An ASR-based Reading Tutor for Practicing Reading Skills in the First Grade: Improving Performance through Threshold Adjustment

Abstract

Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology can potentially be employed to provide intensive practice and feedback to young children learning to read. So far there has been limited research on the use of ASR in the early stages of learning to read when children are still developing decoding skills. For this purpose, we developed an ASR-based system equipped with logging capabilities that can evaluate decoding skills in Dutch first graders reading aloud and provide them with instantaneous feedback. In a previous study we found that ASR-based feedback led to improved reading accuracy and speed, and that useful information could be obtained from the log-files. For the present paper we conducted thorough analyses of the data obtained with this ASR-based system by comparing it to human annotations of the same read aloud 11849 words from 38 pupils. We present the results of our analyses, and discuss how they can contribute to better and more personalized ASR-based reading instruction.