| This article first appeared in the December 2003 issue of Literacy
Today (issue no. 37). |
Allen Shaw
Allan Shaw, managing director (designate) of W.F. Howes Publishing,
explains why the company is developing audiobooks for adult literacy learners.
Through our work with UK libraries, we recognised a need for unabridged
audio accompaniments to high quality adult literacy printed material.
Representatives of both the Basic Skills Agency and the National Literacy
Trust have been quoted as saying that there simply is not enough adult
literacy material available. And research by our parent company (Recorded
Books LLC, USA) has shown that literacy learning increases by up to 30
per cent when accompanied by a sound recording.
Existing literacy aids in our catalogue were developed in the US and
while these have been extremely successful, we felt that a new product
was needed, designed specifically for the UK. This gave us the spur to
produce these latest aids.
By working closely with a number of publishers we have taken 'high interest,
low vocabulary' material and produced unabridged recordings to accompany
the original printed text. Our overriding ambition with the series was
to de-stigmatise literacy learning materials, making them look like any
mainstream product. Therefore, the words 'course' or 'level' do not feature
on the packaging.
All audiobooks are accompanied by the original printed edition. The books
themselves have been chosen because of their mainstream look and the fact
they have been written by high-profile authors. We have been in close
contact with the National Literacy Trust and their advice has been invaluable
in drawing up the outline of this new product.
The nature of our audio recordings makes them a true literacy aid. Longer
pauses are inserted between each word so that the reader can follow with
the printed version while for more advanced readers the other side of
the cassette features exactly the same narration but at normal speed,
with the gaps taken out.
At W.F. Howes we are committed to adult learning and raising literacy
standards; it is after all the life blood of our industry. If we do not
have readers we do not have any need for publishers and we are always
grateful to authors who give their time to produce works for these kinds
of projects.
| W.F. Howes is a Leicestershire-based publisher specialising
in unabridged audiobooks and large print. The series is suitable not
only for libraries, but for schools, community centres and further
education colleges. Visit www.wfhowes.co.uk |
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