Cindy James carried out a project in a primary school in a small village in Malaysia. Her aim was to examine the impact of audiobooks on children’s interest in reading. It involved 20 10-year-olds and lasted for a duration of 8 months. In this article, Cindy explores what the study taught her about how audiobooks can help to inspire reluctant readers!
Using audiobooks to engage reluctant readers
Audiobooks are valuable tools that have a lot of untapped potential and benefits. According to Cardillo et al (2007), learning is most effective when it is a multisensory experience. Audiobooks adopt this concept of multisensory and associative learning. Some children fall into the category of reluctant readers not because they lack the enthusiasm for reading, but because they lack the ability to stick with a story until they fall into the tale. This makes them less excited about reading than they potentially should be. This ability to stick with a story is what is referred to as the reading “stamina” by Burkey (2009). According to Burkey, audiobooks offer an ambience that allows listeners to become immersed in long-form literature.
The Project
In the first stage of the project, students were introduced to audiobooks. They listened to the audiobook whist reading the printed version, both in the classroom and also at home. In four months, each student was able to listen to around twenty audiobooks, whilst reading its printed version. Before the project started, the average was just one book in four months.
In the second stage, the students created their own audiobooks. The students selected books that they liked and practiced reading them aloud. The teacher assisted students in recording and transferring the audio clips into digital formats. The audiobooks were recorded on CDs for the children to bring back home and share with their families. Some of the audiobooks were also uploaded on the class blog for easy access. This second stage of the project was also done in four months.
The Findings
The findings show that audiobooks have the potential to engage reluctant readers. In the survey conducted, 95% of the reluctant readers found the narration helpful for them and agreed that the audiobooks were easy to use both at home and in school. 95% also agreed that the audiobook makes reading fun and makes them want to read more books.
Pre-interviews conducted at the beginning of the project revealed that 95% of the children associated reading with academic-related tasks such as studying and doing homework. Their reading materials were limited to school books and text books. 60% of them associated reading with negative feelings, such as ‘not fun’, ‘boring’ and ‘tiring’. They were not aware that reading can be done for pleasure.
Towards the end of the project, the children’s responses to the post-interview questions showed that they no longer limit reading to studying and doing school-related tasks. They began to expand their reading to include a wider variety of materials. More interestingly, the children no longer associated reading with negative feelings. Reading was perceived as ‘awesome’, ‘great’ and something that can make them proud. Through audiobooks, the children were exposed to the idea that reading can also be done for pleasure.
Conclusion
The success in engaging reluctant readers effectively lies on the tools and strategies used to enhance engagement. Books by themselves are already wonderful and it only takes some introductions to get children to be hooked on reading. This project was an attempt at exploring how the wonderful world of books can be introduced to children.
A lot of unsuccessful attempts at getting reluctant readers to read are mostly influenced by the ineffectiveness of the ‘introduction’ stage. The act of introducing should not be reduced to merely ‘telling’ or ‘showing’. Teachers should consider exploring the various ways introducing can be made so that the effort can achieve its desired effect. Serafini (2004) concludes that there is no such thing as a child who hates to read; there are only children who have not found the right book. Audiobooks can act as an effective tool for reluctant readers to explore the world of literature and help them find the ‘right book.’
References:
- Burkey, M. (2009).Long-form listening. In Book Links (26-27). New York: American Library Association.
- Cardillo, A., Ditlow, T., Coville, B., Myrick, E., & Lesesne, T. (2007). Tuning in to audiobooks: why should kids listen? Children and Libraries. 5(3), 42-46. New York: American Library Association.
- Serafini, F. (2004). Audiobooks and literacy: an educator’s guide to utilizing audiobooks in the classroom. In RHI: Reaching Reluctant Readers. New York: Random House Inc.
If you enjoyed this article, you might also like Dr. Peter Watkin’s blog about approaches to reading in the classroom.