Reading aloud remains an effective learning strategy
Published: 04:06 PM,Jun 01,2025 | EDITED : 08:06 PM,Jun 01,2025
We have all been there as school children — pacing the room and reading out aloud from whichever textbook was most difficult. Whether formulae, definitions or poetry, reading out aloud was always part of preparation for exams.
It turns out, there is a science behind this. Just the act of forming words and saying them aloud substantially increases retention. This is called the ‘production effect’ — reading in order to remember. This is easily proved in the way that we remember songs because we sing them, or we remember nursery rhymes because we recited them in junior classes. Even actors apparently remember their words because they practice them aloud, not silently in one corner.
Historically, reading out aloud was the only way to convey information. Almost 4,000 years ago in Syria and Iraq, ‘to read’ meant ‘to cry’ or ‘to listen’. Using the word ‘to see’ to refer to reading came much later.
Behaviour scientists also suggest that reading aloud creates social bonds. That is why it is important for parents to read aloud to their children — it creates a bond right from infancy while also maintaining a memory of closeness and sharing. While we know this of children, we tend to overlook the importance of such bonding in adults. This is why sharing readings through book clubs or any other avenue adds to companionship and camaraderie. As Sam Duncan, an educator, notes, “When someone is reading out loud to you, you feel a bit like you’ve been given a gift of their time, of their attention, of their voice.” According to research on the impact of reading out aloud, Colin MacLeod, a psychologist at the University of Waterloo, showed that people always remember texts better if they read them out loud: “It’s beneficial throughout the age range,” he says.
Reading out loud can help children, but it also helps the elderly in substantial ways. Studies on adults with early onset of dementia have shown that listening to stories, news or any other text helps them retain the material more successfully, perhaps because they can draw on their own experiences and imagination to make connections and improve memory.
Finally, reading out aloud is simply fun. Think of the many times we want to share a joke, or now, a meme, and wish someone would be there in the room with us. It also takes us back to listening to stories sitting around an adult in the family, sometimes in the dark, with ghost stories circulating in the group. This is a mode that audiobooks have caught on — reading with emotion and relevant diction, it transports us into another world.
Research suggests that we all read out aloud more than we actually realise. Whether it is a prayer we make out of habit, an e-mail which needs a considered response, or a word that needs accurate translation, we are always reading out aloud, even to ourselves.
In an age when reading itself is being challenged by many other distractions, reading out aloud needs to be encouraged by teachers, parents and anyone who values critical thought and the sheer magical sounds of the written word.
It turns out, there is a science behind this. Just the act of forming words and saying them aloud substantially increases retention. This is called the ‘production effect’ — reading in order to remember. This is easily proved in the way that we remember songs because we sing them, or we remember nursery rhymes because we recited them in junior classes. Even actors apparently remember their words because they practice them aloud, not silently in one corner.
Historically, reading out aloud was the only way to convey information. Almost 4,000 years ago in Syria and Iraq, ‘to read’ meant ‘to cry’ or ‘to listen’. Using the word ‘to see’ to refer to reading came much later.
Behaviour scientists also suggest that reading aloud creates social bonds. That is why it is important for parents to read aloud to their children — it creates a bond right from infancy while also maintaining a memory of closeness and sharing. While we know this of children, we tend to overlook the importance of such bonding in adults. This is why sharing readings through book clubs or any other avenue adds to companionship and camaraderie. As Sam Duncan, an educator, notes, “When someone is reading out loud to you, you feel a bit like you’ve been given a gift of their time, of their attention, of their voice.” According to research on the impact of reading out aloud, Colin MacLeod, a psychologist at the University of Waterloo, showed that people always remember texts better if they read them out loud: “It’s beneficial throughout the age range,” he says.
Reading out loud can help children, but it also helps the elderly in substantial ways. Studies on adults with early onset of dementia have shown that listening to stories, news or any other text helps them retain the material more successfully, perhaps because they can draw on their own experiences and imagination to make connections and improve memory.
Finally, reading out aloud is simply fun. Think of the many times we want to share a joke, or now, a meme, and wish someone would be there in the room with us. It also takes us back to listening to stories sitting around an adult in the family, sometimes in the dark, with ghost stories circulating in the group. This is a mode that audiobooks have caught on — reading with emotion and relevant diction, it transports us into another world.
Research suggests that we all read out aloud more than we actually realise. Whether it is a prayer we make out of habit, an e-mail which needs a considered response, or a word that needs accurate translation, we are always reading out aloud, even to ourselves.
In an age when reading itself is being challenged by many other distractions, reading out aloud needs to be encouraged by teachers, parents and anyone who values critical thought and the sheer magical sounds of the written word.