The Effectiveness of Audio Books on Attitudes Reading by Learners of Turkish as a Foreign Language

Reading, one of the basic language skills, has become a neglected skill today under the influence of developments in technology. In recent years, educators have been seeking technology-integrated new ways to encourage students to read and increase the length of extra-curricular reading. Especially, the widespread use of mobile devices in everyday life reveals new implementation areas for “audio books” in teaching reading skills. There have been several studies focusing on the effectiveness of audiobooks on reading skills in teaching foreign languages so far. This study, which investigates the effectiveness of audio books on attitudes towards reading by learners of Turkish as a foreign language, is believed to contribute to the field, as well. The study was conducted with the participation of 21 foreign students who are learning Turkish at B1 level. Within the scope of the study, a selection of stories from Turkish literature were distributed to the students in the form of text and audio files throughout the eight-week implementation process. At the beginning of the study, a reading attitude scale was used to determine the students’ attitudes towards reading, and the same scale was reapplied at the end of the implementation process to investigate the effectiveness of audio books on attitudes towards reading. The results of the study revealed that there was a significant positive change in the students’ attitudes towards reading by the end of the study