Now You Can Listen to The Change Agent!
Why are selected articles from The Change Agent now available in audio?
We responded to subscribers’ request to create audio versions of The Change Agent articles. With computers in many classrooms and teachers dealing with multiple skill levels, these audio clips help learners work independently on their reading, listening, and speaking skills.
Click here for more on Using Audio in the Classroom.
How does listening to audio improve adults’ reading skills?
Research in reading has shown that adult reading students need to hear text read aloud in order to improve their own reading. By listening to audio readings of text, students are better able to build their prosody skills (understanding how phrases build into sentences, and how punctuation guides phrasing) as well as single word pronunciation skills. The Change Agent’s audios are set up so that students can focus on texts sentence by sentence, and can repeat audio clips that they need to hear again. If they are able to work at separate work stations, they can practice reading text aloud to themselves using the audios as a guide.
How should students use the audio?
Simply click on the “play” button (the arrow on the left of each block of text). Listen to the text being read aloud while following along with the text on the screen. Students can choose to listen once then say it aloud themselves and then listen again. Or they can read aloud along with the audio. Or they can just listen. Experiment with what works.
Your readers sound like ordinary people, not professional actors.
Right! We believe there are benefits to hearing a mixture of voices and accents, which reflect real life and everyday interactions.
Do you have feedback for The Change Agent regarding our audio?
Please contact Cynthia Peters at cpeters@worlded.org
Would you (whether you are a student or a teacher or whether English is your first language or not) like to record some audio for The Change Agent?
We would love to bring more voices into our audio. Please contact Ben Bruno if you are interested.
