Engaging Reluctant Readers through Audiobook Project Cynthia C. James Gudon National Primary School, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia ccindyjames@gmail.com ABSTRACT Audiobooks are valuable tools that have a lot of untapped potentials and beneits. This research explores the two different roles that audiobooks can play in helping reluctant readers to improve their reading skills and to get them to be more interested in reading. The research is conducted in a Malaysian primary school in a small village. It is targeted on 20 children who have been identiied as reluctant readers. In the irst cycle of this research, the role of audiobooks is as an input for learning. Audiobooks accessed through the Internet and mobile devices are used to assist children in their reading. In the second cycle, the role of audiobooks is as an output or product of learning. The respondents are engaged in the Audiobook Project, where they are given the opportunity to work collaboratively with their peers to create audiobooks and share their works on a blog. The quantitative data in this research is gathered through pre and post tests as well as a survey, while the qualitative data is derived from pre and post interviews. The indings of this research suggest that audiobooks are able to improve the respondents’ reading comprehension skills, engage reluctant readers and help develop their self-perception as readers. The indings also suggest that the potentials of audiobooks can be optimised to the fullest when they are used in combination with effective strategies such as collaborative learning, ICT integration and communicative approach. Keywords: audiobooks, reluctant readers, reading comprehension, selfperception as readers INTRODUCTION A child who does not like reading because he or she does not ind it enjoyable is an example of a reluctant reader. Brinda (2011) deines a reluctant reader as someone who is capable of reading but chooses not to do so. In many ways, a reluctant reader is also a struggling reader. The lack of interest in enjoying written texts would lead to the lack of desire to explore the texts in a more in-depth way. The enthusiasm of trying to read between the lines, or to make associations and connections between ideas, or to simply understand the low and sequences of sentences and paragraphs is lost. A number of researchers have shown that there is a strong correlation between a reader’s level of reading motivation to his or her level of comprehension skill (Reynolds, 2004;