In short
- A read-aloud is listening practice; a read-along is reading practice, with a voice that sets the pace.
- Pupils reading aloud themselves is a separate activity: useful when short and rehearsed, weak as unrehearsed turns around the class.
- Research supports each of the three in some form, but much of it comes from small studies or first-language classrooms.
- Choose by purpose: read aloud to open a story, read along to build fluency, and treat silent reading as the goal.
The three terms are used loosely, and lesson plans suffer for it. In a read-aloud, you read a story to the class and pupils listen, with or without the text in front of them. In a read-along, every pupil has the text and follows it with their eyes while a voice reads. When pupils read aloud themselves, they produce the sound. Each activity asks something different of the pupil, so each builds something different. This article compares the three, reports what research found for each, and gives a routine for each.
What is the difference between a read-aloud and a read-along?
The difference is what the pupil does with the text. In a read-aloud, the teacher reads and pupils listen. They may look at the pictures, at you, or at nothing. In a read-along, pupils follow the written words with their eyes while a voice reads them. The voice can be the teacher or a recording.
Read-along is also called reading while listening, or audio-assisted reading. The line between the two formats is the pupil's eyes. If pupils track the print while you read, your read-aloud has become a read-along.
A third activity is different again: pupils reading aloud themselves. They may do it alone, in pairs, or in turn around the class. It is often confused with the other two because all three involve a voice and a text.
Read-aloud, read-along and pupils reading aloud compared
| Question | Read-aloud | Read-along | Pupils reading aloud |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who reads? | The teacher | A voice reads aloud, teacher or recording. The pupil reads silently. | The pupil, out loud |
| What does the pupil do? | Listens. May look at pictures, but does not track the print. | Follows the text with their eyes, at the pace of the voice. | Turns print into speech while others listen. |
| What does it build? | Listening, interest in the story, a model of how English sounds. | Links between sound and spelling, phrasing, reading pace. | Pronunciation, links between letters and sounds, confidence when prepared. |
| Where does it go wrong? | The story is too hard to follow by ear, and pupils drift. | Pupils listen without looking at the text, or the audio is never removed. | Unrehearsed turns: one pupil reads, the rest wait. |
| When is it the best choice? | Opening a new story and building interest. | Carrying beginners through stories at their level. | Short, rehearsed passages and dialogue. |
The table is a summary for planning. The next three sections set out the research behind it, and its limits.
What research found about teacher read-alouds
Elley (1989) studied primary school children in New Zealand, aged seven and eight, whose teachers read stories aloud to them. Children who heard a story with no explanation of the new words gained 15% on a vocabulary test. Children whose teacher explained the words gained 40%.
Two cautions apply. These children were hearing stories in their first language. They were not EFL learners. And the larger figure is a result for a read-aloud with teaching added, not for listening alone.
In EFL, Amer (1997) compared two groups, 75 students in all. The teacher read a story aloud to one group. The other group read the same story silently. The read-aloud group scored higher on both comprehension measures, a multiple-choice test and a story frame test.
Amer argues that beginning readers tend to read word by word. The teacher's voice helps them take in larger units of meaning. It is a single study with one story. His students are described as reading the story, so they may have been following the print. If so, this is evidence for a read-along led by the teacher's voice.
What research found about read-alongs
Chang and Millett (2015) give the clearest result for school-age beginners. Sixty-four year-10 EFL students read 20 graded readers over 26 weeks. One group read silently and the other read with audio. Both groups improved their reading rate and comprehension. The audio-assisted group improved substantially more, and the gains held for three months afterwards.
Brown, Waring and Donkaewbua (2008) compared reading while listening with listening only and reading only. Their learners were 35 Japanese university students. Straight after a story, students recognised 48% of the target words when they had read while listening. After listening only, the figure was 29%. When students had to write the meaning, the figures fell to 16% and 2%.
That gap matters for read-alouds with no text. For these learners, a story heard without the print taught few words. Asked which mode they preferred, 72% chose reading while listening and none chose listening only.
In first-language classrooms, Rasinski (1990) compared listening-while-reading with repeated reading. His learners were 20 third-grade pupils in the United States. Both treatments improved reading fluency, and neither was better than the other. It is a small study of native speakers, so apply it to EFL with care. The fuller evidence is in reading while listening: what it does for English learners.
What research found about pupils reading aloud
Gibson (2008) sets out the case on both sides. She notes that general ELT methodology literature does not recommend reading aloud. She also reports that research and specialist literature recommend it for particular purposes:
- Reinforcing the links between letters and sounds.
- Acquiring the rhythm and intonation of English.
- Proofreading your own writing by ear.
- Practising alone, as a technique for independent learning.
- Helping some anxious students feel more able to speak.
Gibson suggests that the benefits could outweigh the disadvantages, and that careful use reduces the disadvantages. Her own evidence is a small study of teachers and learners. Read her article as a reasoned argument, not as a tested result.
Why is round-robin reading discouraged?
In round-robin reading, pupils take turns to read a text aloud, unrehearsed, while the rest of the class follows. It is common, and many writers on reading advise against it.
Ash, Kuhn and Walpole (2009) surveyed 80 teachers and 27 literacy coaches in the United States. They describe the research as indicating that round-robin reading is an ineffective practice. Many of the teachers still used it. Their reasons were covering content, managing behaviour, improving fluency and assessing pupils. Teachers who used it and teachers who did not differed in their knowledge of fluency research.
That study looked at schools in the United States, and at teachers' views, not pupils' results. The practical objections are easy to see in any classroom:
- Little reading per pupil. Thirty pupils sharing 15 minutes get 30 seconds each.
- A weak model. The class hears hesitant, unrehearsed reading, not fluent English.
- Attention on sound, not meaning. The reader works to pronounce the words and may not take in the story.
- Exposure. Weak readers make their mistakes in front of the whole class.
The first point is arithmetic. The others are classroom observations, not findings from the studies cited here. All four apply to unrehearsed turns around the class. They do not apply to every kind of reading aloud.
A routine for each
Read-aloud (about 10 minutes)
- Choose a story pupils can follow by ear, and practise it once yourself.
- Teach three or four words that carry the plot before you start.
- Read with expression. Stop briefly to explain a new word when it matters.
- Ask two questions about what happened and one about what will happen next.
Read-along (10 to 15 minutes)
- Give every pupil the text, at a level they can manage.
- Play the audio, or read yourself. Pupils follow with their eyes.
- Pause without warning and ask pupils to point to where the voice stopped.
- Pupils re-read the same passage silently, without the voice.
Pupils reading aloud (about 5 minutes)
- Choose a short passage that pupils have already read and understood.
- Let them hear it read well first.
- Pupils rehearse in pairs, quietly, all at the same time.
- Volunteers perform a few lines. Nobody reads cold.
Classroom example (a planning sketch, not a research prescription)
Class: 12-year-olds at A2, starting a levelled story of six short chapters.
Chapter 1: teacher read-aloud, books closed, to set the scene and the characters.
Chapters 2 to 5: read-along with audio, then a silent re-read of one page.
Chapter 6: silent reading, no audio.
Afterwards: pairs rehearse the final dialogue, and four volunteers perform it.
More ideas for rehearsed and repeated reading are in activities for reading fluency.
When to choose which
- Choose a read-aloud when you are opening a new story, when pupils have no copy of the text, or when the aim is listening and enjoyment.
- Choose a read-along when pupils are beginners, read word by word, or need to connect the sounds of English to print.
- Choose pupils reading aloud when the passage is short and rehearsed, and the aim is pronunciation or performance.
- Choose silent reading when pupils can manage the level alone. The other three lead here.
None of the three replaces silent reading of many easy stories. That is the heart of extensive reading, as extensive vs intensive reading explains. Level matters more than format. A read-along on a text that is too hard is still too hard, so start by matching students to the right graded readers.
How iRead handles this
Many stories in iRead have narrated audio synced to the text, so a student can follow the words while listening. That is a read-along, and it is optional per story. Every story is levelled to the CEFR, from A1 to C2. A quiz runs after every session, with questions generated from the story itself.
The core principle: Ask what the pupil's eyes and voice are doing. Listening, following the print and speaking the print are three different kinds of practice.
See it in iRead: Many iRead stories have an audio read-along synced to the text, so a student can follow the words while listening. It is optional per story.
See how iRead worksKey takeaway
Read aloud to open a story and use read-along to carry beginners through it. Keep pupils' own reading aloud short and rehearsed, and aim for silent reading.
Frequently asked questions
What does read-along mean?
Read-along means following a written text with your eyes while a voice reads it aloud. The voice can be a teacher or a recording. It is also called reading while listening or audio-assisted reading. The pupil reads silently, at the pace of the voice.
What is the difference between read-aloud and read-along?
In a read-aloud the teacher reads and pupils listen; they do not need the text. In a read-along every pupil has the text and follows it while the voice reads. The first is listening practice. The second is reading practice with support.
Should pupils read aloud in the EFL classroom?
Yes, in short, prepared doses. Gibson (2008) argues that reading aloud can reinforce the links between letters and sounds and help with the rhythm of English, if used carefully. Avoid unrehearsed turns around the class, which give each pupil very little reading time.
Is round-robin reading effective?
Ash, Kuhn and Walpole (2009) describe the research as indicating that it is an ineffective practice. Each pupil reads very little, and the class hears hesitant reading. Rehearsed pair reading or a read-along gives every pupil more practice in the same time.
Does reading aloud to pupils teach vocabulary?
It can. Elley (1989) found that children who heard stories read aloud gained 15% on a vocabulary test, and 40% when the teacher explained the words. They were first-language children in New Zealand, so the figures may not transfer to EFL classes.
Sources
- Elley, W. B. (1989). Vocabulary acquisition from listening to stories. Reading Research Quarterly, 24(2), 174-187. doi.org/10.2307/747863
- Amer, A. A. (1997). The effect of the teacher's reading aloud on the reading comprehension of EFL students. ELT Journal, 51(1), 43-47. doi.org/10.1093/elt/51.1.43
- Gibson, S. (2008). Reading aloud: a useful learning tool?. ELT Journal, 62(1), 29-36. doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccm075
- Rasinski, T. V. (1990). Effects of repeated reading and listening-while-reading on reading fluency. The Journal of Educational Research, 83(3), 147-150. doi.org/10.1080/00220671.1990.10885946
- Chang, A. C.-S., & Millett, S. (2015). Improving reading rates and comprehension through audio-assisted extensive reading for beginner learners. System, 52, 91-102. doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2015.05.003
- Brown, R., Waring, R., & Donkaewbua, S. (2008). Incidental vocabulary acquisition from reading, reading-while-listening, and listening to stories. Reading in a Foreign Language, 20(2), 136-163. doi.org/10.64152/10125/66816
- Ash, G. E., Kuhn, M. R., & Walpole, S. (2009). Analyzing "inconsistencies" in practice: Teachers' continued use of round robin reading. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 25(1), 87-103. doi.org/10.1080/10573560802491257