read aloud thesis

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Effective, research-based strategies to enhance the read aloud experience for students and parents

• Masters Thesis
• Cardoso, Michelle Lyn
• Neufeld, Susan
• Drouin, Steven
• College of Education, Kinesiology & Social Work
• Advanced Studies in Education
• California State University, Stanislaus
• 2017 December
• 2018-03-21T19:47:09Z
• http://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/201229

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• MINDS@UW Stout
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• UW-Stout Masters Thesis Collection - Plan B

Structured read aloud: effects on the reading achievement of middle and secondary students at Tomorrow River School District

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Using Reading Aloud Technique to Stimulate Students Reading Comprehension

Tarling : Journal of Language Education

This article aims to stimulate students' reading comprehension skills using the Reading Aloud technique. Reading aloud is the main axis connecting reading and speaking English. Reading aloud not only increases reading and basic knowledge but also improves oral expression. How the Read aloud technique can stimulate students' reading skills. Reading plays an important role as one of four abilities in improving students' English performance. This study involved 16 respondents who were 5th-semester students of the English Language Education Program at Ibn Khaldun University. This research was a descriptive study in which the researcher used a qualitative method. Data collected by interview, questionnaire, and observation. The results of the study showed that most of them did not agree with the techniques from Reading aloud. Based on respondents' statements, we found that the use of the reading method with hard reading techniques helped students to stimulate reading compr...

Related Papers

nira erdiana

This quantitative study was aimed to find out whether there is a significant effect on students achievement after applying reading aloud technique for students’ reading comprehension of the second grade at SMP Negeri 8 Banda Aceh. The preexperimental research with one group pre-test post-test design was undertaken to see achievement of the use of reading aloud technique. This research utilized pretest and post-tests to collect the data. The class VIII-5 of junior high school was chosen as the sample in this study to receive treatment for three meetings. The data was then analyzed by using independent t-test. The calculation showed that the post-test score is 45 was higher than the pre-test’ score, it was 36 with the significant standard 0.030 < 0.05. The result of the research showed that Detail Information and Vocabulary aspects were increased slightly after being taught by using reading aloud technique. Although the improvement only on those two aspects of reading, it is still ...

PREMISE JOURNAL:ISSN online: 2442-482x, ISSN printed: 2089-3345

Masyhur Masyhur

This classroom action research was aimed to know whether reading aloud strategy can improve students' reading comprehension of the tenth grade class Akuntansi 3 of SMK Muhammadiyah 2 Pekanbaru. This research consisted of one cycle. Thirty six students participated in this study. The data were collected from several sources; reading comprehension tests, observation sheets, and field notes. The result showed that the mean score of post test (80) was higher than mean score of pre-test (73). The observation result also showed that the there was an increase number of students' participation in every single activity. We can saw that there was the increasing average number become 94.44%. It means that more than 80% of students were active in teaching and learning process. It can be conclude that reading aloud strategy can improve students' reading comprehension of the tenth grade class Akuntansi 3 of SMK Muhammadiyah 2 Pekanbaru.

Journal of English Educational Study (JEES)

AMANDA AMANDA

One of the skills used to obtain information is reading skills. Reading is the first step and very important if you want to get a knowledge or information. Reading culture or literacy habits in Indonesia have a very low percentage compared to other countries. It will be more difficult if the student is learning a new language and has no interest whatsoever in reading. To overcome this, a technique is known to improve students' reading skills, especially in learning English. This study aims to determine the perception of EYL students in the use of reading aloud techniques for their reading skills in terms of cognitive and affective aspects. In addition, this study used narrative inquiry as a research design and data collection is carried out through interviews. The data were analyzed by categorizing and interpreting the data using Braun and Clarke’s theory. The results indicated that the students had positive responses based on their experiences using reading aloud technique in r...

/International Journal of Language Education and Applied Linguistics (IJLEAL)

Muhammad K H A L I D M E H M O O D Sajid

Reading aloud is an essential learning strategy that can increase the quality of students' reading comprehension abilities, which significant role may help them to overcome text level difficulties of the learning materials. This pilot study focused on reading aloud as an appropriate reading strategy for efficient outcomes for low-proficiency Saudi students. Mixed method design was employed with the administration of three research instruments; a reading test, a questionnaire and an interview protocol for teachers and students. Participants were 30 postgraduate students who attended a foundation English course at a public university in Saudi Arabia. The students were put into an experimental group where the reading aloud strategies were applied. The findings showed significant results. The results of the reading test and questionnaire showed that the students did better in the posttest than the pretest. In general, most of the students indicated that reading aloud strategies have helped them to improve their reading proficiency, better understand higher level texts, and hence improve their reading comprehension skill.

Jo-ELT (Journal of English Language Teaching) Fakultas Pendidikan Bahasa & Seni Prodi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris IKIP

jusmin wahid

Reading Aloud strategy used in the teaching reading skills, which means the teachers and students pronounced the word loudly in front of the class to get the information. The strategy is rewarding for students to understand the reading texts. Then, the researchers used a reading test as an instrument to know the students' competence in reading skills. This research used Quasi-Experimental Design. The result was proved that the score in the experimental class was 61 with a standard deviation was 8.20 and the post-test score was 69.1 with a standard deviation was 8.22 then the score of pre-test in the control class was 56.5 with a standard deviation was 8.53 and post-test was 60.40 with standard deviation was 9. 68. The results achieved from both tests were different. Next, the t-test score both in class was 0, 00. It means that the hypothesis is accepted, it concluded that the implementation of the reading aloud strategy can improve students' reading skills competence.

Indawan Syahri, University of Muhammadiyah Palembang

The research was conducted to improve the tenth-grade students’ reading comprehension on narrative texts through the Interactive read-aloud technique at MA Alhidayah Muara Telang. The problems of this study were (1) most students do not respond to the lesson in the class activity, (2) The students have difficulties to comprehend reading text, (3) The students have a low interest to learn, (4) The students cannot express their response for giving questions about things, because they do not have enough vocabulary. The researcher applied classroom action research which had been conducted into two cycles, where every cycle has three meetings. Each cycle had four steps; they were planning, action, observation, and reflection. Based on the quantitative data, it showed that the students’ reading comprehension on narrative text marked a significant increase from the average score of reading comprehension within the two cycles. In the average score of the test, the first achievements’ score ...

Miftachul Huda

This study examines the effectiveness of active learning strategy through reading aloud instruction implemented at the secondary school on Islamic Junior High School, Semarang, Indonesia. Several series including learning activities and direct observation were practiced among the student on the subject of Islamic Studies, that is al-Qur’an Hadith. In order to gather data through classroom research, there are three srages to complete the assessement, namely, pre-cycle, first-cycle and scond cycle in which in this last stage the process of implemmenting learning strategy was undertaken. The results showed that reading aloud learning strategy made a significantly valuable contribution to the development of independent learning skills and the ability to absorb knowledge and to foster the students to increase their lively sense, achievement, as well as attitude of their response towards that process. Generally, learning strategy of reading aloud has been comprehensively sucessful on learners’ achievement, involving lively sense ; fluency of learning ; atmosphere during implementing learning using this strategy.

International Journal of Social Science Humanity & Management Research

JASPER DEL VALLE

The study aimed to use the read aloud strategy in the enhancement of the Reading Literacy Program of the school. It specifically determined the reading levels of the pupils based on their Lexile scores using the Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI); their mean scores in terms of comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency using the researcher-made test; their Lexile growth, and the significant difference between the mean scores from the researcher-made pre-test and post-test. A one-group pre-test and post-test design was utilized, wherein a total of 44 students in grades 4-6 were used as participants. The instruments used were the Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) assessments adopted from the Reading Literacy Program and the researcher-made tests for comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency. Results revealed that there is a significant difference between the mean pre-test and post-test scores from the researcher-made tests, indicating that the use of reading aloud as a strategy is effective...

Hong Kong Economic Journal, 24 October 2012

Yue-Chim Wong

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Read aloud'

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Harris, Lisa Marie. "Read to me: Encouraging parents to read aloud." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 1990. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/569.

Primeau, Jessica M. "WHAT TYPES OF READ-ALOUD PRACTICES DO SECONDARY TEACHERS ENGAGE IN? WHAT ARE THE STUDENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF THE SECONDARY READ-ALOUD PRACTICE?" Bowling Green, Ohio : Bowling Green State University, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=bgsu1174664271.

Yocom, Judy Ann. "Children's responses to literature read aloud in the classroom." The Ohio State University, 1987. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1250016708.

Bender, Franklin W. "Linguistic Features of Instructional Language during Read Aloud Lessons." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2018. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10935745.

The purpose of this study was to explore the linguistic architecture of instructional language used during first grade read aloud lessons. The participants were from the CTL Year-3 Read Aloud study. The study’s random assignment created 20 teachers in the treatment group and 19 teachers in the control group. My study investigated the variability of their teacher’s use of instructional language during direct instruction read aloud lessons. Specifically, I analyzed the following linguistic attributes: (a) clausal density, (b) number of different words, (c) words per minute, (d) percentage of maze words, and (e) number of abandoned utterances. Exploratory associations for these variables were compared against the Quality Classroom Instruction protocol (QCI), a measure of teaching effectiveness. The results of my study yielded null effects due study limitations. However, the explored area addressed a blind-spot within the literature and provided preliminary data, insight, and recommendations pertaining to the linguistic attributes of instructional language used by first grade teachers during read aloud lessons.

Bender, Franklin. "Linguistic Features of Instructional Language During Read Aloud Lessons." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/24214.

Draper, Anne Marie. "Listening and read-aloud strategies for primary age students." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 1993. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/678.

DeVore, Trenton Michael Tremains. "Effect of Single vs. Immediate Repeated Read-Aloud on Preschoolers’ Listening Comprehension." The Ohio State University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1576846029729625.

Tams, A. C. "Modelling intonation of read aloud speaking styles for speech synthesis." Thesis, University of Essex, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.269672.

Ward, Natalia, Amber N. Warren, A. Rountree, and M. Dias. "Analyzing Science Read-Aloud Texts for Cultural and Linguistic Diversity." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2019. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/5949.

Gallingane, Mary Caitlin. "Effects of read-aloud strategies on young children's vocabulary learning." [Gainesville, Fla.] : University of Florida, 2009. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/UFE0024861.

Porter, Paulette. "Parent-Child Read Aloud Program for 8-9 year old children." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape10/PQDD_0002/MQ42424.pdf.

Robinson, Ariel. "Small Group Read Aloud with Nonfiction and Fiction Literature in Preschool." Thesis, University of Missouri - Columbia, 2019. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=13877164.

The purpose of this study was to investigate teacher’s roles and children’s responses during small group read aloud with fiction and nonfiction literature in one preschool classroom. This instrumental case study draws from three theoretical orientations: sociocultural theory, reader response theory, and the emergent literacy perspective. Two preschool teachers and 19 children were video and audio recorded as they participated in small group read aloud events that occurred during choice time in their classroom twice per day. Transcripts of interviews and small group read aloud sessions were analyzed. Analysis included open coding, axial coding, and constant-comparative techniques to reach data saturation.

Research findings suggest that teachers employed similar and different scaffolding and modeling strategies when reading fictional and nonfiction literature, differentiated instruction for younger and older children, as well as responded aesthetically to fictional stories and efferently to nonfiction texts. Children utilized a range of meaning making strategies and responded both aesthetically and efferently to both types of text. Older children served as peer models for their younger classmates.

This study has several implications. Future research should investigate read aloud with fiction and nonfiction literature with different populations of teachers and children, repeated readings of nonfiction literature, and large versus small group read aloud in preschool. Implications for preschool teachers include careful selection of fiction and nonfiction literature, employing additional reading strategies for nonfiction, differentiating instruction for younger and older preschoolers, and reading across the efferent-aesthetic continuum with both types of text. Preschool administrators should make reading instruction with fiction and nonfiction texts a priority. Early childhood teacher education faculty can support preservice teachers’ capacities to read fiction and nonfiction literature with children.

Elovsson, Cecilia, and Fredrika Blomgren. "Lärarens didaktiska högläsning : Ett redskap in i förståelsen och upplevelsen." Thesis, Högskolan för lärande och kommunikation, Högskolan i Jönköping, Läs & skriv, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-23848.

Gomez, Franco Ligia E. "Exploring teachers’ read-aloud practices as predictors of children’s language skills: the case of low-income Chilean preschool classrooms." Thesis, Boston College, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/3825.

Danielsson, Kristina. "Beginners Read Aloud : High versus Low Linguistic Levels in Swedish Beginners' Oral Reading." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för nordiska språk, 2003. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-8344.

Kohart, Jennifer N. "Structured Read-Aloud in Middle School: the Initial Impact on Reading Assessment Scores." Youngstown State University / OhioLINK, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ysu1363874120.

Ward, Natalia A., A. Warren, and A. Rountree. "Whose Read-Aloud Is It?: Analyzing Model Unit Starter Texts for Cultural Relevance." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2018. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/3136.

Meadows, B. "A comparative analysis of two models of reading : Goodman and Guthrie." Thesis, Middlesex University, 1987. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.568476.

Svensson, Erica. "Högläsning : En studie om hur barn påverkas av högläsning." Thesis, Högskolan för lärande och kommunikation, Högskolan i Jönköping, Läs & skriv, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-28164.

Bystedt, Johanna, and Elsa Brännström. "Lågstadielärare läser högt för sina elever – En studie om lågstadielärares reflektioner kring högläsning av skönlitteratur." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för naturvetenskapernas och matematikens didaktik, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-173181.

Adeyemo, Mary. "Qualitative Case Study of Read-Aloud Expository Text Strategies in Kindergarten Through Grade 2." ScholarWorks, 2015. http://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/1470.

Gibbons, Deirdre Anne. "Assessing comprehension in the classroom, comparing performance on sentence verification and classroom read-aloud tasks." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/mq30791.pdf.

Bennett, Kassidy Harriet. "The effects of musical accompaniment with read aloud stories on children's language acquisition and recall." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/192265.

Spiel, Craig F. "Is Reading Standardized Tests Aloud an Accommodation for Children with ADHD?" Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1461602754.

Augustsson, Mikaela. "Högläsningens effekter genom samtal." Thesis, Högskolan i Jönköping, Högskolan för lärande och kommunikation, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-30046.

Stewart, Samantha Davida Stewart. "Children Shaping Reading Identities with Picturebooks in a Pre-Kindergarten Classroom." The Ohio State University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1511700081775942.

Elias, Martille R. "The nature of talk in a kindergarten classroom examining read aloud, guided reading, and literature discussion /." Diss., Columbia, Mo. : University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10355/4330.

Blok, Sherry. "Read-aloud editing : how talking about writing pushes second language learners to self-and peer-repair." Thesis, McGill University, 2006. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=98911.

Friberg, Linda, and Sara Sjöström. "Högläsningens betydelse för elevers ordförråd : En litteraturstudie om hur lärare kan använda högläsning för att stötta elevers ordförråd." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Pedagogik och didaktik, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-162142.

Hall, Katrina Willard. "A critical analysis of the books read aloud by kindergarten teachers and their reasons for book selection." [Gainesville, Fla.] : University of Florida, 2004. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/UFE0005122.

Ngo, Sarah Marie. "Reading Aloud to Bilingual Students: Examining the Interaction Patterns Between Pre-service Elementary Teachers and Bilingual Children in the Context of Small Group Read Alouds in Maintstream Classroom Settings." Thesis, Boston College, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/2528.

Flanigan, Judith. "EFFECTS OF BOOK GENRE ON PRESCHOOLERS’ ACQUISITION OF TARGETED VOCABULARY DURING CLASSROOM READ-ALOUDS." Diss., Temple University Libraries, 2016. http://cdm16002.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p245801coll10/id/395900.

Jakobsson, Ann-Charlotte. "Högläsningens betydelse i undervisningen : Intervjuer med åtta lärare." Thesis, Högskolan Dalarna, Pedagogiskt arbete, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-23721.

Dådring, Jones Maja. "”Okej, nu börjar ni vara trötta så jag läser för er en stund” : Är högläsning en vilostund eller en förberedd aktivitet i skolan?" Thesis, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för naturvetenskapernas och matematikens didaktik, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-135592.

Drewry, Robert Stephen. "Selecting Vocabulary for Interactive Read-Alouds: Six Intermediate Literacy Collaborative Teachers' Choices." The Ohio State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1435579591.

Nordas, Idamaria, and Frida Oskarsson. "Högläsning och boksamtal : En kvalitativ studie om högläsning och boksamtal." Thesis, Högskolan i Gävle, Avdelningen för humaniora, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-32541.

Wallgren, Rebecka. "Örat är vägen till hjärtat : En interventionsstudie om hur olika högläsningsmetoder kan påverka elevers hörförståelse." Thesis, Jönköping University, Högskolan för lärande och kommunikation, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-53574.

Svensson, Erica. ""Man tar inte bara en bok hur som helst, utan man har ett syfte med varje bok" : En kvalitativ studie om hur fem lärare i grundskolans tidigare år beskriver deras användning av högläsning i undervisningen." Thesis, Högskolan för lärande och kommunikation, Högskolan i Jönköping, HLK, CHILD, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-31054.

Blees, Sara. "Högläsningens betydelse för barns språkutveckling : Pedagogernas syn och arbete med högläsning i förskolan." Thesis, Högskolan Dalarna, Pedagogiskt arbete, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-23998.

Vestlund, Isabelle. "Högläsning i förskolan för barns språkutveckling : Förskollärarens metoder och långsiktiga resultat." Thesis, Högskolan i Gävle, Avdelningen för utbildningsvetenskap, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-31650.

Wiezell, Linda. "Högläsning i skolan : En studie om hur tre lågstadielärare arbetar med högläsning – föreställningar och motiv." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för film och litteratur (IFL), 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-44549.

Gillberg, Isabella. "Vi hoppar över helvetesgapet och vi skyddar oss mot vildvittrorna : En kvalitativ studie om verksamma lärares aktiva arbete med högläsning." Thesis, Högskolan för lärande och kommunikation, Högskolan i Jönköping, Läs & skriv, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-36635.

Heravi, Fereshteh, and Rwan Kadhem. "Textsamtalets möjligheter : en kunskapsöversikt om textsamtal i skolan." Thesis, Högskolan i Borås, Akademin för bibliotek, information, pedagogik och IT, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hb:diva-13947.

Wahlgren, Maria. "”De har ju mycket att säga när de får komma med saker själva” : En kvalitativ studie om lärares erfarenheter av högläsning och samtal i syfte att stimulera elevers läs- och språkutveckling." Thesis, Högskolan Dalarna, Institutionen för lärarutbildning, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-36479.

Hoti, Edina, Jelena Tripunovic, and Malin Persson. "Högläsningens dimensioner : En litteraturstudie om hur planerad högläsning påverkar elevers ordkunskaper och läsförståelse." Thesis, Högskolan i Halmstad, Akademin för lärande, humaniora och samhälle, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-45093.

Fincher, Melissa. "Investigating the Effects of a Read-aloud Alteration on the Third-grade Reading Criterion-referenced Competency Test (CRCT) for Students with Disabilities." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2013. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/epse_diss/87.

Augustsson, Mikaela. "Högläsningens effekter på elevers läsförmåga : En kvalitativ studie om lärares syn på högläsning och hur de använder den i undervisningen." Thesis, Högskolan i Jönköping, Högskolan för lärande och kommunikation, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-30798.

Gabriel, R., Amber N. Warren, and Natalia Ward. "The Observation Tools We Have and Those We Need: Contrasts in Read-Aloud Practices from Classrooms Rated Highly Effective by Different Rubrics." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2019. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/5942.

Magnusson, Erik. "Högläsning i grundskolans årskurser F-3 : En intervjustudie om lärares inställning till högläsning i grundskolans årskurser F-3." Thesis, Högskolan Dalarna, Pedagogiskt arbete, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-29342.

Magnusson, Erik. "Högläsning i grundskolans årskurser F-3 : En intervjustudie om lärares inställning till högläsning i grundskolans årskurser F-3." Thesis, Högskolan Dalarna, Pedagogiskt arbete, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-29389.

We’re All Reading Wrong

To access the full benefits of literature, you have to share it out loud.

Listen to this article

Produced by ElevenLabs and News Over Audio (NOA) using AI narration.

Updated at 4:32 p.m. ET on May 3, 2024

Reading, while not technically medicine, is a fundamentally wholesome activity. It can prevent cognitive decline , improve sleep , and lower blood pressure . In one study, book readers outlived their nonreading peers by nearly two years. People have intuitively understood reading’s benefits for thousands of years: The earliest known library , in ancient Egypt, bore an inscription that read The house of healing for the soul .

But the ancients read differently than we do today. Until approximately the tenth century , when the practice of silent reading expanded thanks to the invention of punctuation, reading was synonymous with reading aloud. Silent reading was terribly strange, and, frankly, missed the point of sharing words to entertain, educate, and bond. Even in the 20th century, before radio and TV and smartphones and streaming entered American living rooms, couples once approached the evening hours by reading aloud to each other.

But what those earlier readers didn’t yet know was that all of that verbal reading offered additional benefits: It can boost the reader’s mood and ability to recall . It can lower parents’ stress and increase their warmth and sensitivity toward their children. To reap the full benefits of reading, we should be doing it out loud, all the time, with everyone we know.

Reading aloud is a distinctive cognitive process, more complex than simply reading silently, speaking, or listening. Noah Forrin, who researched memory and reading at the University of Waterloo, in Canada, told me that it involves several operations—motor control, hearing, and self-reference (the fact that you said it)—all of which activate the hippocampus, a brain region associated with episodic memory. Compared with reading silently, the hippocampus is more active while reading aloud, which might help explain why the latter is such an effective memory tool. In a small 2012 study , students who studied a word list remembered 90 percent of the words they’d read aloud immediately afterward, compared with 71 percent of those they’d read silently. (One week later, participants remembered 59 percent of the spoken words and 48 percent of the words read silently.)

So although you might enjoy an audiobook narrated by Meryl Streep, you would remember it better if you read parts of it out loud—especially if you did so in small chunks, just a short passage at a time, Forrin said. The same goes for a few lines of a presentation that you really want to nail. Those memory benefits hold true whether or not anyone is around to hear your performance.

Verbal reading without an audience is, in fact, surprisingly common. While studying how modern British people read aloud, Sam Duncan, a professor of adult literacies at University College London, found that they read aloud—and alone—for a variety of reasons. One woman recited Welsh poetry to remember her mother, with whom she spoke Welsh as a girl. One young man read the Quran out loud before work to better understand its meaning. Repeating words aloud isn’t just key to memorization, Duncan told me—it can be key to identity formation too.

From the August 1904 issue: On reading aloud

Plenty of solitary vocal reading no doubt consists of deciphering recipes and proofreading work emails, but if you want to reap the full perks, the best selections are poetry and literature. These genres provide access to facets of human experience that can be otherwise unreachable, which helps us process our own emotions and memories, says Philip Davis, an emeritus professor of literature and psychology at the University of Liverpool. Poetry, for example, can induce peak emotional responses , a strong reaction that might include goose bumps or chills. It can help you locate an emotion within yourself, which is important to health as a form of emotional processing.

Poetry also contains complex, unexpected elements, like when Shakespeare uses god as a verb in Coriolanus : “This last old man … godded me.” In an fMRI study that Davis co-authored in 2015, such literary surprise was shown to be stimulating to the brain. Davis told me that literature, with its “mixture of memory and imagination,” can cause us to recall our most complex experiences and derive meaning from them. A poem or story read aloud is particularly enthralling, he said, because it becomes a live presence in the room, with a more direct and penetrative quality, akin to live music. Davis likens the role of literature and live reading to a spark or renewal, “a bringing of things back to life.”

Discussing the literature that you read aloud can be particularly valuable. Davis told me doing so helps penetrate rigid thinking and can dislodge dysfunctional thought patterns. A qualitative 2017 study led by Josie Billington at the University of Liverpool found that, for those who have chronic pain and the depression that tends to come with it, such discussion expands emotional vocabulary —a key tenet of psychological well-being— perhaps even more so than cognitive behavioral therapy . (The allure of an audience has one notable exception: If you’re anxious, reading aloud can actually reduce memory and comprehension . To understand this effect, one need only harken back to fifth grade when it was your turn to read a paragraph on Mesopotamia in class.)

Read: How to keep your book club from becoming a wine club

The health benefits of reading aloud are so profound that some doctors in England now refer their chronic-pain patients to read-aloud groups. Helen Cook, a 45-year-old former teacher in England, joined one of these groups in 2013. Cook had a pelvic tumor that had sent anguish ricocheting through her hip and back for a decade, and medication never seemed to help. Before she joined the reading group, Cook had trouble sleeping, lost her job, and “had completely lost myself,” she told me. Then, she and nine other adults began working their way through some 300 pages of Hard Times , by Charles Dickens.

Cook told me she recognized her experience in the characters’ travails, and within months, she “rediscovered a love for life,” even returning to college for a master’s degree in literature. She’s not the only one who found relief: In Billington’s 2017 study, everyone who read aloud in a group felt emotionally better and reported less pain for two days afterward.

Hearing words read aloud to you also has unique advantages, especially for kids. Storytelling has been shown to increase hospitalized children’s levels of oxytocin while decreasing cortisol and pain. Julie Hunter, who for more than 20 years has taught preschool kids (including my daughter), told me that interactive reading increases young children’s comprehension , builds trust , and enhances social-emotional skills . A recent study by researchers at the Brookings Institution found that children smiled and laughed more when being read to by a parent than when listening to an automatically narrated book alone.

Read: An ode to being read to

Anecdotal evidence suggests that adults, too, can benefit from such listening. For 25 years, Hedrick and Susan Smith, ages 90 and 84, respectively, have read more than 170 books aloud. They started by reading in the car, to pass the time, but it was so much fun that they started reading every night before they turned out the light, Hedrick told me. Together, they tried to comprehend One Hundred Years of Solitude , narrated Angela’s Ashes in four different Irish accents, and deduced clues in John le Carré thrillers. They felt more connected, and went to sleep in brighter moods. If they liked the book, they couldn’t wait for the other to read the next chapter aloud—even, and perhaps especially, when the sound of the other’s voice sent them off to sleep.

Due to an editing error, this article originally misidentified the author of a 2017 study.

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Read me a story: why reading out loud is a joy for adults as well as kids

Sarah Manavis and her partner have a guilty secret. What they love to do most of all in private is… read out loud to each other. And, as she’s discovered, it has many surprising benefits

N either of us can remember exactly how it happened, but we both agree we were probably a little drunk. It was December 2016. We had been dating for eight months. Even with the booze we were, by many measures, still shy around each other, fearful of spoiling the magic. Which is why neither I nor my partner can fathom the conversation that landed us either in bed or on the sofa with him reading A Christmas Carol out loud to me for an hour. It wasn’t something either of us had ever done with another adult. It wasn’t something we’d heard of adults in the real world ever doing. But the book kept getting read – always by my boyfriend, out loud to me, who listened with total fixation. It was finished before we left to be with our respective families for the Christmas break. And when we returned to be together again in January, we decided we wanted to do it again.

Seven years later, reading together is something we do regularly throughout the year. Without meaning to, we have read mostly classics – The Picture of Dorian Gray , Alice in Wonderland , Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – always, without fail, returning to A Christmas Carol in December, me blurting out the big lines I’ve memorised over time like an eager audience member at a kids’ sing-along.

We have never switched roles – he is always the reader. (People who know me, an impatient person, talkative, may be surprised that I elect to listen.) We laugh at strange wordings and at him stumbling over them, and occasionally we talk about the plot before a session starts. But, for the most part, I am silently attentive while he quietly speaks, until we reach a good stopping point or one of us becomes too tired to carry on.

You might have read the above and experienced a toe-curling response. That is understandable: it sounds sickly sweet, the kind of cloyingly romantic thing teenagers in a young adult novel might do. It’s something I’ve come to lovingly refer to as “our terrible secret”. Before revealing all here we had told almost no one and, whenever we did, we prefaced it with the trigger warning that what we were about to say sounded weird or awkward or mortifying.

Why we kept reading together was not a passion for Victorian literature or virtuosic performances from my partner. I’m not even sure it’s ever felt traditionally romantic. It’s because the effects have been transformative, both for us as individuals and as a couple. I couldn’t say whether it happened that first time, but I know how it’s made me feel since: it guarantees I’ll sleep through the night, that I’ll wake up without being tired and that I’ll get to sleep at all (my boyfriend jokes it has conditioned me to pass out to the sound of his voice). My anxiety, which becomes extra ghoulish at bedtime, retreats entirely – as effective for my mental health as a run or yoga, if not better. We have both noticed we are generally calmer people in the middle of a long reading stretch and especially notice the lack of serenity the days after we come out of one.

We are some of the only people we know, in real life, who read out loud together. But online, you can find dozens of posts from other couples who keep up this practice, usually punctuated by the same embarrassed precaution, most beginning to the affect of “This may sound odd” or “Hear me out” and almost always ending with a somewhat pleading: “Does anyone else do this too?” The circumstances are wide-ranging. While there are lots of other couples, there are also many non-romantic partners who read together: one person who now reads to one of their parents after they lost their eyesight, or two friends who began reading to each over Skype after one moved overseas. What people read varies from fantasy novels to commercial hits (a friend of mine has read her wife the entirety of Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell Trilogy as well as It by Stephen King).

Whatever the configuration, whatever the text, the benefits appear near universal: almost everyone reports better sleep, improved mental health and a happy feeling about the other person. My friend noted, too, after her colleagues said they found it romantic that she took the time to read to her wife, that this hadn’t even occurred to her. Others say the same: that the intimacy is something which edges outside typical romance – for some, generating positive feelings that sit in their own distinct territory.

Most of the research around the science of reading aloud – if not all of it – has been conducted around children. This, of course, aligns with who in our culture is being read to most (and who can’t read for themselves). The total lack of science about the impact on adults reading to each another – the calmness, the closeness – also fits with it being a niche hobby. When it does focus on adults, what you get is the kind of studies you might find shared on LinkedIn, such as how reading out loud to yourself can improve memory retention. But there is some evidence in these studies that can be applied more universally to people at any age.

“Psychology has shown that synchronising our actions and emotions with others leads to greater feelings of intimacy,” Professor Usha Goswami, the founding director of the Centre for Neuroscience in Education at Cambridge University, tells me. “There is some recent neuroscience showing that if two people are engaged in a joint activity – for example juggling, playing a duet, having a conversation – their brain waves line up. This brain alignment may be why we feel a greater connection.”

Goswami’s work has focused on reading’s impact on the brain when it comes to childhood development, more specifically on the impact of rhythmic speaking. Her research has found that rhythm structures – often found in nursery rhymes and “poetry out loud” – are a crucial part of children’s language and literacy learning, creating patterns their brain waves can synchronise with. She explains that, at a neural level, brain waves appear to sync when this rhythmic language is both produced and perceived.

“When reading stories aloud, primary school teachers unconsciously produce similar acoustic statistics to those found in baby talk and nursery rhymes – the more accurately the brain aligns its rhythms to the rhythms in speech, the better the language comprehension of the receiver.”

These same rhythms, learned in childhood, are probably, subconsciously, adopted when adults read to one another. “When you read aloud, even to an adult, you unconsciously become quite rhythmic in your diction,” she says. “And any shared rhythms improve feelings of emotional wellbeing and feelings of group cohesion.” She gives the example of soldiers marching in time to band music. “The brain waves of everyone [both adults and children] seem to fall into time and, whenever this occurs, you feel better.”

Kate Nation, a professor of experimental psychology at Oxford university and the director of ReadOxford, a research group which studies how children learn to read, tells me that story itself also plays a role in why reading aloud makes people feel good themselves and closer to their partner.

“We know for children that reading is obviously important for education and learning and acquiring knowledge, but also for understanding themselves, their own personal narratives and empathy and emotion. All of those things, we do through story,” she says. “There’s the benefits that come from that – cognitively, linguistically, emotionally – but also the shared connection with that person: that they’re taking time, it’s sort of intimate, and there’s that sort of emotional connection with somebody else that loves you. That’s thought of as a two-way street between the parent and the child – one imagines it might extend to adult relationships as well.”

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That two-way street may be the most important element – this isn’t, for example, an article about audiobooks or open mic nights. “You’ve got somebody reading aloud to you, but here, of course, it’s a familiar person and it’s interactive in the moment. You might be stopping to ask questions or going off topic or talking about the text.” She considers that voice itself may play an active part.

“There is just something about hearing a voice and the comfort of hearing a voice,” she says. “Something about the soothingness and switching off from the world, that physical isolation, but not on your own sort of thing.” She is keen to stress, though, that – even within the research that now exists – conclusions are often about correlations rather than causal evidence.

“All sorts of things tend to cluster together that might promote health, wellbeing, cognitive development. It’s really difficult to know what the precise ingredient is.”

The limited science does explain some of why adult co-readers report a sense of ease, and even on some level why they might feel a stronger link to the person they read with. What we know about our brains and our bodies resonates with the physical benefits people seem to experience. These positive neural impacts can substantially improve your daily life. They are undoubtedly a large part of why this practice remains so appealing.

But I would be obscuring the truth to say this is the best part of reading out loud or that it’s why it has persisted in my relationship for close to a decade. The science doesn’t fully capture the emotional detail of this anomalous exchange or the quality of the “good” you feel – not just siloed in health benefits and improved wellbeing, but in the connection channelled between you and that other person. There is a tenderness in listening to someone you love and letting go of all thoughts and feelings beyond their voice; in reading to them and hearing their breath slow down and seeing their eyes get heavy, quietly noting at which point they drifted off before turning out the light. There is also, it feels important to say, a vulnerability in actually taking the leap to try this thing which is seldom done among adults. Letting go of that discomfort and being a little brave can bring concrete and ineffable returns which outweigh the initial perceived costs.

The oasis, the bubble – whatever you want to call it – that forms around you when you are focused on each other in this way, choosing to either listen deliberately or speak with care, is this hobby’s fundamental rarity. Everything else recedes and, while there is relief in the outside world falling away, the real draw is the vacuum of pure affection you are left with. This doesn’t feel dramatic or revelatory when it’s happening, but it is also what happens.

None of this has to be that deep, at least not all of the time. The normality of it over so many years means neither my boyfriend or I think about it all that intensely. My heart doesn’t break when we read on our own; I don’t feel wistful as we select a new book. I’m not profoundly moved each time he reads “Marley was dead, to begin with.”

But even if I’m not in the moment overwhelmed by some powerful emotion, this doesn’t mean those things aren’t still there – still working away, making me feel better than before and giving me all they ever have. Reading out loud may have become part of the furniture of our life together, something totally comfortable and ordinary, but I can honestly say each of the benefits is present in my mind every single time. The generosity of these acts – of giving, of listening – isn’t something, even seven years later, you have the choice to take for granted. The feeling doesn’t dull; you can’t remove the intrinsic care.

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I was terrified i was a pedophile —here’s what was actually wrong with me.

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There was a time in my life when I was petrified that I already was, or would become, a pedophile.

I also feared being a murderer or incestuous and ruminated on those possibilities, searching for answers – for some sort of confirmation that the thoughts were real or not.

This hellish mental landscape took me captive for years in my early 20s, without a single other soul knowing, and the repetitive intrusive thoughts were so ‘outside of me’ that I questioned whether I was developing schizophrenia.

It never occurred to me that what I was dealing with was Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), because I understood OCD to be repetitive physical rituals related to hygiene or organization – the stereotype.

Mental health misconceptions, resulting from a lack of awareness and education, are the reason I went so long without diagnosis and treatment.

I know, if I’d had a simple understanding of ‘intrusive thoughts’, OCD wouldn’t have been able to shame me into the silence it did; I would have reached out for support before those negative neural pathways were so deeply ingrained.

Stuff the algebra – every person walking this earth should know what intrusive thoughts are. We have to live with our thoughts – thousands of them every single day.

We need to be able to identify when our minds are starting to betray us, early on in the piece, and not when it’s out of hand or too late.

Early intervention is key, and dependent upon an individual being able to recognise signs and symptoms.

It was only after I randomly (and fortunately) listened to a mental health podcast, where a narrator shared his lived experience with OCD, that I realized what I was experiencing, booked in with a psychologist, and got my life back.

Sitting in the therapy chair soon after, I got an education on intrusive thoughts and OCD, learning about its many different subtypes that can center around doing harm to others, relationships (often concerning a partner’s fidelity), religion, sexual orientation, to name just a few.

I learned that everyone in the world has intrusive thoughts to some degree, but someone with OCD gives power to those thoughts.

OCD types fixate on them, worry about their significance, become ashamed of them. OCD mostly involves irrational anxieties. For example, ‘what if this violent thought means I’ll kill someone?’

We focused on my compulsions, which were mostly mental – arguing with the thoughts, seeking reassurance, searching for answers.

Of course therein lies one of the most dangerous misconceptions regarding OCD, that compulsions are always physical, external behaviours, when in actuality they can be mental, internal, hidden from the world.

I gained an arsenal of knowledge and weapons to help me combat my OCD, learning how to ‘let the thoughts come and let them go’, drifting past me like the wind, trying not to give them the emotional response that I had been.

It sounds simple but it took a lot of time and work; it didn’t happen overnight but I did slowly get better, and today, I can proudly say that I no longer meet the diagnostic criteria for OCD.

Not to say I no longer experience intrusive thoughts, but rather the disorder doesn’t consume my time, cause a level of distress, or impair my life in the way it once did.

Mental health disorders are treatable, and that’s why unnecessary suffering devastates and frustrates me.

According to the World Health Organization, more than 700,000 people die due to suicide every year. The organization also notes that one of the barriers to effective care is the social stigma associated with mental disorders.

I told only a few people about my OCD diagnosis for this reason and until just recently, most of my family and friends had no idea of what I went through.

I “came out” of the mental health closet in brazen fashion, publishing a tell-all memoir about my OCD experience, leaving most of my loved ones in shock.

It was easier for me to put my experience on the page than to look people in the eye and try to say, “I had thoughts telling me I was a pedophile”.

Hitting publish was traumatizing. It triggered an OCD flare. But it was like a giant band-aid being ripped off. A f**k you to the stigma. Flipping the bird to shame.

Setting my story free so that maybe people will stop trivializing OCD and making jokes about being ‘a bit OCD’ if they like things neat and tidy.

Because generalized mental health posters and slogans aren’t enough. As a society, we need to know what mental health illnesses really look like. And it ain’t pretty. It’s confronting. But the only way out is through.

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