Quote:
Originally Posted by sun surfer
I think this strikes to the heart of why some may think it's subtly condescending to be told one can't read an audiobook, despite how much others may insist that no one is suggesting it isn't any worse to consume a book by ears rather than eyes.
I also disagree with your assessment. Playing an instrument would be akin to someone narrating a book aloud. In fact, thinking over it, I don't believe reading with eyes is any more active than reading/listening with ears. The only absolute difference in activity is that, since the printed words are spread out on a page, one must move one's eyes around to gather in the words. However, it is possible (and now a reality with certain apps) that one could read a book by having one word flash at a time in the exact same spot, thus eliminating the need altogether to actually move one's eyes at all. Either way, there is nothing more active about consuming a word or sentence through the eyes than through the ears; in both cases one takes in the information and must make sense of it in the brain.
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I agree that there may be negligible difference in effort for fluent decoders* however there is a significant difference for less fluent decoders. If I want my beginning reader to be able to discuss the plot of a book or if I want to her to remember a bit of science or geography then I need to read written material to her rather then have her read it herself as she will put so much effort into decoding the individual words that she literally loses the plot.
Many people hit a point when written material becomes as effortless as audio material and for some people the situation eventually reverses itself with written being less effort then audio.
Ironically, I would advise someone who is not trying to improve decoding fluency to consume material in the manner that takes less effort so that they can obtain the fullest understanding of the material. And even if they are working on improving their decoding I would advise doing a lot of listening while reading.
*decoding = the ability to figure out what a written word means/is. BTW I'd vote to keep the distinction between reading and listening simply to make the above paragraphs easier to write.