Skip to main content

Are audiobooks reading? Listening comprehension handout:)


Are audiobooks "cheating," or are they one of the most underutilized tools in language learning?


With over 40% of people still believing audiobooks don't count as "real" reading, a recent piece from the Harvard Gazette  sets the record straight. (the Harvard Gazette article)

Cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Nadine Gaab and education experts explain that the brain processes written and spoken language using deeply intertwined neural networks- meaning listening engages comprehension and vocabulary building just as rigorously as print.

To bring this debate into our classrooms, I’ve put together a quick, 15-minute IB English B HL Listening Comprehension Exercise on the topic- check it out here the handout

What’s inside the lesson:

Exam-Ready Format: Features short-answer, multiple-choice, and text-justification questions designed to match IB English B Paper 1 standards.

Teacher Resource Included: Comes complete with a trimmed audio summary and a ready-to-use marking scheme with specific word-count guidelines.

Feel free to grab the worksheet and teacher key for your next class- let me know how your students respond to the debate!




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

HONY, honey:)

  There is a book, fb page, lots of articles, videos, interviews, lesson ideas on HONY- Humans of New York, and now there is also my extensive lesson plan-... Never heard of it? Humans of New York (HONY) is a popular photography project and storytelling  blog created in 2010 by Brandon Stanton. It started as a simple goal to photograph  10,000 people living in New York City, but evolved into a powerful collection of  portraits and personal stories. Each photo is paired with a short interview or quote  that reveals intimate, honest, and often surprising details about the subject's life. Over time, the project expanded beyond New York to include stories from many countries, covering diverse experiences and social issues. HONY offers a unique window into the lives of everyday people, encouraging empathy and understanding through storytelling. Interested? Check out  this handout    for reading, listening, writing and speaking ideas. Just a side note, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Have yourself a "less-is-more" Christmas....

Every year, the same film plays on repeat. Black Friday hits, and people who swore they were “cutting back this year” are suddenly refreshing carts at midnight, chasing countdown timers and “only 3 left!” banners. This was the starting point for my minimalism lesson: if students are already swimming in Black Friday ads and Christmas wish lists, why not turn that chaos into something reflective and language‑rich?  The heart of the plan is a “Less Is More” advent calendar that runs parallel to the shopping season. While the outside world shouts “Buy! Hurry! More!”, students open a different kind of window each day: deleting unused apps, clearing one surface, designing an experience gift instead of buying another object. Each task comes with a guided question and a pair of chunky expressions to use in a short English reflection, so language development and behaviour change grow together. In  this handout  Black Friday and Christmas haven’t disappeared, but the spell is weake...
1 comment
Read more

SPEECH STATIONS

I have been looking for a way to spice up a bit the class I give in DP1 as introduction to speeches- both oral and written (paper 1). Then it dawned on me- why not get the students move and learn about the structure, language, rhetorical appeals rotating the stations in pairs?  I tried and it worked very well- have a look at   the stations  and the sample answers:) . The class is designed for 5 stations, but there is also an optional one on extra linguistic features- I’ve put them in my google disc as pdfs, but you can also create QR codes for them so that you don’t need to print the activities.  As for the class itself, you can ask students to compete against each other in their pairs, and check their worksheets yourself, or allow them accces to the sample key to encourage self-assessment or peer-assessment.  What needs to be done at the end is a wrap-up session on the text type that speech is- one idea might be ask students to elaborate on the titles of each s...
Post a Comment
Read more