Kenneth Reeder, Jon Shapiro & Jane Wakefield The University of British Columbia

1. Effectiveness of speech recognition technology in promoting reading proficiency and attitudes for Canadian immigrant children Kenneth Reeder, Jon Shapiro & Jane Wakefield The University of British Columbia Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

2. What is The Reading Tutor? Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

3. Developed by Project LISTEN, Carnegie Mellon University, the Reading Tutor is: • an automated Reading Tutor that displays stories on a computer screen, and listens to children read aloud. Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

4. The Reading Tutor… • lets the child choose to read from a menu of high-interest stories. Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

5. The Reading Tutor… • analyzes the student's oral reading and offers help when the reader makes mistakes, gets stuck, clicks for help, or is likely to encounter difficulty. Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

6. Why conduct this study? Edudata Canada, 2002: • reading comprehension testing of 41,962 grade 4 students in the province of British Columbia, Canada: • 32% of students qualifying for ESL support were reading at levels “below expectations” • 19% of non-ESL students reading “below expectations.” Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

7. Previous Findings (1) • Effectiveness of the RT when compared to human tutoring: Native English speaking children using the RT for 15-20 minutes/day made equal or greater reading gains than a comparison group who received 30 minutes per day of tutoring in oral reading by trained volunteers. (Reeder et al 2005) Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

8. Previous Findings (2) • English language proficiency and reading gains: The low English proficiency group made greater gains on most measures than the higher proficiency groups and native speakers.(Reeder et al, 2005) Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

9. Previous Findings (3) • Attitudes and concept of self and the RT experience: Results of two tests, the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey (McKenna & Kear, 1990) and Reading Self-Concept Scale (Chapman & Tunmer 1995) did not correlate with reading gains. • There were however very positive responses toward the RT experience demonstrated in a short post-RT interview. This held for all home language and English proficiency groups included in the study.(Reeder, et al, 2005) Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

10. Goals of the study • to determine the role of English language (L2) proficiency in reading gains with the RT • to study children’s attitudes toward reading, and self-views as readers following experience with the RT Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

11. Participants • 62 students from 3 Vancouver elementary schools, grades 2-6 (ages 7-13 yrs) • Receiving ESL support • Grouped by English language proficiency using Woodcock-Muñoz Language Survey: • low (21) • mid (17) • high (24) Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

12. School Settings • Three Vancouver city schools: system has >50% non-English speaking households. • Lower income neighborhoods • Reading Tutor systems installed centrally in each school in a classroom, Library or learning resource room Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

13. METHODEnglish proficiency and reading gains: • Record English proficiency levels (Woodcock-Muñoz) • Pretest reading performance – WRMT-R • 20 minutes daily practice on the Reading Tutor for 3-5 months • Record time on task, control its potentially confounding impact with a covariate analysis • Re-test reading performance, compare gain scores by groups Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

14. Woodcock Reading Mastery Test (Revised) • Subtests of Total Reading Cluster: (TRC) • Word Identification (WI) • Word Attack (WA) • Word Comprehension (WC) • Passage Comprehension (PC) • Normed on US populations recently • Used by Project LISTEN, Carnegie Mellon University Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

15. English Proficiency & Gains, Total Reading Cluster WRMT-R * Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

16. Reading Gains, WRMT-R Subtests Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

17. Language Proficiency X gain effects for LOW group, WRMT-R Subtests Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

18. Variation in RT usage Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

19. Total time on the RT and reading gains • Mean total time spent per child on the RT: 12.6 hours, SD = 8.05 • We found a significant interaction effect (p = .000, effect size .211) between total time spent per child on the RT and reading gains. • Thus, our study has controlled this variable effectively. • Next analysis: examine the relationship of time spent on the RT to reading gains. Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

20. Discussion: Reading Gains and English Language Proficiency • While results suggest that all language proficiency groups made gains on three of the four subtests of our measure, it was the lowest English language proficiency group that appeared to benefit the most from the RT experience. • These findings fit with our understandings of learning rates in second language acquisition: rapid growth in early learners is typical of SLA. Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

21. Reading Attitudes, Self Concept and Students’ Experience 10 item semi-structured clinical interviews administered to participants prior to, and immediately following the RT trial. Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

22. Pre- and Post-RT Interview Post-RT Interview were supplemented with questions that focused specifically on the children’s perceptions about the influence of the RT on their reading skills and abilities. Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

23. “Do you think you are getting better at reading? If yes, how do you know? If no, why not?” • Yes. Because in the RT, you learn stuff like small words turns to big word.(Kevin, Low ELP, Cantonese) • Yeah. Before I went on the RT I didn’t know how to break words apart.(Johnny, High ELP, Vietnamese) cont’d… Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

24. “Do you think you are getting better at reading? If yes, how do you know? If no, why not?”, cont’d… • A little. Because there some new words that I learned that I've never heard of before. The hardest level mostly I know all the words in most some stories but sometimes I don't know most words.(Mubashir, Mid ELP, Urdu) • Yes. Because when I was reading before didn't stop at the periods but now with the RT, I stop at the periods.(Jennifer, Mid ELP, Spanish) • Yes. By reading the books I don't know and I read it again and I get it.(Ricky, Mid ELP, Mandarin) Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

25. “Is reading easier for you now?” • Yeah. Whenever like Kindergarten I don't know how to read and the English. The teacher help me read and when I get to gr 1 I try to read myself easy books and gr. 2 do the same thing as gr 1 and gr 3 I try to read a chapter book and now I read chapter books too.(Justin, High ELP, Vietnamese) • Yes, it is getting more clearer to me.(Mubashir, mid ELP, Urdu) • Yes. Because before it was hard for me to read chapter books and now the RT made me better at reading chapter books.(Jennifer, mid ELP, Spanish) Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

26. “Do you understand more of what you read better than before?” • Yes. When I was reading slow, I didn't understand as much and then I started the RT. I started reading slow and then I started reading faster.(Jennifer M, mid ELP, Spanish) • Yes. Before I didn't quite understand it but now I know what's happening.(Helena, mid ELP, Spanish) Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

27. “Can you figure out words better than before?” • Last year I always had to sound out, even little words. Now I only sound out bigger words.(Connie, mid ELP, Cantonese) • Yes. It helps me sound out the word and helps me break apart the words and put it all together.(Jennifer J, high ELP, Cantonese) • Some of them.(Ricky, mid ELP, Mandarin) Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

28. “Do you know more words now?” • Yes. Usually before a story it told some words that were really hard and it thought were words we wouldn't understand. Sometimes it told us how to spell it and sometimes it just said it told us the meanings. (Mubashir, mid ELP, Urdu) • Yes. Sometimes when I get stuck on a word all I need to do is click on them and then it will tell me then I usually go back to the start or I just read that word and keep going on. I learned how to read faster. (Johnny, high ELP, Vietnamese) • A lot more. I learned how to break apart the words and then sound it out all together.(Jennifer J., high ELP, Cantonese) cont’d… Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

29. “Do you know more words now?”(continued) • Yes, now. When I started reading chapter books I didn't know much words and then the RT helped me read new and more words. I read better than before.(Jennifer M., mid ELP, Spanish) • Yes. The RT helped me reading stories. Before I didn't read too much.(Helena, mid ELP, Spanish) • Yeah. Some long words and spelling too.(Ricky, mid ELP, Mandarin) Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

30. Discussion: Interview data on reading attitudes While analysis of the pre-post responses is on-going, responses regarding the impact of the RT indicate that the children, regardless of first language and English language proficiency: • Enjoy using it, and; • Are aware of the specific impacts on their growth in reading and writing. Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

31. Your questions? Please ask us here, or email kenneth.reeder@ubc.ca, learn more at Project LISTEN’s web site: http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~listen/ Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

32. Thank you / Danke! Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

33. APPENDICES Fluency Gains Grade Level Gains Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

34. Fluency gains: Internal measures Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

35. Grade level gains: RT measure Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007

36. Grade level gains: internal measures Checkpoint Literacy: 15th European Conference on Reading, Berlin 2007