Linguistic and non-linguistic outcomes of a reading-while-listening program for young learners of English

Abstract

Reading-while-listening, which consists of reading while simultaneously listening to an oral rendition of the text, may be especially well suited for young language learners because of the multimodality provided in many graded readers aimed at this age group (ie.,, the presence of oral and written text and illustrations). This study compares a group of Grade 5 students who were exposed to 18 sessions of reading-while-listening with a group exposed to the same number of sessions through reading-only, and a control group. Linguistic outcomes show that students in the two intervention groups obtained higher vocabulary gains than those in the control group but did not present superior scores in reading or listening comprehension or reading fluency. Non-linguistic outcomes showed a clear preference on the part of the students for the reading-while-listening mode of input. The study concludes that the lack of differences in comprehension and fluency gains may be due to the fact that graded readers for children are too short; the input they offer is too limited to make a difference in areas other than attitudes and vocabulary learning.