Introduce new vocabulary or difficult proper names or locales and bilingual audio books benefits : You don’t have to look any farther than the success of Dora the Explorer to know that bilingual media is popular with young children. Aside from popularity, bilingual storytelling offers many benefits to kids. The new book, Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpre, tells the story of one of the first champions of bilingual literature. Prime language learning occurs between the ages of 2 and 5.

Bilingual books are typically formatted so one page or passage of foreign language reading is paired up with the corresponding English language translation of that material, and e-books can make bilingual formatting even more practical. For example, sometimes the translation is accessible on a paragraph-by-paragraph or even line-by-line format and appears when the reader clicks or taps on what needs to be translated. Other times, pages are divided into columns with both languages represented. And some books present translations following the foreign text, so you can swipe or click back and forth between the two languages.

As you know (perhaps after a distressing experience) when a well-meaning person tries to explain to someone in which way their beliefs are false, even dangerous, the good-willing person is coming up against a more and more solid wall. The more numerous and well documented his arguments, the more the listener will become deaf to his reasoning. It is a psychological fact that you must not fight, since the fight strengthens it. You have to bypass it.

Learn New Vocabulary. Some people raise objections that audiobooks are destroying the time-honored literature. Nevertheless, their objections are useless. Audiobooks contain all flavors of printed books. It is not futile to say that audiobooks have some additional benefits. Students listen and learn new vocabulary. Audiobooks are very productive for students who want to become an essay writer. Discover extra information on Bilingual audio books English/Chinese and English/Hindi.

Audiobooks have traditionally been used in schools by teachers of second-language learners, learning-disabled students, and struggling readers or nonreaders. In many cases, audiobooks have proven successful in providing a way for these students to access literature and enjoy books. But they have not been widely used with average, avid, or gifted readers. Varley (2002) writes, “Uncertain whether audiobooks belong to the respectable world of books or the more dubious world of entertainment, elementary and high-school teachers have often cast a fishy eye at them, and many have opted for the safe course of avoidance.”

Increases comprehension. When students can hear the story or information as a whole, read by a human being, their comprehension increases. Reading books word-by-word doesn’t help create a whole experience. Kids in grades 3-8 who can finally put all the pieces of information together at one sitting, begin to make meaning of text.

Learning Foreign Languages The Way You Learned Your Mother Tongue (aka: easy). When I was teaching French to foreign students I was always trying to smooth their learning path. In my on-going effort I ended up with the Bilingual Audio Book « BABook ». At last something new in the learning world, specially designed to make learning a foreign language a breeze. With Pierre (my husband and best supporter) we decided to run a test: from a podcast I had made we prepared a version that alternates English and French sentences, and invited friends’ children to listen to it. Find more info on Bilingual Audio Books.