Re: Using audiobooks/texts

[theteach <theteach@theteachonline.net>]

> How do you feel about using audio books or texts of a short story, poem 
> or novel in the classroom to increase comprehension and vocabulary 
> acquisition?
I am long past being a middle-schooler, but my listening to books is a new 
found pleasure.

Of course, I listen with no lesson plan or kind teacherly directions.  I 
wonder how listening would increase vocabulary acquisition.  I find that 
if I am listening to a book with unfamiliar names, places, terms, I am 
lost as to how to spell the words when I write to someone about the book.
When I listened to the Harry Potter series, I went to the website to find 
out how names and places were spelled.

I am frustrated because I can't underline a passage.  If I am driving, 
which is what I am doing when I listen to books, I cannot jot down a word 
or phrase to look for in the text.

It is quite difficult to review the audio.

I also find if I listen to something too detailed, I do not grasp as much 
because I am multi-tasking.  Unlike the students, I cannot multi-task and 
comprehend well.

I love it when I can get the e-book version of what I am listening to. I 
download it to my computer so I can do word and phrase searches. 
Unfortunately there are not many books out in both audio and e-book 
versions.

alex