Hello!
Before
doing this blog post I have considered for a while what resource I would write
about. After narrowing the options down to two, I decided to write about a
resource called WordRead Plus. Then what is WordRead Plus, it´s a speech
synthesis program with some extra features.
First and
foremost WordRead Plus is a speech synthesis program that can be used in
several different forms. To name a few examples of the speech synthesis
functions the program can be used to read from a website or a document. This
can help the reader with pronunciation and to read a whole text with words that
the reader have heard but never read. The program can also be on during the
time when the writer writes a document. When used in this form the program
constantly read each word for the writer, which can support the writer to connect
the written word with it´s pronunciation.
Other features
that the program has are for example the ScreenRuler. In this feature the user
can make three different settings to help the user read from the computer
screen. The first setting is that a
ruler will appear on the screen that can highlight a specific part of the
screen. The user can make his or hers own settings on colour, size of the ruler
and transparency. The second setting is an underline that will appear on the
screen. In the settings the user can change colour, size and transparency of
the underline. The last setting is similar to the ClaroView, so the description
of this feature will be described below.
The last
feature that I will talk about in the WordRead Plus program is ClaroView. With
this feature the user can easily change colour and brightness on the screen. So
instead of just having a white and bright screen to read from, the user can use
ClaroView to change the settings of the colour and brightness after his or her
liking. Which in turn can aid the reader.
When I
decided to make my Blog Post about WordRead Plus I struggled to find reasons on
how the resource could and can be used by teachers. The more I thought about
the use of the program for the teacher, the more reasons I found why the
program is useful for the pupils. And this is probably the real answer why I
think that a teacher can and should use an ICT resource in the education.
Two important
reasons that I found on why the teacher should use this resource, is that the
school shall be both including and individualised. With this program the
teacher can include students that have harder to read in the classroom. For an
example: if the class is working on a project and is searching for information
about a specific object, all of the students (more or less) are reading
information to contribute to the project. If there are one or several students
that may have some problems with reading, this program can be of assistant to
the teacher. How you ask? Well if the problem is reading, reading new words
etc. the reader can use this program to assist the reader with the reading. The
program can read the whole Internet page, while the pupil follows the
sentences. Another way the student can use the program is to mark the word that
the reader can´t read and let the program read that word. By doing this the
reader will learn how to pronounce new words.
In the same
way the teacher can use WordRead Plus to individualise the lessons when the
students shall read or write. I have above written about how the teacher can
use the program when pupils shall read, therefore in this paragraph I shall
only discuss how the program can be used when pupils shall write.
Even if the
writer don´t know how to spell every word right, the program can assist the
writer in a whole different way than for example Microsoft Words spell feature.
Instead of just having the program autocorrect the spelling, WordRead Plus can
help the writer to connect the spelling with the pronunciation. This by trying
to spell a word that the writer can´t spell and then let the program read the
word out loud and try to think what in the written word that makes the
pronunciation correct/incorrect. This is a time consuming and a quite advanced
exercise. Otherwise the pupil can just use the program to read the word out
loud to get feedback on how the written words sounds.
I, myself, think
it´s pretty difficult to read a longer text from the screen of my computer. A
way to aid the reader when reading longer texts is the use the ScreenRuler. By
using this program the reader constantly will have a mark where he or she is in
the text, no matter what setting the user uses.
I thought
about ending this blog post with a Youtube video, but I haven´t found a video
in English nor did I find a video that displayed several features of the program.
Therefore I will end this blog post with a bye and a thank you.
/Andreas
Johansson
WordRead Plus seems to be a great ICT-tool and I agree with you that it´s most useful for pupils. Teachers can, as you say, easy individualise teaching for certain students and really include pupils with special needs, for example pupils who have a hard time learning to read. The example you mention where pupils are to search for information, this program can really help them individually since every pupil reads with various speed. They don´t have to feel stressed then. Anyway what I have learned as a teacher is, what works for the pupils with special needs also works for other pupils as well.
ReplyDeleteWordRead Plus is not only working with Windows, Word and Internet Explorer but also for Mac, Safari and Open Office. You can even get it on a USB-stick and use it without installing it on the computer!
But one thing that I don´t like with the program is that the voice sounds a bit like a computer and the human feeling of pronounciation isn´t really there and that´s a huge problem in foreign language learning. It´s sounds a bit too stiff and forced, but you can lower the tempo of the reading which is good.
I agree that the way that it reads out words that you write is very helpful, especially if you struggle with writing in general as well as learning the foreign language at the same time. The screen ruler is also a good thing, as you mentioned, because it can be hard enough trying to read and follow a text in a book and for some even harder on a computer.
Other good features is that it can highlight the words as it reads which makes it even easier to follow a text and if the pupil can read most of the text but not all text, they can just point on the word with the mouse and let the program read that single word. You can also easily change the size of the text and the line spacing.
One more thing that I like is that you can scan any text or document in to the program and then you can use the program even when you are working with let´s say litterature or texts from the textbook. I see the program as a good complement to other teaching material if you can afford it because it´s rather expensive. Do you use it at your school, Andreas?