As a teacher of reading and writing, the benefit an electronic device that can read textual materials aloud to a student is tremendous. Reading aloud is an essential element of emergent reading, and text to speech technology is a tremendous benefit to the students. ReadPlease has provided a fun motivational tool for my students that use word processors to complete their written work, and has reinforced reading as a necessity.
In the past two years, I have noticed that the nine and ten year olds that I am teaching are becoming more reliant on Kindles and word processors. As each year passes, these students are becoming more and more disgruntled in the lack of technological alternatives in the classroom. Additionally, it is around fourth grade that students begin to become jaded about reading, and it is difficult to motivate these students to read traditional texts. Text to speech options, in my opinion, are a truly effective way to encourage and foster a love of reading. As noted in an article that evaluated the struggles of older students, “texts become more difficult and more obscure in the high school years, perhaps oral reading would give a voice to texts that silent reading alone would render inaudible. To extend natural reading practices, our students will be helped by hearing works read aloud.” (Zirinsky, 2001)
The underlying message is that teachers need to better prepare their students to be readers that are aware that reading does not have to amount to drudgery, and text to speech technology can assist in accomplishing this goal.
Zirinsky, D., & Rau, S.A. (2001). A classroom of teenaged readers: Nurturing reading processes in senior high English. New York: Longman.
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