Reading While Listening: What It Does for English Learners

Reading while listening means a pupil follows a written text with their eyes while a voice reads it aloud. The voice may be a recording, narration synced to the text, or you. An audiobook on its own is not the same thing. Without the text, the pupil is listening only. Researchers have compared three modes: reading only, listening only, and both together. This article sets out what they found, where the evidence is thin, and how to use read-along audio in class and at home.

Does listening while reading help?

Yes, for beginners and lower-level learners, within limits. Following a text while hearing it read does three things. The voice sets the pace, so the pupil cannot stall on every word. It shows how each written word sounds. It also groups words into phrases. Students in Brown, Waring and Donkaewbua (2008) said the narrator did this chunking for them.

The clearest findings are for listening fluency and reading rate after months of regular practice. Comprehension gains within a single session are small. Vocabulary gains from one story are modest whatever the mode. Most of the studies are small, so treat them as a guide, not a guarantee.

What the studies found

The table sets out seven studies. Each one compared reading while listening with another way of meeting a text. Most used graded readers, stories written within a limited vocabulary.

Three cautions apply. First, the samples are small: 35, 61, 64 and 84 learners, and one class of 28. Second, several used college or university students. Only two state clearly that their learners were school pupils. Where a study names its learners' country, it is Japan or Taiwan. Third, the studies measured different things with different tests, so their figures cannot be added together.

What it does for comprehension and listening

Chang (2009) had 84 college students listen to two stories, one with the text and one without. Test scores were only 10% higher with the text. The bigger difference was in how the task felt. Most students said that, with the text, listening was easier, the stories were more interesting and they paid much better attention.

Over a longer period, the effect on listening was clearer. Chang and Millett (2014) had three groups study ten graded readers over 13 weeks. One group read, one listened, and one did both. On the listening test that followed, the group that did both had the most consistent and significant results. Seeing the words seems to help the ear.

Eye-tracking gives a clue to the reason. Conklin, Alotaibi, Pellicer-Sánchez and Vilkaitė-Lozdienė (2020) recorded the eye movements of first-language and second-language readers. With audio, the two groups' eye movements were very similar. In general, readers did not look at the exact word they were hearing. Their eyes usually ran slightly ahead of the voice. The authors suggest this may explain some of the benefit.

What it does for reading rate

The best evidence for school-age beginners is Chang and Millett (2015). Sixty-four year-10 students read 20 graded readers over 26 weeks, ten at level one and ten at level two. One group read silently. The other read with the audio. Both groups improved their reading rate and their comprehension. The audio-assisted group improved substantially more. The gains were still there three months later, with no further treatment.

This is one study of 64 pupils. It did not test older or more advanced readers, and it does not show that the audio should stay on for good.

Tragant, Muñoz and Spada (2016) followed one class of 28 pupils aged 10 to 11 for a year. The class spent 60% of its English lesson time reading while listening, with graded readers and storybooks the pupils chose. They progressed at least as much as a comparison group that had only teacher-led lessons. Their attitudes to learning English were more positive. One class cannot settle the question. It does suggest that independent read-along time need not cost progress.

For other ways to build rate, see activities for reading fluency.

What it does for vocabulary

Vocabulary is where claims need the most care. Brown, Waring and Donkaewbua (2008) had 35 Japanese university students meet three graded readers, one in each mode. Each story carried 28 target words. On a multiple-choice test straight afterwards, students recognised 48% of the words after reading while listening. The figure was 45% after reading only and 29% after listening only.

A harder test gave lower figures. When students had to write the meaning, the results fell to 16%, 15% and 2%. Three months later, unprompted recall stood at about one word in 28 for both reading modes, and none for listening only. So the audio added little to reading. The text added a great deal to listening.

More stories give more. Webb and Chang (2015) tested 61 Taiwanese learners on 100 target words spread across ten graded readers, read with audio support. Relative gains were 44.06% after the ten readers and 36.66% three months later. The comparison group followed a course book, not the same readers without audio. The study cannot say how much the audio itself added.

Webb and Chang also found no significant link between how often a word appeared and whether it was learned. One story is rarely enough on its own. See how many times a learner must meet a word.

Who benefits most, and when to take the audio away

The evidence points to beginners and lower-level readers. Chang and Millett (2015) studied beginners. Brown, Waring and Donkaewbua (2008) noted that their more proficient students were not always inclined towards reading while listening. In practice, these pupils are the most likely to gain:

• Pupils who read word by word and lose the thread of the sentence.
• Pupils at A1 and A2 who cannot yet tell how a written word sounds.
• Pupils who start stories and do not finish them.
• Pupils whose listening lags well behind their reading.

Narration speed

No study here identifies a best speed. Brown, Waring and Donkaewbua (2008) piloted their recordings and chose a mean of 93 words per minute. Their students had never listened to a long story in English before. As a working rule, choose a speed at which the pupil can keep their eyes on the text without rushing. If the pupil is waiting for the voice, the audio is now slower than their reading.

When to take the audio away

No study tested a schedule for removing the audio, so this is practical advice, not a research finding. The goal is silent, independent reading. Look for these signs:

• The pupil reads ahead and waits for the voice.
• The pupil finishes a story at the same level without audio and answers questions on it just as well.
• The pupil asks to turn the audio off.

Then remove the audio in steps. Use it for the first chapter only, then only for stories at a new level. When a pupil moves up a level, bring it back for a while.

How to use it in class and at home

Audio does not make a text that is too hard readable. Start by matching the story to the pupil's level. Then run a short routine.

1. First pass: pupils follow the text with their eyes while the audio plays, without stopping.
2. Check that eyes are on the text, using the checks in the next section.
3. Second pass: pupils read the same chapter silently, without audio.
4. Finish with two or three questions on what happened, or a retelling in pairs.

At home, ask for ten to fifteen minutes with the text and the audio together. Tell parents plainly that listening in the car, without the text, is a different activity. If you read to the class yourself, the difference between the two formats is set out in read-aloud vs read-along.

The risk: pupils who listen without reading

A pupil can let the voice tell the story and never look at the page. The activity is then listening only. In Brown, Waring and Donkaewbua (2008), listening only gave the weakest vocabulary results of the three modes.

The eye-tracking study adds a caution for the teacher. In Conklin and colleagues (2020), readers who were following the text did not usually look at the word being spoken. A finger that sits a few words ahead of the voice is not a sign of a pupil who is lost. Use checks that need the print:

• Pause the audio without warning and ask pupils to point to where the voice stopped.
• Ask a question that only the text answers: 'How is the dog's name spelled?'
• Ask pupils to find a word: 'Which word in paragraph two means afraid?'
• Watch for pages that do not turn.

How iRead handles this

Many stories in iRead have narrated audio synced to the text, so a student can follow the words while listening. The audio 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.

Key takeaway

Use read-along audio to carry beginners through stories at their level. Check that their eyes are on the text, and remove the audio as their silent reading catches up.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Chang, A. C.-S. (2009). Gains to L2 listeners from reading while listening vs. listening only in comprehending short stories. System, 37(4), 652-663. doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2009.09.009
2. Chang, A. C.-S., & Millett, S. (2014). The effect of extensive listening on developing L2 listening fluency: some hard evidence. ELT Journal, 68(1), 31-40. doi.org/10.1093/elt/cct052
3. 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
4. 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
5. Webb, S., & Chang, A. C.-S. (2015). Second language vocabulary learning through extensive reading with audio support: How do frequency and distribution of occurrence affect learning?. Language Teaching Research, 19(6), 667-686. doi.org/10.1177/1362168814559800
6. Conklin, K., Alotaibi, S., Pellicer-Sánchez, A., & Vilkaitė-Lozdienė, L. (2020). What eye-tracking tells us about reading-only and reading-while-listening in a first and second language. Second Language Research, 36(3), 257-276. doi.org/10.1177/0267658320921496
7. Tragant, E., Muñoz, C., & Spada, N. (2016). Maximizing young learners' input: An intervention program. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 72(2), 234-257. doi.org/10.3138/cmlr.2942