Running head: LISTENING WHILE READING

Listening While Reading: An Action Research Project

Johnny Allred
Weber State University

LISTENING WHILE READING

Listening While Reading: An Action Research Project

Researchers and teachers of reading are consistently looking for and evaluating the
methods used to increase reading comprehension. Students of all ages vary in their abilities to
read and in their abilities to comprehend what they read, but research in the field of reading
comprehension has resulted in the discovery of many practices that educators can use generally
to improve comprehension. The common and evolving practice which is at the center of this
current study is listening while reading. Does the act of listening while reading increase overall
comprehension of text? That is the question that drives this research.
Theoretical Background
Reading is a complex task, and it involves the use of many different mental and physical
faculties simultaneously. Research has shown that, during reading, the first stop for the textual
information is in the sensory register (Martinez, 2010, p. 38). This process is almost
imperceptible, but it encompasses all of our senses. The specific senses relevant to this research
are the visual sensory register and the auditory sensory register. The vision sensory register is
the primary vehicle that drives the reading process. The text is seen by the eyes, and it is
processed into the brain after passing through the visual sensory register (Martinez, 2010, p. 38).
For people with normal vision, this is the primary method used to achieve reading
comprehension. The auditory sensory register has a similar role to the visual sensory register,
but it involves hearing information instead of seeing it. According to research, these registers are
counterparts, but the auditory sensory register lasts up to two seconds, while the visual sensory
register lasts only about half a second (Martinez, 2010, p. 38). The whole sensory register
process is brief; a better understanding of how listening while reading affects our brain can be
seen when the discussion is turned to the brain itself.

LISTENING WHILE READING

Research has shown that reading utilizes three different levels of language: visual (the
printed word), phonological (the spoken representation of the word), and semantic (the meaning
of the word) (Martinez, 2010, p. 252). The brain processes information most effectively when
actively reading for meaning, which involves all three of these levels of language. For students,
this means that they should comprehend most effectively when looking at the word (visual) and
hearing the word (phonological). Those two activities, when used in conjunction, should result
in a higher level of understanding of the text generally and specific words individually
(semantic). This current study was conducted to test the hypothesis that listening while reading
increased factual comprehension of a text.
Method
Participants
The participants chosen for this study were high school students in a rural community in
northern Utah. They consisted of two classes, and the classes were organized by the school
counselors and administration. The first class, labeled as P.4 in this study, consisted of 39
students. The second class, labeled as P.7 in this study, consisted of 36 students. All students in
this research project were general education students with varying levels of reading ability.
Procedures
On day one of the study, the students were assigned to read the first half of Chapter 1
from The Great Gatsby, a novel that the class had been introduced to the previous day. The
students from P.4 read the assigned pages while listening to an audiobook reading of the text
simultaneously. After reading, they took a comprehension test designed by the researcher. On
day two of the study, the same students from P.4 read the second half of Chapter 1 from the
novel, this time without any audiobook supplement, and they took a similar comprehension test.

LISTENING WHILE READING

The P.4 results from day one and day two are shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2, respectively,
below.

Figure 1

Figure 2

The same procedure was followed for the class labeled P.7, except the audiobook was
provided on day two of the study, while reading the second half of Chapter 1 from the novel, and
it was not provided during day one of the study, while reading the first half of the chapter. The
procedure was flipped in this manner to eliminate the variable of text complexity from the first
half to the second half of the chapter. The P.7 results from day one and day two are shown in
Figure 3 and Figure 4, respectively, below.

Figure 3

Figure 4

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Results

On day one, with P.4 using listening while reading, 32.4% of the class scored below 60%
on the comprehension test, 26.5% scored at or above 93%, and 41.1% scored somewhere in
between. On day two, when P.4 read without the audiobook supplement, 46.2% of the class
scored below 60% on the comprehension test, 12.8% scored at or above 93%, and 41.0% scored
somewhere in between.
Analyzing the scores for P.7 using the same measures shows that, when using listening
while reading, 55% of the class scored below 60% on the comprehension test, 12.5% scored at or
above 93%, and 32.5% scored somewhere in between. When tested without the audio
supplement, 80.6% of P.7 scored below 60% on the test, 0.0% of the class scored at or above
93%, and 19.4% scored somewhere in between.
Discussion
The theory behind listening while reading explained that reading is a complex task that
involved the sensory register and three levels of language understanding inside the brain. It
supported the hypothesis that the brain would be more active, and thus comprehension would
increase, if listening to an audio recording of the text was introduced to the reading process.
After conducting the research and analyzing the data, this research confirms the hypothesis.
Both P.4 and P.7 showed marked improvement when they listened to the reading of the text while
they were looking at the printed text. Listening while reading allowed them to visualize the
word, hear the pronunciation, decode the word, and attach meaning to words and phrases more
effectively than simply reading alone. If statistically significant, these results show the value of
incorporating listening activities into the teaching of reading. Especially for students who
struggle with reading and decoding words, audiobooks would be an effective intervention.

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References

Martinez, M. E. (2010). Learning and Cognition: The Design of the Mind. New Jersey: Pearson
Education, Inc.