Sunday 2 July 2023

The power of reading aloud in another language

According to several studies, reading aloud boosts comprehension of what is read, thanks to the fact that readers, whether they are children or adults, tend to understand words and ideas better when they know how they are heard. 

Reading is one of the most beneficial activities for children’s cognitive development. Whether listening or reading independently, reading helps to identify feelings, behaviours and emotions, to develop imagination and creativity, to discover beneficial values for coexistence, as well as to stimulate attention, concentration and memory.


Literacy in context

Due to the fact that many people were illiterate, reading aloud in the past was a common practice.  Any type of text could be read orally, sung or recited from memory, and these readings were done to address a wide audience, and this could happen in any context and place. This was carried out to publish news and share different types of literary texts too.

Nowadays governments across the world prioritise literacy in order to help students to fulfil their academic potential and improve the human capital of the country. This is the case in England where school leaders are currently developing a range of different approaches to support literacy, especially reading, in order to respond to government targets. One of these approaches is disciplinary literacy to improve literacy across the curriculum.

Having a disciplinary literacy approach recognises that literacy skills are both general and subject specific as every teacher communicates their subject through academic language. Furthermore, students carry out activities that demand reading, writing, speaking and listening in every subject.    

The EEF guidance report (UK) provides seven recommendations related to disciplinary literacy. It states that to comprehend complex texts, students need to actively engage with what they are reading and use their existing subject knowledge. The report also points out that reading helps students gain knowledge, which leads to better writing. It mentions the importance of modelling and questioning which is something that we usually do in our daily teaching. 

Research to support reading aloud

Psychologist Colin MacLeod from the University of Waterloo in Canada has carried out research about the impact of reading aloud on memory. In his studies, MacLeod concluded that reading the text aloud helps the reader to store words into the long-term memory and he concluded that people consistently remember words and texts better if they read them aloud than if they read them in silence. 


In one of his studies, MacLeod worked with a group of children aged between seven and ten years old. Children were given a list of words to read in silence and another list of words to read aloud. After the process, the children were able to recognise 87% of the words that were read aloud and 70% of the words that were read in silence. This demonstrates that reading aloud is a more effective strategy to retain vocabulary. The same study was carried out with adults between the age of 67 and 88 and the adults managed to remember 27% of the words that they read aloud and only 10% of the words that they read in silence.

When a person reads aloud, they create a connection between the words that they see written in the text and how the words sound when they say them. This exercise improves visual memory and helps the reader to learn new vocabulary more efficiently since the brain can establish patters and make different associations. Furthermore, to be able to understand the text when one reads aloud it is essential to be present and have full concentration on the reading, consequently this will deepen our understanding of what we read.

Reading aloud in a foreign language

  • When we read aloud in a foreign language, we are training different muscles to say new words accurately. Due to this, learners’ pronunciation and intonation will improve, students will become more fluent and assertive when speaking the language and this will have a positive impact on their overall confidence and self-esteem. By being able to pronounce foreign words correctly, they will experience success.
  • Reading aloud in another language will also help students to express themselves in public as reading aloud develops oral expression and diction. It also reinforces the use of different punctuation and their purpose in the text which improves overall literacy. Using the correct stress of words, intonation and relevant pauses will help pupils to deliver logical and persuasive speech for different audiences.
  • When pupils read aloud in a foreign language, they are exposed visually to both correct grammar constructions and accurate spelling. This develops their writing skills as the text is modelling how to structure sentences in a clear and coherent way, consequently, pupils will remember how to construct sentences using correct word order.
  •  When children read aloud in a foreign language, they can recognise their own voice and by doing this they can compare their voice with native speakers. In doing so they will have an improved awareness of nasal and guttural sounds that might not be present in their mother tongue language, so they will become reflective learners.
  •  Reading aloud promotes critical thinking and creativity as pupils use their imagination to create in their mind the scenario of what we are reading or hearing. If we read a text aloud for a group of people, this encourages active listening and invites the audience into a conversation with the reader, promoting discussions about the text.  
  •  Reading aloud in a foreign language helps pupils to develop control of their breathing as each language requires different levels of air when speaking. This has an impact on pupils’ confidence, fluency and overall improves oral skills which help them to communicate their ideas better.
  •  Reading aloud in a foreign language can help a child to process more vocabulary and develop comprehension skills.

An anthology of texts great to read aloud

When I was a child, I enjoyed reading aloud. My parents asked me to read passages of great literature written by different authors. 

These are examples of short texts that we can use with students in lessons for reading aloud, translations and discussions about the culture. I have created an anthology, f you want a copy please send me an email.  


CLICK ON HERE TO WATCH VIDEOCLIP



CLICK ON HERE TO WATCH VIDEOCLIP


CLICK ON HERE TO WATCH VIDEOCLIP



CLICK ON HERE TO WATCH VIDEOCLIP



CLICK ON HERE TO WATCH VIDOECLIP

Reading aloud is one of the elements in the speaking exam for the new GCSE examination that will take place in the UK from 2026.

Once specimen materials are published by exam boards, I will be producing different resources in Spanish to support teaching and learning to approach this task effectively. Resources will be available in this blog, under the tab “Reading aloud.”

 

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By Isabel O'Donoghue at 6 comments:
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