Effectiveness of an Automated Reading Tutor Design for Filipino Speaking Children

摘要

An automated reading tutor is an intelligent system that is able to mimic a reading teacher who can listen to a child as he/she reads a text aloud, and can do a certain corrective action in case a reading miscue is detected. The automated reading tutor for Filipino language (ART-Fil) employed a reading miscue detector for automatic detection of reading errors. In this paper, we present the important findings regarding design effectiveness of the ART-Fil for improving children’s oral reading fluency (ORF). Six 2nd grade students participated in the pilot study. A Filipino teacher conducted three sets of ORF assessments in order to monitor the students’ progress in their ORF. The multidimensional fluency scale by Rasinski was used for ORF scoring. Results show that with the use of ART-Fil, students have accelerated their learning as evidenced by their ORF scores, reading speed, accuracy, and comprehension. Bottom performers obtained greater improvements in their ORF as compared with those of the more fluent readers going into the program. Readability level of the text also affected the children’s reading performance. Some students who used ART-Fil also adopted the proper prosody such as expression and phrasing. Adjustments in the ART-Fil’s navigation and interface design were made in order to accommodate various behaviors of children. Survey results show that teachers and parents believed that the ART-Fil is useful and effective. Future work includes investigating both ASR-based and ASR-free methods for automating the ORF assessment process.