Read-alouds in school : A qualitative study of how teachers and special needs teachers use read-alouds as a teaching method.

Research on reading aloud in classroom has shown benefits for children. The aim of our study was to investigate howteachers and special needs teachers in primary grades use, vary and adjust read-alouds in their teaching and their viewson the contribution read-alouds bring to children's literacy development. Our interview study showed that both teachergroups considered read-alouds as beneficial to children's language and vocabulary development when the reading waswell-prepared and had a clear structure. Reading aloud was also seen to increase children's listening comprehension andincrease their interest in reading. The problem that teachers recognised was the lack of time. Read-aloud activities taketime when they include discussions about the texts and word meanings and the teachers saw that read-alouds sometimesbecome a trade-off when read-alouds need to be weighed against other instructional needs