The Surprising Benefits of Reading Aloud
The Benefits of Reading Aloud
- Did your parents use to read a story to you at bed time?
- Have you read anything aloud to your friends?
When you recall those memories, do you feel a certain sense of closeness and bonding? For me, the answer is yes. After reading aloud, I also feel my reading is so attractive to audiences.
Last school year, I had read aloud to some of our students. I soon found they were fully involved in the story. When I read to them with vocal variety and emotion, students were able to understand the personality of characters.
Reading aloud allows others to hear the content. It can strengthen emotional bonds and enhance your understanding of the text. This is why in ancient Iraq and Syria more than 4000 years ago, reading means “to cry out” or “to listen”.
What other benefits can reading aloud bring to us?
According to the article, the reading aloud can help us to remember 10% more vocabulary than silent reading. If readers have speech difficulties and cannot fully articulate the words they read aloud, reading aloud can help those readers to enhance their memory. Reading aloud can also help to detect Alzheimer’s disease at an early stage if the reading includes specific errors.
Someone may ask, if there are so many benefits why do we still read silently? According to a study on the effect of writing on the human brain and behaviours by Karenleigh Overmann, a cognitive archaeologist at the University of Bergen, Norway, she discovered that silent reading keeps up with the speed of thought much better when people read while writing. Reading aloud will slow down the ability to read quickly as an extra step of producing a sound needed.
Therefore, silent reading and reading aloud both have their own merits. If we would like to read fast and privately, we read silently. If we want to read slower, comprehend and remember more, we should read aloud.
Reference
Hardach, S. (2020, September 18). Why you should read this out loud. BBC Future. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200917-the-surprising-power-of-reading-aloud
