English Teachers’ Use of Audiobooks When Working withLiterature in Upper Secondary School

Abstract: This is a study about English teachers’ use of audiobooks when working with literature in upper secondary school. This study investigates to what extent and in what ways teachers use audiobooks as well as their attitudes toward them as a teaching tool. This research study also investigates whether teachers believe that audiobooks have a positive effect on students’ reading motivation. The study was conducted through a mixed-method questionnaire, which 24 participating teachers in Sweden answered. The study shows that most teachers are using audiobooks in their literature teaching, hence having an overall positive attitude towards them. However, the reasons for using them vary among the participants. The findings reveal that participating teachers find audiobooks helpful for improving students’ reading and listening comprehension, pronunciation, and reading accuracy. Further, teachers believe that audiobooks help students to show more engagement with the literature, but that they do not have much effect on increasing students’ motivation to read. The results of this study provide insight into some English teachers’ opinions and attitudes toward the audiobook as a teaching tool and this may help other English teachers make better informed choices when they want to incorporate the audiobook into their literature teaching.