ABSTRACT
Recently, software with automatic speech recognition (ASR) has been developed that can listen to students’ reading and provide feedback that is customized for each reader. Regular opportunities for independent reading are an essential component of adequate initial reading instruction. The interdependence between instruction and assessment is implicit in Vygotsky’s discussion of the “zone of proximal development” (ZPD). Electronic books that provide access to pronunciation of unfamiliar words have the potential to make independent reading a reality long before students reach the stage of fluent decoding. Speech recognition technology provides the capacity for assessing a student’s word recognition in the context of reading: A computer can listen to the student’s oral reading, compare the words spoken by the child to those in the text, and provide feedback only when he or she makes an error. The software uses speech recognition to assess students’ oral reading and provide them individualized feedback.
