Presented at ASIA TEFL International Conference 2014 in Kuching, Malaysia

1. Extensive Reading Using Audio Books: Students’
Reading Comprehension, Vocabulary Mastery and
Reading Interests
By: Dr. Maria Teodora Ping
Mulawarman University, Indonesia
Asia TEFL International Conference, 2014
AIM:
This study aimed at investigating whether a particular reading activity, namely
extensive reading by means of audio books, would be potentially beneficial to
students’ reading comprehension, vocabulary mastery and reading interests.
RESEARCH PROCEDURES AND METHOD:
- The design of this study was a qualitative case
study
- The participants of the study were 10 low
performing first year students of English
Department attending Reading II Course
- As an activity especially embedded in the course,
the students were assigned to read and listen to
their self-selection of audio books extensively for six
weeks (from this website: http://esl-
bits.net/ESL.English.Learning.Audiobooks/ESL.En
glish.Learning.Audiobooks.html)
- The students were assigned to write a reading log
and had a face-to-face reading report meeting to
demonstrate their progress in terms of reading
comprehension and vocabulary mastery
- After six weeks, the students were given the final
reading interest survey
- Three of the students- one who showed the most
progress, one who showed moderate progress and
one who barely showed progress- were selected to
be interviewed
- The reading log and reading report results were
analysed to see the progress the students made on
their reading comprehension and vocabulary
mastery
- The reading interest survey was analysed to get the
information about the students’ reading interest
- The interview results were analysed to obtain
further information about students’ perceived
progress and interests
RESULTS:
- From the six-week reading log and face-to-face
reading report results, the participating
students made progress in terms of their reading
comprehension and vocabulary mastery
- From the results of the reading interest survey,
the participating students seemed to be more
interested in reading after the extensive reading
task
- From the results of the interviews, it was found
that the student s who showed better
performance at their reading report thought that
the reading task was enjoyable and they did not
CONCLUSIONS:
- Extensive reading using audio books
is potentially beneficial to students’
reading comprehension and
vocabulary mastery
- Extensive reading using audio books
also sparks students’ reading interestsMAIN REFERENCES:
- Chang, Anna Ching Shyang. 2011. The Effect of
Reading while Listening to Audio Books:
Listening Fluency and Vocabulary Gain. Asian
Journal of English Language Teaching, 21, 43-
64. Hongkong: The Chinese University of
Hongkong
- Pham, Duyen Thi Mai. 2010. Reading- While-
Listening: A Reading Technique to Promote
Learners’ Motivation as well as Their Oral,
Written and Reading Fluency. Paper Presented
at the International Conference of “Innovations
in Language Teaching and Learning” HCMC 23-