empathy is the ability to see another person’s perspective, to “walk in their shoes” so-to-speak. Why is empathy so important? Bullying, peace, and mental health are all affected by a society’s ability to be empathetic. Books help teach our children empathy. They are exposed to other worlds, other people, and other perspectives. Reading allows us to “walk in someone else’s shoes” and experience life through their eyes. This experience teaches our children how to be open and tolerant of others, how to feel what others are feeling, and how to help those around them. Reading is foundational in helping children develop their moral identity. In an article put out by Michigan State University, Kylie Rymanowicz writes, “When children read stories, they are given the opportunity to understand the story from the perspective of the characters.” By allowing our children to use audiobooks to read, we allow them to strengthen their empathy and moral identities.

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