Reading Digital Text:

1. Reading Digital Text: Supporting ELLs in Content Area Classes Lynne Anderson-Inman, Ph.D. Center for Advanced Technology in Education (CATE) National Center for Supported eText (NCSeT) College of Education, University of Oregon

2. Project Team Lynne Anderson-Inman, Ph.D Fatima Terrazas, Ph.D. Carolyn Knox, Ph.D. Mark Horney, Ph.D. Mindy Frisbee, M.A. Edward Olivos, Ph.D. UladSlabin, Ph.D. Judith Blair Teachers & students in area schools Project ESTRELLAS Electronic Supported Text Research for ELL Academic Success

3. Goals for Project ESTRELLAS • Investigate the use of digital text to support ELL access to content area reading material • Test the usability and feasibility of specific modifications (etext supports) • Modify that digital text in ways that might support ELL reading

4. “Supported eText” “Electronic text that is modified or enhanced in ways that are designed to increase reading comprehension and promote content area learning.” Anderson-Inman & Horney, 2007 Reading Research Quarterly

5. Specific eText Supports

6. Specific eText Supports Presentational Support

7. Specific eText Supports Presentational Support Translational Support

8. Specific eText Supports Presentational Support Translational Support Illustrative Support

9. Specific eText Supports Presentational Support Translational Support Illustrative Support Instructional Support

10. Specific eText Supports Presentational Support Translational Support Illustrative Support Instructional Support Notational Support

11. Text-to-Speech • Presentational resource that provides students with an auditory version of the text using a synthetic (computer-generated) voice. • Enables students to both see and hear the text at the same time.

12. Text-to-Speech Research Questions • Which TTS voices are preferred by ELL students? By non-ELL?

13. Text-to-Speech Research Questions • Which TTS voices are preferred by ELL students? By non-ELL? • Are there differences in voice preference between ELL & non-ELL?

14. Text-to-Speech Research Questions • Which TTS voices are preferred by ELL students? By non-ELL? • Are there differences in voice preference between ELL & non-ELL? • What are the characteristics of voices preferred by ELL students?

15. Text-to-Speech Research Questions • Which TTS voices are preferred by ELL students? By non-ELL? • Are there differences in voice preference between ELL & non-ELL? • What are the characteristics of voices preferred by ELL students? • Does gender affect voice preference for ELL students?

16. Text-to-Speech Research Questions • Which TTS voices are preferred by ELL students? By non-ELL? • Are there differences in voice preference between ELL & non-ELL? • What are the characteristics of voices preferred by ELL students? • Does gender affect voice preference for ELL students? • Does passage difficulty affect voice preference for ELL students?

17. Text-to-Speech Research Questions • Which TTS voices are preferred by ELL students? By non-ELL? • Are there differences in voice preference between ELL & non-ELL? • What are the characteristics of voices preferred by ELL students? • Does gender affect voice preference for ELL students? • Does passage difficulty affect voice preference for ELL students? • Does reading with text-to-speech result in more correct answers on measures of content-area knowledge?

18. Text-to-Speech Research Questions • Which TTS voices are preferred by ELL students? By non-ELL? • Are there differences in voice preference between ELL & non-ELL? • What are the characteristics of voices preferred by ELL students? • Does gender affect voice preference for ELL students? • Does passage difficulty affect voice preference for ELL students? • Does reading with text-to-speech result in more correct answers on measures of content-area knowledge? • If yes, is this difference statistically significant?

19. Text-to-Speech: Experiment #1 Which TTS voices are preferred by ELL students? non-ELL?

22. Are there differences in voice preference between ELL and non-ELL?

23. What are the characteristics of voices preferred by ELL students?

24. What are the characteristics of voices preferred by ELL students?

25. What are the characteristics of voices preferred by ELL students? Corr = .792**

26. What are the characteristics of voices preferred by ELL students? Corr = .92* Corr = .792**

27. What are the characteristics of voices preferred by ELL students?

28. Clarity • Positive What I liked is that they were clear • Negative The voices that were bad were very unclear.

29. Personality • Positive They were smooth and didn’t sound dull. • Negative The voices I didn’t like were bad because they weren’t friendly, sounded robotic and didn’t keep my attention.

30. Speed & Fluency • Positive They were at my pace in reading. • Negative Some of them speak weird and fast and not fluently.

31. Gender • Positive Most of the manly voices were my favorite because they were the clearest. • Negative The women’s voices were unreal and kind of unclear which is why I didn’t choose them.

32. Age • Positive Sounds like an old friendly man. • Negative Sounds like an old wheezing robot.

33. Text-to-Speech: Experiment #2

34. Does gender affect voice preference for ELL students?

35. Does gender affect voice preference for ELL students?

36. Does gender affect voice preference for ELL students?

37. Does passage difficulty affect voice preference? Easy Passage: In our village there is an elementary school. There are also middle and high schools. We can walk quickly between all these schools. Our schools are very beautiful. They have tall trees and big green lawns. Difficult Passage: The Constitution divides power within the national government. The legislative branch has the power to make laws. The executive branch enforces the laws. The judicial branch interprets the laws

38. Does passage difficulty affect voice preference?

39. Does passage difficulty affect voice preference?

40. Easy Passage Difficult Passage

41. Does passage difficulty affect voice preference?

42. Text-to-Speech: Experiment #3 Does reading with text-to-speech result in more correct answers on measures of content-area knowledge?

46. Conclusions • ELL students preferred some voices over others. These preferences were not significantly different from the preferences of non ELL students.

47. Conclusions • ELL students preferred some voices over others. These preferences were not significantly different from the preferences of non ELL students. • Voices preferred by ELL students were high in clarity and friendliness. This preference was also true for non ELL students.

48. Conclusions • ELL students preferred some voices over others. These preferences were not significantly different from the preferences of non ELL students. • Voices preferred by ELL students were high in clarity and friendliness. This preference was also true for non ELL students. • ELL students had various reasons for preferring some voices over others and could articulate them.

49. Conclusions • ELL students had a slight preference for male voices. This preference is true for girls as well as boys. This preference was also true for non ELL students.

50. Conclusions • ELL students had a slight preference for male voices. This preference is true for girls as well as boys. This preference was also true for non ELL students. • Voice preference was affected by text difficulty. Text difficulty significantly affected preferences for female voices. Interaction effects between text difficulty and voice gender. ELL students strongly preferred male voices for difficult texts.