Long before children can make sense of letters or sounds, they are able to connect to the magic of a good story through listening. Oral storytelling lays a powerful foundation for early literacy. Research shows that reading aloud to young children boosts their vocabulary, sharpens their listening skills, and helps them begin to recognize words, setting the stage for strong reading development.
Learning Without Tears is proud to celebrate the benefits of reading aloud by observing World Read Aloud Day®, recognized annually on the first Wednesday of February. Developed by the nonprofit organization, LitWorld, the day honors the power of reading aloud and advocates for literacy as a foundational human right. The event also features live and virtual read-alouds and provides resources for educators and parents.
Reading Aloud Develops Seven Important Skills
In Season 3, Episode 10 of Literacy Matters: Empowered Conversations, literacy expert and former educator, Dr. Molly Ness, explains that read-alouds are not a luxury or a class “reward.” By reading texts aloud, educators can build students’ language, knowledge, and capacity to understand the world. Read-alouds aren’t just beneficial for developing readers, either. Because listening comprehension outpaces reading comprehension until middle school, reading aloud from above-grade level texts can give older elementary school students access to more complex ideas and text structures they might otherwise miss. Read-alouds are particularly powerful for multilingual learners and children of all ages with developing language skills, as they can hear academic language being modeled and respond orally to texts at their level.
When you read a story out loud, you’re not only sharing a story with students, but you’re helping them cultivate these seven important skills, Ness says.
- Language comprehension – Read-alouds build the language comprehension that students need to access content, communicate, and become lifelong readers.
- Expressive and receptive language – Through interactive read-alouds, students get practice using language when they respond and make meaning through talk.
- Vocabulary and language usage – Reading aloud exposes students to sophisticated vocabulary and words they might not understand in independent reading.
- Background knowledge – Every text assumes the reader brings a certain level of background knowledge to the page. Read-alouds help students better understand concepts and context.
- Self-regulation and listening stamina –Research shows that read-alouds improve children’s ability to regulate their emotions and responses.
- Empathy and socio-emotional growth – Read-alouds help students understand diverse perspectives, fostering empathy and conflict-resolution skills.
- Content understanding across subjects – To understand any subject, students must grasp what they read. Read-alouds support problem-solving skills, including in content areas such as math and science.
Read-Alouds Strengthen Comprehension
Read-alouds do more than build listening skills—they help students understand how stories work. As children follow along, they learn to identify key narrative elements such as characters, setting, problem, and resolution. Because they aren’t focused on decoding, they can fully concentrate on meaning and begin to recognize the patterns that shape a well-crafted story.
Through exposure to read-alouds, students learn to recognize the differences between genres. By listening to a mix of fairy tales and informational texts such as biographies, they can notice how the language, structure, and purpose shift depending on the genre.
The illustrations they see during read-alouds play an important role, too. Together, students can examine how artwork adds meaning to the text by clarifying events, revealing characters’ emotions, or adding details not explicitly stated in a story. This visual analysis strengthens comprehension and builds the foundation for strong visual literacy.
Ness also suggests three steps educators can take to get the most out of their read-alouds, which include evaluating the text you plan to read aloud, considering how you will model inference making and explain vocabulary words, and determining how you can extend the lesson to further students’ critical thinking.
“When we don’t plan our read-alouds, we miss instructional opportunities. Language stays surface level. We don’t always focus on the biggest bang for our buck in terms of vocabulary,” she says.
Incorporating Read-Alouds in Early Literacy Programs
Learning Without Tears recognizes that developing readers benefit from listening to modeled, fluent reading. That’s why we include read-aloud resources and activities in our two early literacy programs, A−Z for Mat Man® and Me and Phonics, Reading, and Me™.
- A−Z for Mat Man and Me, developed for students in Grades Pre-K−1, includes the read-aloud book—Mat Man® and the Great Alphabet Parade. Mat Man® and the Great Alphabet Parade uses read-alouds to make connections with the program’s 26 student letter books in the program, each of which focuses on a particular letter. By reinforcing the same words in both the letter book and read-aloud book, children learn to associate sounds with letters as they build their vocabulary and word knowledge.
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- Phonics, Reading, and Me prioritizes phonics skills that can be difficult to learn. By using integrated print texts and digital activities—including read-aloud books—teachers can guide students in Grades K−3 toward reading fluency. Phonics, Reading, and Me includes teacher read-aloud fiction and non-fiction books to kick off each unit and introduce vocabulary words children will see repeatedly in their texts. The books are paired with read-aloud cards that motivate children to think, talk and learn before and after they hear a story.
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At home and in the classroom, read-alouds play a vital role in early literacy development. They have the power to transport children into new worlds, spark their curiosity, and deepen their understanding of language. As children listen to stories again and again, they absorb vocabulary, rhythm, and structure, building the foundational literacy skills they’ll need to become proficient readers. More importantly, shared reading experiences nurture a sense of joy and connection around books. Over time, that joy motivates students to grow into confident, lifelong readers.
To learn more about World Read Aloud Day, visit https://www.litworld.org/world-read-aloud-day