Abstract
Reading-while-listening 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 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.
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Notes
A student at the A1 level “Can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases aimed at the satisfaction of needs of a concrete type. Can introduce him/herself and others and can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, people he/she knows and things he/she has. Can interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help”.
The intervention program continued after February till the end of the school year in June, but after February the sessions were restructured in order to increase the motivation of students in the RO group, and linguistic assessment was discontinued.
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Funding
Funding was provided by MINECO (Grant Nos. FFI2013-40952-P; FFI2016-80576-P), and AGAUR, Generalitat de Catalunya (Grant No. 2014SGR1089).
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Tragant Mestres, E., Llanes Baró, À. & Pinyana Garriga, À. Linguistic and non-linguistic outcomes of a reading-while-listening program for young learners of English. Read Writ 32, 819–838 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-018-9886-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-018-9886-x