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4-Month Evaluation of a Learner-controlled Reading Tutor that Listens
J. Mostow, G. Aist, C. Huang, B. Junker, R. Kennedy, H. Lan, D.L. IV, R. O'Connor, R. Tassone, B. Tobin, and A. Wierman
Speech Technology for Language Learning, Philippe DeCloque and Melissa Holland, ed., Swets & Zeitlinger Publishers, The Netherlands, 2001.
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We evaluated an automated Reading Tutor that let children pick stories to read, and listened to them read aloud. All 72 children in three classrooms (grades 2, 4, 5) were independently tested on the nationally normed Word Attack, Word Identification, and Passage Comprehension subtests of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test (where they averaged nearly 2 standard deviations below national norms), and on oral reading fluency. We split each class into 3 matched treatment groups: Reading Tutor, commercial reading software, or other activities. In 4 months, the Reading Tutor group gained significantly more in Passage Comprehension than the control group (effect size = 1.2, p=.002) - even though actual usage was a fraction of the planned daily 20-25 minutes. To help explain these results, we analyzed relationships among gains in Word Attack, Word Identification, Passage Comprehension, and fluency by 108 additional children who used the Reading Tutor in 7 other classrooms (grades 1-4). Gains in Word Identification predicted Passage Comprehension gains only for Reading Tutor users, both in the controlled study (n=21, p=.042, regression coefficient B=.495± s.e. .227) and in the other classrooms (n=108, p=.005, B=.331±.115), where grade was also a significant predictor (p=.024, B=2.575±1.127).
Associated lab/group: Project LISTEN
Associated project: Project LISTEN's Reading Tutor
Note: in press
J. Mostow, G. Aist, C. Huang, B. Junker, R. Kennedy, H. Lan, D.L. IV, R. O'Connor, R. Tassone, B. Tobin, and A. Wierman, "4-Month Evaluation of a Learner-controlled Reading Tutor that Listens," Speech Technology for Language Learning, Philippe DeCloque and Melissa Holland, ed., Swets & Zeitlinger Publishers, The Netherlands, 2001.
@incollection{Mostow_2001_3666,
author = "Jack Mostow and Gregory Aist and Cathy Huang and Brian Junker and Rebecca Kennedy and Hua Lan and DeWitt Latimer IV and Rollanda O'Connor and Regina Tassone and Brian Tobin and Adam Wierman",
editor = "Philippe DeCloque and Melissa Holland",
title = "4-Month Evaluation of a Learner-controlled Reading Tutor that Listens",
booktitle = "Speech Technology for Language Learning",
publisher = "Swets & Zeitlinger Publishers",
address = "The Netherlands",
year = "2001",
note = "in press"
}