5 Ways to Use Audiobooks in the Classroom
The pandemic scenario has changed the way we look at things. Education is also a part of that changing scenario where newer technologies have excelled as well as replaced many old school practices. While audiobooks have already become a convenient way of reading and listening in modern days, the COVID-19 situation helped the implementation of audiobooks into different classrooms, especially in schools. However, audiobooks were found to be beneficial in teaching important concepts and theories that are necessary to publish your thesis, without having to demonstrate long hours in person. But most teachers and academicians are yet to discover the method of using audiobooks in regular curriculum.
Here are 5 ways in which you can use Audiobooks in classroom-
- Listen to Communicate– The job of a teacher/professor would become much easier if they could sit back, relax and listen, while their students would understand the subject/story in question. Everyone, especially children, like being read to. If some one tells or reads out a story, we enjoy it, as it transports us to a different world. Audiobooks make subjects simpler in classroom with the same principle. If you want to explain a concept, play an audiobook, so that students hear and concentrate to the story behind the concept; you just listen to what’s going on, and your work is done. You have already communicated what you intended without having to speak yourself.
- Make Scientific Topics Interesting– While most audiobooks can be literary, learning books like language and science books are also made into audiobooks these days. Hearing gives the feel of listening to a story, which helps people concentrate into the world of the subject in question. For e.g., it is much easier to learn French listening to Pimsleur audiobook sessions, because you get to focus on the tone and idiomatic expressions. Similarly, if you want to study a particular literature to publish your thesis, start hearing audiobooks in study, so that you can grab the concept and scientific theory in depth.
- Discuss Characterizations– audiobooks are especially effective in literature classes. You can ask your students to choose the characters they find interesting from a story, and then make them highlight certain characteristics about these people, from the story. Then you make play those parts from the audiobook, which consists the description of these characters, so that students are able to match their understanding with the narrative statement about these characters. Audio narration helps get a perspective on character sketches, because tone and expressions are ingrained in the lines spoken, especially if the story is in dialogues, audiobooks are the best way to understand literary characters.
- Give Listening Comprehension– Language learning has four objective skills; reading, writing, speaking and listening. Most language examinations test all these skills, hence regular curriculum also has focus on listening skills of students. Therefore, audiobooks are great options to give listening comprehension lessons and tasks to school/college students. They can hear a passage/story and answer questions, which will develop their listening attention span.
- Download Audiobooks for Self-development on Hearing– If you want to publish your thesis on something socially relevant, you may have to visit scientific seminars, or socio-political gatherings and take notes as people speak on such important topics. Hearing audiobooks on a regular basis, helps you develop your own speed on listening and taking notes; your brain gets into the mode of focusing parallelly on writing and listening, when you hear audiobooks.
Audiobooks help the brain in a lot of ways; it can also be a relaxing way to let yourself go; transport to another world for relief. However, its immense contribution in educational set up is in progress of revealing itself. Try using the given methods to include this wonderful technology into classroom system, to minimize effort and maximize time optimization.
