1 Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA.
J Learn Disabil. 2018 Jan/Feb;51(1):73-84. doi: 10.1177/0022219416688170. Epub 2017 Jan 23.
Text-to-speech and related read-aloud tools are being widely implemented in an attempt to assist students' reading comprehension skills. Read-aloud software, including text-to-speech, is used to translate written text into spoken text, enabling one to listen to written text while reading along. It is not clear how effective text-to-speech is at improving reading comprehension. This study addresses this gap in the research by conducting a meta-analysis on the effects of text-to-speech technology and related read-aloud tools on reading comprehension for students with reading difficulties. Random effects models yielded an average weighted effect size of ([Formula: see text] = .35, with a 95% confidence interval of .14 to .56, p < .01). Moderator effects of study design were found to explain some of the variance. Taken together, this suggests that text-to-speech technologies may assist students with reading comprehension. However, more studies are needed to further explore the moderating variables of text-to-speech and read-aloud tools' effectiveness for improving reading comprehension. Implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.
文本转语音和相关的朗读工具正在被广泛应用，试图帮助学生提高阅读理解技能。朗读软件，包括文本转语音，用于将书面文本转换为口头文本，使人们在阅读的同时可以听到书面文本。目前还不清楚文本转语音在提高阅读理解方面的效果如何。本研究通过对有阅读困难的学生使用文本转语音技术和相关朗读工具对阅读理解的影响进行元分析，填补了这一研究空白。随机效应模型得出的平均加权效应大小为 ([Formula: see text] =.35，95%置信区间为.14 至.56，p <.01)。研究设计的调节效应被发现可以解释部分方差。总的来说，这表明文本转语音技术可能有助于学生提高阅读理解能力。然而，还需要更多的研究来进一步探索文本转语音和朗读工具在提高阅读理解方面的有效性的调节变量。讨论了对未来研究的影响和建议。
