How do we use audiobooks to build student comprehension?

alexis Juengst

As a preservice teacher and paraprofessional, I chose to research how to pair audiobooks with materials that help build student’s comprehension skills because in my early career I have seen the ways students who need support in decoding ask for texts to be read aloud. My mentor teachers often read aloud, play audiobooks, and support students to take turns reading aloud to one another; therefore I wanted to use this space to explore how to best let students engage with audiobooks and other audio-materials in class.

Aiding Readers

Teachers who support kids learning a second language and emergent readers have long utilized audiobooks in the classroom. These students now have a successful means of accessing and enjoying literature. At times people have considered listening to audiobooks cheating or not considered reading. I think it’s how you look at it and what you define as reading. As early as 2003, Johnson wrote, “If reading is understanding the content of the story or the theme, then audiobooks certainly succeed” (np). I believe reading in broad terms is interpreting words to understand meaning, and being able to comprehend and absorb the information one is learning. While Johnson’s (2003) article was aimed at arguing for teachers to use audiobooks for emerging readers, there are many benefits of listening to audiobooks for all students.

Three assets of audiobooks in the classroom include: “Modeling good interpretive reading, teaching critical listening, and introducing new vocabulary” (Johnson, 2003, np).

Audiobooks model good interpretive reading by using expression and emphasis that offers readers more context for the text. When you model good interpretive reading, you help students understand the character's expressions and emotions. Setting a good reading example for the students has many benefits and helps them interpret the text better. Modeling good interpretive reading helps students stay engaged, understand the text, and understand the use of tone and expression when reading. When reading with tone and expression the students can picture themselves inside the story and it feels like real life.

Teaching critical listening skills entails helping students actively and intelligently engage in spoken communication and with reading so they learn how to interpret and analyze the information they are learning. Critical listening might look like asking questions of an author or repeating parts of a spoken text aloud to show understanding of key points.

Introducing new vocabulary is the last benefit I want to further discuss. Introducing new vocabulary helps the students learn and comprehend what the words mean before they read them and put them into context. Introducing new vocabulary helps to expand their vocabulary range and audiobooks can help students recognize words that they haven’t heard in conversations. Audiobooks have potential to support comprehension by offering a model of fluent reading, supporting critical listening skills, and introducing students to new vocabulary.

Aiding readers with disabilities
Students with learning disabilities have also long utilized audiobooks inside the classroom. This allows them the opportunity to still enjoy the literature and access the books they like, even when they are building their decoding and fluency skills. “Assisted reading with audio recordings has been
used as an effective instructional intervention for students with learning disabilities and with struggling readers” (Abbey, 2022, p. 21). Listening to audiobooks is found to help students with disabilities when reading by offering them access to content and reinforcing vocabulary, pronunciation, and fluency.

We as teachers want students to be exposed to diverse literature and be able to interact with it within the classroom, regardless of their reading ability. “The overall goal of assisted reading with digital audiobooks is similar to the goal of SSR (sustained silent reading) in that students are exposed to
literature” (Abbey, 2022, p. 23). To give scaffold support as a teacher, assisted reading systems are ways to show fluent models of successful reading techniques.

As a paraprofessional, I work with students who have disabilities and love to listen to audiobooks. They have access to Epic, which is a reading app on their iPads. They have access to a wide variety of audiobooks they can listen to. One of the students I work with is completely non-verbal and loves listening to books on Epic. I know she is not always able to understand what the book is saying, but she enjoys the pictures, new words, and different expressions the author uses when they read the audiobook. She engages with these audiobooks differently than If I were to just read
her a book because she has choice and is able to pause and repeat parts of the text that she likes.

Another student is in third grade, but is an emerging reader who is reading below grade level. However, Epic offers him access to grade level texts, and he likes listening to comic books! I feel he is able to comprehend far more words than he can read, which is why I see audiobooks as very essential to students who have disabilities.

I think including a diverse variety of audio materials inside the classroom is beneficial. It allows students to both listen and be engaged in the context and be able to comprehend what is being said. By using audio materials students don’t have to struggle with trying to read it themselves, or hesitating and not asking for help. Instead, they can be fully engaged and not have to worry about asking for the help they need.

References
Abbey. (2022, January 12). Audio books: How they can help kids with learning disabilities.
Abbey Neuropsychology Clinic. https://www.abbeyneuropsychologyclinic.com/how-they-can-help-kids-with-learning-dis
abilities/#:~:text=Audiobooks%20help%20your%20child%20by,robust%20than%20their%20reading%20comprehension.
Johnson, D. (2003). Benefits of audiobooks for all readers. Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/topics/educational-technology/articles/benefits-audiobooks-all-readers