THE EFFECT OF AUDIOBOOK USE ON EFL STUDENTS’

FLUENCY DEVELOPMENT

Achlia Niza Ayunda

IKM Al Muhajirin
achliabaehaqi26@gmail.com

Abstract: This article uncovered an empirical study of audiobook - a form of

podcasting media. The subjects were two classes of 30 learners of English,
fifteen of whom (one class) were randomly assigned to a meaning-focused
input group using audiobooks and the other class to a non-audiobook
group. There were two separated groups which were randomly assigned to
a meaning-focused input group applying audiobooks and the other class to a
non-audiobook group. This study implemented pretest and posttest research
design. During one complete semester the subjects of experimental class
accomplished fourteen pedagogical audiobook sessions while the control group
were provided with another learning media. Data collected consisted of orally
in-pairs test performed by the subjects in both groups. Audiobooks appeared
to be successful in this study in that they led to considerable improvement in
fluency and vocabulary size consistency during oral performance.

Keywords: Audiobooks, Meaning-focused input, L2, Output, Fluency, learning

media

The use of learning media that facilitate the 2001; Nur, 2004 and Yuwono, 2005; Kirkpatrick,
improvement and development of language 2007 and Sun, 2004).
skills have long been recognized to audiobook, a There are two factors, internal and external,
recording technology text being read. Audiobook that influence second language learning (Wikins,
cassette tape format which contains narrative 1972). Exposure is part of the external factors
version of a book was originally used to help in the learner which includes the time and the
the handicapped blind to enjoy and understand frequency available to the targeted language.
books. At its development audiobook format It is one of the conditions for L1 acquisition
turned into MP3 files commonly known as equally holds true for second language (L2)
podcast which is more compact, cheaper, mobile learning. Wilkins further stated that if learner
and widespread. With the ease of information is exposed to the L2 in the same way as he/
technology, audiobook can be downloaded she is exposed to the L1, greater success will
even free from various websites on the internet be achieved. Because this is in the ‘natural’
( https://www.shapingenglish.ning.co; https:// L2 learning situation, the pressure to acquire
www.englishtips.org). In this research I would the IL in order to control the environment is
like to see its impact on the teaching of speaking indeed tremendous. However, according to
in a specified EFL classroom. Facts prove that Ravem (1974), the learner is very often not
numbers of learners of English in Indonesia ‘... exposed to “primary linguistic data” in
have difficulty mastering this popular language. the sense that an L1 learner is, but rather to
English language acquisition still possessed carefully graded language items presented
challenges (Dardjowidjojo, 2000; Musthafa, in small doses for a few hours a week ‘(ibid.:

Journal on English as a Foreign Language, Volume 3, Number 2, September 2013| 85

132). Amount of exposure L2 learners get in to overcome oral fluency. This is especially true
the classroom is limited, and even less than in countries where learners share a common
the amount they receive in acquiring the L1 mother tongue and have little or no exposure
outside the classroom. The limited amount to the L2 outside the classroom. Regardless of
of exposure time to the L2 and how the time the reason, one thing is clear that L2 teachers
is spent does matter (Kennedy, 1973). Ismail should place greater emphasis on finding media
Jamali (1991) detected difference between L1 that incorporate fluency-enhancing activities
acquisition conditions and L2 learning where into their classroom teaching. To reach this
the amount received by those learning the stage, one must first recognize the mechanisms
L2 is far more limited than that received by surrounding fluency.
children acquiring the L1. Instead of having a In this research, the operational definition
rich linguistic environment, the L2 learner is of oral fluency is a measure of how well and
often exposed to selected usually phonological, how easily a learner can communicate his / her
syntactical, lexical, and thematic items. ideas in speech clearly. Lennon (1990) define the
Linguistically Bahasa Indonesia and English ​​ temporal aspect of fluency, “often it has been
possess abundant of diversity that include assumed that the goal in language learning
the vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and consists in producing speech at the tempo of
other linguistic aspects. Indonesian learners of native speakers, unimpeded by silent pauses
English often use the concept of bahasa Indonesia and hesitations, filled pauses, ... “(p. 390). To be
when expressing ideas in English. Especially in able to distinguish the words, phrases, clauses,
verbal interaction, a language learner may take and whole sentences, including stress, rhythm,
time to connect with the intention of meaning and intonation uttered a learner must be used
in English. He spoke slowly, many stops, full to hearing English utterances. Asher (1969)
of fillers which can interfere with the smooth expands that “in order to handle a simple
communication. This distract fluency, factor in conversation, an individual must have a much
a broad sense refers to the error-free grammar, broader competency in listening comprehension
a large number of vocabulary and / or smooth than in speaking; this is especially the case when
pronunciation. Fluency in the broad sense conversing in a foreign language with a native
is equivalent to overall speaking proficiency speaker of that language. A series of studies
(Chambers, 1997). Instead, fluency in a narrow have shown that the combination of listening,
sense is part of the assessment component of reading, and speaking proven to improve
speaking. Lennon (1990) defines fluency in Fluency. Asher (1969) elaborated that “the stress
this sense as an ‘impression on the listener’s of trying to pronounce the alien utterance may
part that the psycholinguistic processes of retard fluency listening ... The optimal strategy
speech planning and speech production are may be serial learning in which one achieves
functioning easily and smoothly’. Fillmore’s listening just before attempting to speak.” Ley
(1979) identifies four abilities that might be and Locascio (1972) added that attempting
subsumed under the term fluency, the first is to speak before listening comprehension is
the ability to talk at length with few pauses. acquired may bring about the detrimental
The three other abilities include talking in effect of task overload (of stress and anxiety)
coherent, reasoned, and “semantically dense on language learning. As Gaier (1952, p.11)
sentences”, the ability to have appropriate of has expressed it: “It leads to impairment in the
things to say in a wide range of contexts, and ability to improvise in an unstructured and /
finally the ability to be creative and imaginative or new situation. This results in stereotyped,
in language use (p . 93). Thus, one of the most habitual, and familiar approaches that may be
difficult challenges in L2 teaching is finding ways maladaptive in the situation.

86 |Journal on English as a Foreign Language, Volume 3, Number 2, September 2013

 Next step was to repeat listening until what because L2 learners need explicit instruction
is read is familiarized by ears. Yuki Yoshimura and experiences that specifically targets fluency
and Brian MacWhinney’s study indicate that (Pinnell et al, 1995, cited in Worthy and
repeated oral practice fluency significantly Broaddus, 2002). Fluency is an ideal candidate
increases. They argue that there is a link between for treatment using audiobooks. Therefore, the
automatic processing and fluency. Researchers research questions investigated in this study
in the field of skill acquisition hold that, with were the following:
practice, a skill moves from controlled to 1. Do learners who have received comprehensible
automatic processing. It indicated that higher input using audiobooks on their L2 output
working memory capacity brings advantages have a greater ability to uphold fluency in
in fluency. Regardless of individual working- their L2 speech?
memory capacity, the automatic processing of 2. Do learners who have received repeated
language frees up capacity for other information, comprehensible input using audiobooks
results in fluent use of language. At the same show higher density words during their
time, higher working-memory capacity to process speech?
larger speakers allows pieces of information In this study, the definition of the word
fluently. density is the number of words spoken in a
The research on audiobook has shown given time duration, 1 minute.
success in reading fluency development. METHOD
The results of Kuhn and Stahl’s study (2000)
The subjects were 19 to 23 years old male
concluded tape-assisted reading strategies
and female, all of whom were L2 learners of
produce significant gains for students (Kuhn
English enrolled in study programs in English
and Stahl, 2000). Students become more fluent
education study program in STAIN Palangkaraya,
readers when provided with models of fluent
Indonesia. They have been studying English
reading (Armbruster, Lehr, and Osborn, 2001).
since several years ago with their heterogeneous
Casbergue & Harris’s (1996) focuses on children’s
proficiency levels. All reported a high level of
fluency growth found that:
motivation for learning English.
As they listen to a variety of books read aloud,
The study employed a pretest, and posttest
youngsters’ understanding of story structure,
design, with two groups of 15 subjects. The
written language conventions, vocabulary,
audiobook group, to which fifteen subjects
and aspects of their own and exotic cultures
were randomly assigned, received treatment
increases. As this knowledge base grows, more
using audiobook. The nonaudiobook group, to
challenging stories become comprehensible
which the other fifteen subjects were randomly
to them, leading in turn to higher levels of
assigned, received no audiobook task, and
understanding of structure, conventions,
therefore served as a contrast for any effect
vocabulary and general.
observed in the audiobook group. In total,
This reading-while-listening assists learners’
the subjects participated in 14 sessions over
transitions to fluency (Dowhower, 1987 and
a period of about one semester. The pretest
Rasinski, 1990, cited in Kuhn and Stahl, 2000)
consisting of an in-pairs oral interview task was
which eradicates confusion of pronunciation
administered to all the subjects, the aim being
during listening. Kuhn and Stahl conclude that
(a) to gauge the subjects’ ability to uphold verbal
seeing the text as whole, students can begin to
communication in producing L2 output and (b)
use context clues to decipher meaning from new
to enable a comparison with the posttests. The
words, and are more easily able to incorporate
instruction period was conducted separately for
these words into their daily conversation. This
the audiobook group and the nonaudiobook
leads to increased fluency and confidence

Journal on English as a Foreign Language, Volume 3, Number 2, September 2013| 87

group. The subjects performed the same task, linguistic treatment. During the instruction
during which only the audiobook group received sessions, the subjects in audiobook group
audiobook treatment. A posttest, again in the consistently listened to audiobooks which was
form of an orally in-pairs task, was administered transferred into their cellular phones.
to both groups to see if any noticeable changes In addition, off-class instruction was also
occurred in the performance of the audiobook given for more familiarization of meaningful
group. inputs. The subjects in audiobook group were
Data were elicited using cartoon strips. All the asked to frequently listen to the audiobooks in
pictures depicted stories about the adventure of their spent time while the subjects in the non-
Tom Sawyer, and the subjects’ familiarity with audiobook group were asked to frequently
the story boosted their interest in the tasks. The make use of the given reading passages. The
database comprises oral remarks produced by purpose of off-class instruction was set up to
the audiobook group and the nonaudiobook maintain their consistent use of each, podcasting
group during the 14 sessions. Typically, in each and reading media.
session the subjects and a researcher sat in a FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
circle, similar to the way a group activity is
The verbal in-pairs conversations are
conducted in a classroom. Each subject received
transcribed and analyzed separately for each
a reading passage for each session, entitled
group. Words spoken in every 1 minute were
Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain and
counted. Pronunciation aspects were not analyzed
the following instructions: “read the story and
because this required different treatment (the
then find out unknown vocabularies or phrases
limitation of this research) and that the focus
that impede your understanding. Play and
of pronunciation accuracy was beyond the
listen the audiobook with the passage closed.
narrow sense of fluency. The subject needed
When you are finished, retell the story to your
to increase the smooth the pronunciation rasio
friend next to you in ten minutes. During the
out of this study. I scored pretest and posttest
moment take turns with your partner to be the
to ensure coding lexical density per minute;
story teller while other asking questions based
interrater agreement reached 77%.
on the storyline”. The subjects then identified
I estimate the speech learners’ by calculating
and clarified the difficult vocabularies with
the average proportion of oral speech and a
partner. This brief searching phase was meant
separately for audiobook and nonaudiobook
to identify building blocks of meaning and pave
group on two occasions (ie, pretest and posttest).
the way for the internalization of those words. In
Standard deviation is calculated to reveal the
audiobook group, prior to in-pairs conversation
variation in the group. I then obtained a single
phase subjects had to listen to audiobook played
index of fluency by subtracting the mean for
through their MP3-facilitated cellular phones.
the less lexical density from the mean for the
The subjects were allowed to play the audio
most used on each of the tests .6. The resulting
five times at least. Their understanding to the
‘fluency development ‘ theoretical value can
story was then confirmed. Next, the subjects
range from 0, indicating no development of
took turns relating their story.
fluency (as would happen if learners make
During the test each conversation was tape-
less use of new words 50% of the duration of 1
recorded and later transcribed. The pedagogical
minute (.50 .50 _ = 0), to 1.00, indicating the use
focus for the audiobook group during the
of new words encountered more than 100% of
instruction period was the use of audiobook
the time . In the oral pretest, each audiobooks
assisted to comprehend the story being read.
nonaudiobook group showed a bit of a preference
Being at the upper elementary level, the subjects
for one temporal frame over the other: The
were judged developmentally ready for this

88 |Journal on English as a Foreign Language, Volume 3, Number 2, September 2013

audiobook group preferred most encountered audiobook group outperformed the contrast
words spoken in their daily conversation (M = group following a number of instruction
.63) while the nonaudiobook group tended to sessions with intensive provision of audiobooks.
use similarly the words of daily interaction (M Moreover, during instruction, subjects in
= .64). In addition, variation among members the audiobook group displayed a relatively
of the audiobook is relatively larger than the greater ability to maintain number of needed
contrast group members. At posttest, the words when expressing meanings than their
audiobook group showed significant growth counterparts in the nonaudiobook group did.
in the use of lexical density (pretest, M = .63,. Over the period, fluency speech improved
posttest, M = 75) while the nonaudiobook systematically in the setup conversation of
group showed a slight increase in the use of the subjects in the audiobook group but not of
lexical density (pretest, M = .64,. posttest, M those in the nonaudiobook group. This result
= .67) Overall, the results revealed a growing indicates that the audiobooks, which were
number of used words and a decrease in the consistently provided on the comprehensible
variation to the audiobooks and more stable input, led familiarization of repeated words.
number of words that are used throughout the Enhanced fluency on the part of the subjects
test for the contrast group. in the audiobook group was also evident from
To estimate the level of vocabulary and the fact that the audiobook group’s attempts
phrases that are achieved from time to time focused mainly on rehearsed comprehensible
by each group on the two tests, I get a gap inputs. Some conditions appear to have affected
between the use of words on each test for the outcomes of this small scale study: (a)
each group by subtracting the average score in intensive listening, (b) consistent focus, (c)
proportion to the number of words commonly repeated comprehensible input, and (d) and
used to obtain a score between 0 and 1. The awareness of effective media. A discussion of
audiobook group and the nonaudiobook group each may be useful in applying the positive
both started with the same degree of fluency findings from this study in other settings. First,
score (.28, indicating relatively small number the study, carried out in and out of class of
of words used). However, this commonality which subjects were exposed to spoken English.
diminished on the posttest (audiobook group, .73; As a result, each subject received intensive
nonaudiobook group, .67). Thus, judging from listening individualized from audiobook.
comparisons of the mean proportion scores for Second, the instruction had a consistent focus
both groups, audiobooks appear on the whole on one aspect of effective interaction—namely,
to have had a positive impact on the subjects comprehension. This focus may have facilitated
in the audiobook group, who seemed to have the learners’ oral production of the pedagogical
developed a much better control over fluency instruction. The linguistic ease targeted by the
than their counterparts in the nonaudiobook instruction was one of which the subjects had
group. The views presented so far provide a experienced and one that they were in the
quantitative summary of the overall changes process of developing an ability to express
in the fluency development, but offers little meaning smoothly. The role of the audiobook,
insight into how audiobooks works and how then, was used to familiarize subjects with L2
they contribute to the development of the exposure of spoken English. In other words,
subject ‘of L2 fluency. the learners were developmentally ready to
This study revealed evidence indicating benefit from meaning-focused activities.
that audiobooks helped learners improve The last condition is the intensity of the
fluency development in their L2 conversation instruction to raise awareness of effective media.
and heightened their lexical density. The The study contained eight instruction sessions

Journal on English as a Foreign Language, Volume 3, Number 2, September 2013| 89

conducted over a period of one semester, in about test content did work to encourage them
which audiobooks were the only learning media. to listen intensively on their own spare time.
The intensive, instruction may have forced the Despite the positive results obtained and the
change in behavior and ensuing preservation speculation about factors affecting success, the
of that change. Intensity is related to frequency, study focused on only one feature of L2 output
which in turn leads to saliency. Frequency and of speaking. The positive outcome observed
saliency have also been identified as important cannot be assumed to transfer to other tasks, nor
for audiobooks to be effective. However, that can one assume that audiobook would have an
the reliability rather than the frequency of equally positive impact on students with low
audiobooks is crucial, reliability in this context motivation of learning. Indeed, at the core of
being seen as synonymous with consistent an understanding of the role of audiobook are
focus. Had the audiobooks been only frequent two questions: Under which conditions and
and not focused, their reliability may have been on which aspects of L2 development would
reduced, and the audiobooks probably would audiobook have a positive effect? As for the
not have led to the degree of uptake seen in the question of which aspects of L2 development
audiobook group’s output. This occurred with would benefit most from audiobooks, L1 research
unmotivated subjects in the audiobook group. has generated some evidence showing that
These four actors—intensive listening, consistent reading fluency is susceptible to the influence
focus, repeated comprehensible input, and (d) of audiobooks (Worthy and Broaddus, 2002;
and awareness of effective media-constitute a Armbruster, Lehr, and Osborn, 2001; Kuhn
set of interdependent conditions under which and Stahl, 2000).
the audiobooks proved to be successful. In this CONCLUSION
study, they seem to have compensated well for
This study has offered some suggestions
the intrinsic lack of elaboration in audiobook;
about the factors affecting the success of using
essentially, they jointly created salience (i.e.,
audiobook. If intensive listening, consistent
making the target linguistic feature noticeable),
focus, repeated comprehensible input, and
relevance (i.e., making the target linguistic feature
awareness of effective media are indeed what
meaningful for immediate incorporation in the
it takes for audiobook to ensure change in
L2 output), and reinforcement (i.e., reinforcing
behavior, still to be explored are such issues as
change in awareness and behavior). None of
how much attention should be paid to individual
these conditions would seem easily replicable
students, how consistent the focus should be,
in real classrooms, however. In real classrooms,
and how effective audiobook should be for low
students get bored easily if the activities feels
motivation students. Further empirical studies
monotonous for them. Moreover, the effectiveness
will be useful to improve use of audiobook as
of this learning media seems to be dependent on
spoken fluency supporting media excluded
learning motivation to improve English speaking
reading passages.
proficiency. In my study case, little warning

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