Teaching with Audiobooks in an EFL Classroom : The Didactical Benefits of Envisionment, Inclusion, and Narration in Audiobooks

Abstract: This paper aims to investigate how audiobooks can be used didactically in the EFL classroom. The research questions are: “How do EFL students perceive and visualize the storyworld when listening to audiobooks?”, “Does EFL students’ comprehension differ when listening to an audiobook as opposed to reading a printed book”, and lastly, “What are the benefits of using audiobooks didactically in an EFL classroom?”. A mixed method has been used in conducting a survey with the participation of 30 ninth graders from Östergårdsskolan in Halmstad. The survey is divided into three parts where the first two parts are based on Neil Gaiman's novel The Graveyard Book and the third part focuses on the students’ attitudes towards audiobooks. This paper will draw on the theories of Judith Langer, Lars Elleström as well as those of Iben Have and Birgitte Stougaard Pedersen. The survey used in this paper is theoretically founded on Langer’s five stances of envisionment. The students were divided into two groups where the control group read a printed passage and the other group listened to the passage. The results indicate that the participants had a positive attitude towards audiobooks as they found such affordances as hearing the pronunciation as well as being able to multitask. Previous research indicates that there are didactical advantages of using audiobooks with students. This paper suggests that with the increased growth of digitization, audiobooks should be considered as a learning tool in the EFL classroom.