Reading Aloud in Britain Today

Jo Dixon ♦ April 26, 2019 ♦ Leave a comment

“‘my first reaction – I don’t do it. But the more I thought about it, the more I realised I do actually… more than I thought I did’” (p57).

In this article, which features on pages 54-63 of RaPAL journal Vol No 97 (Spring 2019), Sam Duncan highlights participants’ surprise about the topic of her research: contemporary reading aloud practices.

She provides numerous examples from her research data of situations in which adults read aloud in different ways and for different purposes. Yet key documents that guide our teaching of adult literacy seem to assume that reading is always a solitary, silent process.

Perhaps, Duncan suggests, “we need to be a bit more open in our explorations of the forms of reading engaged in by our learners and think a bit more carefully about how best to support our learners in developing the reading and writing skills that matter the most to them” (p62).

Find out more about the Reading Aloud in Britain Today project at: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/research/projects/reading-aloud-britain-today

Find this article and more from other contributors on the theme “Rethinking Participation” in the Spring 2019 edition of the RaPAL journal: https://rapal.org.uk/members-area/recent-journal-editions/