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Tutoring Bilingual Students with an Automated Reading Tutor That Listens

Description of the Effective Practice
Description of the Effective Practice: 
The Project LISTEN name is based on the acronym “Literacy Innovation that Speech Technology ENables”. Central to the pedagogy of this tutor is its implementation of the Sphinx II speech recognition engine. This technology enables the Reading Tutor to analyze children’s oral reading, track their place within the context of a story and provide feedback to children both preemptively and in response to difficulties they encounter during the oral reading task (Mostow & Aist, 2001). The software is implemented on standard Windows computers and utilizes inexpensive headphones with a noise-canceling microphone.
Supporting Information for this Effective Practice
Evidence of Effectiveness: 
Effect sizes were robust for both fluency measures (1.16 for fluency: total read and 1.29 for fluency: read correct). Effect sizes for the sight word measures were also substantial at 0.58 for sight words timed and 0.49 for sight words untimed.
Estimate the probable costs associated with this practice: 
Approximately $30, assuming that there is already a computer available.
Other Comments: 
We tested a system, the Project Listen Reading tutor, that was developed by Jack Mostow's group at Carnegie Mellon University. We showed that even with a small amount of use of the system, it was highly effective at improving fluency for non-native English speakers.
Contact(s) for this Effective Practice
Email this contact: 
peterwh@cs.depaul.edu
Effective Practice Contact 2: 
Robert Poulsen
Email contact 2: 
Robert.Poulson@honeywell.com
Effective Practice Contact 3: 
David Allbritton
Email contact 3: 
dallbrit@depaul.edu