Last Updated on June 25, 2021
In a recent piece in The Atlantic, educator Michael Godsey writes about the impact of students reading transcripts while listening to podcasts. Education Week has also explored the potential of captioned listening in supporting comprehension.
Not only does research support the literacy impact of this practice, but it is vastly preferred by students! Godsey writes: “I already knew that my students enjoyed listening to contemporary podcasts in class…What I know now is that high-schoolers—at least my students—like reading and simultaneously listening to podcasts even more.” What was really interesting about his classroom experience was how this strategy affected not only English learners or reluctant readers, which it did, but that it was preferred by all students.
We absolutely agree that there is value in reading while listening. Plenty of research says captioning, also known as Same Language Subtitling, improves literacy for learners of all ages. Did you know that our Premium version includes interactive transcripts with all of our lessons? Students can read the highlighted words as they progress in sync with the audio and also click specific words in the text to listen to certain sections or words again. When students listen to a story while tracking the transcript, their literacy skills will get a boost.
Our white paper digs into further studies showing that reading English subtitles while listening helps improve decoding skills and reading comprehension. And don’t underestimate the impact that oral academic language can have for language acquisition. Read our white paper!
