The debate between audiobooks and traditional reading is a common one, especially for those looking to maximize their learning and enjoyment from books. Whether for convenience, accessibility, or enhancing comprehension, audiobooks can be a valuable tool. This guide explores who should consider using audiobooks and compares the benefits of audiobooks vs. reading.
What Are Audiobooks?
Audiobooks are recorded readings of books, available in digital formats. You can stream or download audiobooks through many different apps. Most public libraries subscribe to a digital library with audiobooks. Audible.com is also a major audiobook provider.
Key Features of Audiobooks
- Narration: Professional narrators or the authors themselves read the book.
✔️ Benefit: Hearing a fluent reader helps with unfamiliar vocabulary as well as comprehension.
- Accessibility: Available through apps, online libraries, and audiobooks services.
✔️ Benefit: Kids can listen in the car, or while coloring. This can help busy families, as well as kids who find it difficult to concentrate when reading.
- Flexibility: Can be paused, rewound, and bookmarked.
✔️ Benefit: Students can replay confusing (or hilarious!) sections. Platforms have varying features for bookmarks and notetaking so students can mark parts to go back to.
Audiobooks vs. Reading: A Comparative Overview
When comparing audiobooks to traditional reading, each format has distinct advantages depending on the user’s needs and preferences.
Benefits of Audiobooks
Convenience and Multitasking
Audiobooks allow users to enjoy books while engaging in other activities, such as commuting, exercising, or doing household chores. It can be an accommodation for engaging reluctant readers, and it can also be a way to make boring activities (like folding laundry) more entertaining.
Accessibility for Diverse Needs
Audiobooks are beneficial for individuals with reading difficulties, visual impairments, or learning disabilities such as dyslexia. Audiobooks should not be limited to “non-readers” or students below a certain point. In fact, for most purposes, audiobooks should be an option for all students.
This is not true for students in the early grades, who need lots of practice reading text to solidify their new skills. It’s also important that audiobooks don’t replace high-quality reading instruction that students need to succeed as readers.
There is a perception that listening to an audiobook is “cheating,” (an issue I would say Daniel Willingham puts to rest in this post). Some students will prefer audiobooks, because reading text on a page feels difficult. Other students will prefer to read on paper because that medium is more comfortable for them.
Enhanced Engagement
Many audiobooks, especially those for young readers, feature expressive narration, sound effects, and music, which can make stories more engaging and enjoyable. Expressive narration isn’t just fun – hearing a good reader emphasize the right parts of a book can improve comprehension.
Benefits of Traditional Reading
Visual Engagement
Reading printed or digital text allows for visual engagement with the material, which can aid in understanding and retaining information. It’s easier to take notes in printed material. It is usually easier to reread than it is to rewind and listen again in an audiobook.
Promotes Deep Focus
Reading a physical or digital book often encourages a deeper level of focus and concentration. I find that if I don’t have something to keep my eyes and hands busy, I get distracted from an audiobook and find myself reading the mail or talking to my family. With a book in front of my eyes, it’s easier for me to stay focused.
Encourages Active Engagement
Readers can actively engage with the text through annotation, highlighting, and note-taking. It’s quite possible to take notes while reading an audiobook, but it can be inconvenient.
Who Should Use Audiobooks?
Audiobooks can be particularly beneficial for various groups of people, offering a flexible and inclusive way to experience books.
Students with Learning Disabilities
Students with dyslexia, ADHD, or other learning disabilities can benefit from audiobooks, which provide an alternative way to access and understand written content. For students who are still learning to decode, or who read slowly even after remediation, audiobooks can give access to any text that interests them. Audiobooks are an important accommodation for any student that is reading significantly below grade level, or significantly below fluency targets for their age.
Why: Audiobooks can reduce the strain of decoding text and help students focus on comprehension and enjoyment.
Busy Professionals
Professionals with tight schedules can use audiobooks to make the most of their limited free time, fitting reading into their day while commuting or multitasking.
Why: Audiobooks allow for continued learning and entertainment during activities that don’t permit traditional reading.
People with Visual Impairments
Individuals with visual impairments can use audiobooks as an accessible way to enjoy literature without relying on visual reading aids. Many audiobook services began as a way to support people with vision impairments, and their use has been expanded since then.
Why: Audiobooks provide a means to access books without the need for specialized equipment or formats. This technology can provide access to books, and access to independent learning for individuals with vision impairments.
Commuters
Those who spend a lot of time commuting can turn travel time into productive or relaxing reading time by listening to audiobooks. I get motion sickness if I read in a moving vehicle, so audiobooks are a great alternative!
Why: Audiobooks transform otherwise unproductive time into an opportunity to enjoy books and gain knowledge.
Language Learners
People learning a new language can use audiobooks to improve their listening skills, pronunciation, and understanding of the language in context. Hearing a book narrated by a professional reader, likely a native speaker, can support vocabulary learning and comprehension.
Why: Listening to audiobooks in the target language helps reinforce learning through context and natural speech patterns.
Tips for Using Audiobooks Effectively
To get the most out of audiobooks, consider these tips:
Choose the Right Narrator
A good narrator can significantly enhance the listening experience. Choose audiobooks with narrators whose voices and styles you enjoy. Sometimes audiobooks read by the author are great, because the author knows which parts to emphasize. Other times, the author is a better writer than they are a narrator.
How to Choose: Listen to samples of the audiobook before purchasing to ensure you like the narrator’s voice and style.
Use Playback Speed Options
Many audiobook apps allow you to adjust the playback speed. Find a pace that is comfortable and suits your listening comprehension. Some people who listen to audiobooks frequently are able to increase the speed to 2x and still follow along. Others slow down the audio so that they can think about what they are hearing.
How to Adjust: Experiment with different speeds to find what works best for you, whether that’s speeding up a simple narrative or slowing down complex material.
Set a Purpose for Reading
You might prefer audiobooks for fiction and reading for non-fiction. You may prefer reading printed material if the book includes diagrams, graphs or illustrations. Audiobooks might be preferable for biographies, especially autobiographies where the author reads the book.
Take Notes
Just like with traditional reading, taking notes while listening to an audiobook can help reinforce learning and retention. Use a notebook or digital note-taking app to jot down important points.
How to Note-Take: Pause the audiobook at key points to write down summaries, thoughts, or questions. It helps to write either a time stamp (Ch 2, 25:59) or a key phrase “first shark sighting” to help you refer to this note later.
Rewind and Re-listen
If you miss something or want to review a section, don’t hesitate to rewind and listen again. This is especially useful for complex or dense material.
How to Rewind: Most apps have easy-to-use controls for skipping back in small increments. Practice using these to fine-tune your listening.
Conclusion
Audiobooks offer a flexible, accessible alternative to traditional reading, making them a valuable tool for many people. Whether you are a student with learning difficulties, a busy professional, or a commuter, audiobooks can enhance your reading experience. While traditional reading supports visual learners and deep engagement with the text, audiobooks provide convenience and accessibility that can complement or even replace traditional reading in various contexts.
Additional Audiobook Resources
- Your Public Library: Borrow books on CD or download digital audiobooks.
- Audible.com: This service from Amazon has an extensive catalog of new and current titles for purchase.
- Learning Ally: Individuals with a qualifying disability that affects their reading can join Learning Ally and get access to unlimited audiobooks. Learning Ally offers audiobooks narrated by humans, which distinguishes it from Bookshare and some other digital solutions.
- Bookshare: Bookshare is another service that offers audiobooks. Unlike Learning Ally, it is free for qualifying students. It offers computer-generated audio for books.
Next Steps
- Assistive Technology for Dyslexia: Find out more about apps and high tech tools to support students with dyslexia in their schoolwork and leisure time.
- Check out Graphic Novels for Middle Grades Students.
- Orton-Gillingham Tutoring: If your child has been diagnosed with dyslexia, or if they are struggling with reading, contact us to find out how online Orton-Gillingham tutoring can help.
