Does listening to an audio book count for school reading, and if it does, when? I ran across this quandary when helping my rising third grader fill out her “summer reading” list before going back to school. She wanted to include the books she’s listened to (I’d like to say it was to show her teacher what she enjoyed, but I know full well it was to make her list look longer), and I hesitated. Did a book listened to, I asked here last week, really count as a book “read?”
Adults debate the point often, with lovers of print sometimes deriding audio-biblio-philes (witness GP’s quick dismissal of the question here: “NO, it doesn’t “count”… It may have its merits, it may be entertaining, but it’s not *reading*!”) and lovers of audio books defending their choice (Pastry Chef in MD: “all the great classics of early western literature were initially orally recounted from one generation to the next – from the Iliad & the Odyssey to the Torah / Old Testament”). For students, though, the question is different. As bec writes,
Depends strongly on the pedagogical reason for (or purpose of) the assignment. If the reading assignment is meant to develop reading skills (e.g. recognizing words on a page, developing focus and ability to read more quickly), then the book needs to be read in the traditional way — on paper. If the reading assignment is meant to engage or familiarize students with certain works of literature, or the purpose is to conduct analysis of the book (e.g. examining plot, characters, foreshadowing, etc.) then the audiobook would be an entirely acceptable alternative.
For literary purposes, then, listening versus reading the words may be a matter of preference (a somewhat dated study, published in 1990, found no significant differences in comprehension in those who read as opposed to those who listened), but for gaining fluency and speed in the act of reading itself, as well as increased familiarity with punctuation and spelling, listening is, indeed, no substitute for reading.
It depends, then, on what the teacher meant by “reading.” Cultural literacy can be increased by listening; literacy with respect to the mechanics of the written word cannot. We can, of course, debate the necessity of those mechanics (Anne Trubek presented a vigorous argument against the continued need for correct spelling in Wired recently, leaving me — snobbishly, she would say — appalled), but it’s hard to argue that you’ll learn how to spell either daughter or laughter from listening to the spoken word.
I believe in the importance of mechanical print literacy, at least where it’s possible, and so I will keep the focus on print, particularly with my younger children, always reserving the option of letting my oldest listen to an assigned text from Shakespeare or Homer (as Mark Cattell points out, those authors never meant for their work to be “read” in print form). As for the summer reading form? We used it as a lesson in the meaning of the asterisk* — one convention of the written word that’s never really successfully translated to audio form.
*In other words, we marked those books that were listened to, and not read.