2017/01/23 by Sarah G. Wood, Jerad Moxley, Jerad H. Moxley +2 · 1 voice · 4 citations
Computer Science · Psychology · #Hearing Impairment and Communication #Reading and Literacy Development #Text Readability and Simplification
paper · pdf · doi:10.1177/0022219416688170
crossref issued 2017/01/23 · crossref published 2017/01/23 · crossref published-online 2017/01/23 · openalex publication_date 2017/01/23 · crossref created 2017/01/23 · crossref published-print 2018/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref deposited 2026/05/01 · crossref indexed 2026/07/31 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
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.