Listening to the library: Preadolescent student perceptions of the impact of downloadable audiobooks on their literacy development

Abstract

The purpose of this narrative inquiry was for me to learn from students about their perceptions of changes in their literacy practices from listening to downloaded audiobooks in their free time. Participants were preadolescent students from one international school in South Korea. Data were collected from regular recorded interviews over a period of two school years. Much has been written about audiobooks in popular media, and especially in educational publications, but there is a surprising lack of significant research about using audiobooks in education, particularly for fluent readers and writers with no learning difficulties. This research aims to fill a gap in the educational research and recent technological advancements in downloadable audiobook technology make this a timely topic. Narrative inquiry is shown to be an ideal methodology to present student 'voice' research. Results are presented as fourteen themes with sub-themes in four thematic categories, namely, what students gain (or not) from listening to audiobooks, characteristics of listeners, agency and organisational structures. This research found that participants were selfmotivated to listen to audiobooks in their leisure time and that they did perceive a change in their literacy practices, particularly in generating story ideas, providing a model of verbal fluency and learning vocabulary in context. However, the research also revealed that there are significant organisational structures, such as technical challenges and the influence of adults, which either enable or constrain a student's agency to listen to audiobooks. Additionally, it became apparent that these preadolescent audiobook listeners display notable characteristics such as the proclivity to multitask while listening, a preference for story regardless of mode and the ability to critically analyse both the story and narration. This dissertation concludes with a discussion of the implications of this research for educational knowledge and practice.