To Read Aloud or Not: A Comparative Study of the Two Reading Methods

Silent reading is the most favoured practice in general ELT methodology, particularly the communicative approach, to teach a foreign language, such as English. However, research studies have documented the benefits, such as phonemic awareness, morphological awareness, enhanced comprehension, and so on, of reading aloud to children. Research also documents the benefits of children themselves reading aloud in the early years of language development. Research investigations whether there are any potential benefits if adult EFL learners followed reading aloud approach to develop their reading skills are scanty since silent reading is accepted as the ELT norm. Nevertheless, in many ways, adult EFL learners are like early childhood native-language learners and may have ill-developed phonemic awareness, lack morphological awareness, and lack reading/listening comprehension. An empirical study employing a quasi-experimental design was conducted with undergraduate students in Saudi Arabia to examine if reading aloud approach can improve their pronunciation, lexical awareness, and reading/listening comprehension. The findings of the study indicate a positive impact of reading aloud approach on the selected research constructs. The study and its findings are significant in Saudi Arabian contexts as EFL undergraduates often need intervention to improve their pronunciation, lexical repertoire, and reading/listening comprehension. The findings also induce rethinking on silent reading as the only approach to teach reading.