Why Reading Aloud Never Gets Old

Children love to get lost in stories by letting their imaginations run wild, so is there really an expiration date on reading aloud?

There are so many benefits to continued reading aloud, no matter the students’ age! Read below to see why…

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Fluency

The first benefit of reading aloud to students is that it provides good modeling for children of any age, particularly ESL learners. Children can follow along whilst listening to changes in expression and intonation as well as correct use of grammar points like full stops, commas, and exclamation marks.

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Visualisation and Comprehension

Some texts might be too difficult for students to decode by themselves, however, reading to students provides excellent opportunities for other reading strategies such as visualisation. Allow students to sit or lay on the floor with their eyes closed, follow along with the story, and create a mental movie in their head.

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Expand Vocabulary

Naturally, the more students read, the more words they are exposed to. By reading aloud together with an adult, they can use context clues about the definition of these words and understand when to use them in everyday life. They’ll also learn how to recognise and pronounce these new words correctly.

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Exposure to Different Texts

Exposure to challenging texts through reading aloud is always valuable, as children can simply focus on understanding the higher concepts and comprehension of the texts rather than devoting their time to decoding difficult words.

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Building Motivation

Additionally, exposure to new and exciting texts by an adult can encourage students to continue reading independently as well as getting a taster of the good stuff that’s yet to come in their reading journey! It’s great motivation to continue reading!

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Improves Listening

With practice, children will be able to stay focused and listen for extended periods of time. In 1984, Dr Thomas G Sticht performed a study that showed kids understand books that are too hard for them if they are read aloud. He says, “They have to hear it before they speak it and speak it before they read it.”

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Promoting Social Awareness and Difficult Issues

Kids may tune out if you lecture them about what to do or what not to do, so reading them a story in which they can relate to characters who might be dealing with difficult conflicts, feelings or social issues similar to theirs, can really help put things into perspective. It’s a great way to introduce complex, topical matters, particularly amongst older children.

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So, there you have it! There are so many benefits to continued reading aloud, even into the later years of education. Students really are never too old for it!