[tungstenfurnace]

I agree. Audiobooks are often recorded by fine actors and speakers. Listening to them improves one's sense of the rhythm of language, emotional nuance, pronunciation of new words, etc. They make it more real.

One's own diction and language is then improved during subsequent conversations.

There's a masochistic streak amongst educationalists. Something like: if you aren't working hard you can't be learning. Hence reading is better than audiobooks; novels are always to be preferred to movies.

[electromagnetic]

I think you hit close about many educators practices, however I think the problem is they assume concentration with hard work and lack of concentration with easy work. While this can generally be true, it doesn't mean you are learning just because something's hard or that you aren't learning just because something's easy.

If you have a problem with reading books for whatever reason, I believe listening to an audiobook will have at least the same effect on an educational level. It obviously won't help with your reading skills, but it might help you with listening skills (which incidentally a lot of people seem to frequently lack). However, listening to an audiobook won't mean jack if you can't concentrate on it, just like with reading a book.

I'd say, just like some people used to have reading rooms, why not have a listening room for audiobooks?