Do Audio Books Help with Literacy Skills?

Now that listening to books read out loud has become so popular, many people are wondering if audio books help with literacy skills. Let’s take a look at the information that’s out there.

The article “How Audiobooks Can Help Kids Who Struggle with Reading” states that exposing children to the spoken word through rich storytelling absolutely helps improve literacy. While books require readers to decode words, stories read out loud free up the person, allowing him or her to connect more with the storyteller and the story. The article “Why Use Audiobooks in ESL classes?” says that many kids, in fact, go on to read the actual books after hearing them read out loud.

Using audio, beyond the audio book, such as a podcast, offers a number of benefits to teachers, too, says the International Literacy Association. For instance, audio can help greatly to stimulate learning or to assist kids who are struggling, like dual language children. Though primarily used in listening activities, a podcast audio can be used for students to record their own audio to talk about their weekly readers, which can assist in developing stronger literacy, it says.

Because reading is often a bigger challenge for English language learners (ELLs), it can be difficult for them to fully grasp the pronunciation of words when given reading assignments. Audio books, however, can help fill in the gap in teaching the correct pronunciation of words, adds the ESL article. So not only can audio books help dual language kids do that, they can also assist tremendously in building confidence, the article says.

Similar to the benefits received from audio books, The Latino Literacy Project recommends that parents read bilingual books out loud with their kids. Research clearly shows that dual language children will have more success learning English when their native language is supported. In addition, like audio books, parents will be helping them to build their vocabulary in both languages. Teachers can attend a one-day program training in a workshop near them or through an online webinar.