Systems and methods for dynamic reading fluency instruction and improvement

• US 20040067472A1
• Filed: 10/04/2002
• Published: 04/08/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/04/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fuji Xerox Company Limited (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fuji Xerox Company Limited (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Polanyi, Livia, van den Berg, Martin Henk
• Granted Patent: US 7,455,522 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 434/178
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 17/00 Teaching reading teaching lip-reading G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/06 Foreign languages with audible presentation of material to be studied G09B5/04
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/02 with visual presentation of the material to be studied, e.g. using film strip
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/02 of the type wherein the student is expected to construct an answer to the question which is presented or wherein the machine gives an answer to the question presented by a student

Abstract

Techniques for dynamic personalized reading fluency instruction and improvement are provided by determining a user reading fluency level based on one or more spoken responses provided by the user during one or more reading aloud session of a text that has been evaluated for discourse structure and information structure of sentences. One or more reading fluency improvement aids are provided to the user based on one or more of: determined user-specific reading fluency deficiencies, user-personalized information responses and user class-specific reading fluency deficiencies as determined by the reading fluency improvement system.

Claims

1. A method of dynamic reading fluency instruction, comprising:

providing a text evaluated for discourse structure and information structure of sentences to a user;

determining a user reading fluency level based on one or more spoken responses provided by the user during one or more reading aloud sessions of the evaluated text; and

providing at least one comprehension aid based on the determined reading fluency level.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one comprehension aid comprises one or more of:

visually-provided improvement aid, audio-provided improvement aid, or a combination thereof.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying a grammatical tunable text summary based on the determined reading fluency level.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising displaying salient information from the grammatical tunable text summary based on at least one of:

a user request, determined reading speed, determined comprehension level.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining one or more subsequent user reading fluency levels after at least one comprehension aid is provided to the user.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein at least one comprehension aid is associated with at least one portion of the grammatical tunable text summary.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the at least one comprehension aid is a human sensible concept explanation for at least one of the portions of the grammatical tunable text summary.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one comprehension aid includes one or more of a graphic icon, an animation, audio information and video information.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the user reading fluency level comprises:

determining one or more user speech prosodic measures provided in the one or more spoken responses; and

comparing the determined one or more user speech prosodic measures to one or more fluent readers speech prosodic measures.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein determining one or more user speech prosodic measures comprises determining one or more user speech prosodic measures using a speech analysis system.

11. The method of claim 9 further comprising determining a speech prosody match that approximates the one or more user speech prosodic measures to one or more fluent reader speech prosodic measures.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more fluent reader speech prosodic measures are selected from a predetermined group of fluent readers speech prosodic measures.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the user reading fluency level comprises:

determining one or more user speech intonation measures provided in the one or more spoken responses; and

comparing the determined one or more user speech intonation measures to one or more fluent readers speech intonation measures.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein determining one or more user speech intonation measures is performed using a speech analysis system.

15. The method of claim 13 further comprising determining a speech intonation measures match that approximates the one or more user speech intonation measures to the one or more fluent readers speech intonation measures.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the one or more fluent readers speech intonation measures are selected from a predetermined group of fluent readers speech intonation measures.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the user reading fluency level comprises:

determining one or more user speech prosodic measures provided in the one or more spoken responses;

determining one or more user speech intonation measures provided in the one or more spoken responses;

comparing the determined one or more user speech prosodic measures to one or more fluent readers speech prosodic measures; and

comparing the determined one or more user speech intonation measures to one or more fluent readers speech intonation measures.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein determining one or more user speech prosodic measures comprises determining one or more user speech prosodic measures using a speech analysis system.

19. The method of claim 17 further comprising determining a speech prosody match that approximates the one or more user speech prosodic measures to one or more fluent reader speech prosodic measures.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein determining the user reading fluency level comprises:

determining one or more user speech intonation measures provided in the one or more spoken responses; and

comparing the determined one or more user speech intonation measures to one or more fluent readers speech intonation measures.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein determining one or more user speech intonation measures is performed using a speech analysis system.

22. The method of claim 20 further comprising determining a speech intonation measures match that approximates the one or more user speech intonation measures to the one or more fluent readers speech intonation measures.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the one or more fluent readers speech intonation measures are selected from a predetermined group of fluent readers speech intonation measures.

24. The method of claim 1 further comprising recording the one or more spoken responses provided by the user during the one or more reading aloud sessions of the evaluated text.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a user reading fluency level comprises displaying salient information from a grammatical tunable text summary based on at least one of a user request;

determined reading speed; and

determined comprehension level.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein the text is evaluated based on at least one of a Discourse Structures Theory, a Linguistic Discourse Model, an Information Structure Theory, a Rhetorical Structure Theory, a Systemic Functional Grammar and Tagmemics.

38. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one comprehension aid comprises one or more of:

fluid documents, target text color markings, acoustic clues, exaggerated intonation.

27. A machine-readable medium that provides instructions for dynamic reading fluency improvement, which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

providing a text evaluated for discourse structure and information structure of sentences to a user;

determining a user reading fluency level based on one or more spoken responses provided by the user during one or more reading aloud sessions of the evaluated text; and

providing at least one comprehension aid based on the determined reading fluency level.

28. The machine-readable medium of claim 27, wherein the at least one comprehension aid comprises one or more of:

visually-provided improvement aid, audio-provided improvement aid, or a combination thereof.

29. The machine-readable medium of claim 27, wherein the instructions for determining a user reading fluency level comprises:

instructions for determining one or more user speech prosodic measures provided in the one or more spoken responses;

instructions for determining one or more user speech intonation measures provided in the one or more spoken responses;

instructions for comparing the determined one or more user speech prosodic measures to one or more fluent readers speech prosodic measures; and

instructions for comparing the determined one or more user speech intonation measures to one or more fluent readers speech intonation measures.

30. The machine-readable medium of claim 27, wherein the instructions or determining one or more user speech prosodic measures comprise instructions for determining one or more user speech prosodic measures using a speech analysis system.

31. The machine-readable medium of claim 27, wherein the instructions for determining one or more user speech intonation measures comprise instructions for determining one or more user speech intonation measures using a speech analysis system.

32. The machine-readable medium of claim 27, wherein the instructions for determining one or more user speech prosodies measures comprise instructions for determining one or more of speech rhythm, speech stress and speech intonation.

33. The machine-readable medium of claim 27, wherein the instructions for determining one or more user speech intonation measures comprise instructions for determining one or more of pitch level, pitch range, speech rate and speech amplitude.

39. The machine-readable medium of claim 27, wherein the at least one comprehension aid comprises one or more of:

fluid documents, target text color markings, acoustic clues, exaggerated intonation.

34. A dynamic reading fluency improvement system comprising:

a memory; and

a reading fluency proficiency assessment circuit, routine or application that determines a reading fluency level of a user by providing a text evaluated for discourse structure and information structure of sentences to the user, and that determines a user reading fluency level based on one or more spoken responses provided by the user during one or more reading aloud sessions of the displayed evaluated text; and

a reading fluency improvement circuit, routine or application that displays at least one comprehension aid to the user based on the determined reading fluency level for the user.

35. The dynamic reading fluency improvement system of claim 34, wherein the reading fluency improvement circuit, routine or application provides at least one comprehension aid to the user, the one comprehension aid comprising one or more of:

visually-provided improvement aid, audio-provided improvement aid, or a combination thereof.

36. The dynamic reading fluency improvement system of claim 34, wherein the reading fluency proficiency assessment system determines the user reading fluency level based on one or more of pitch level, pitch range, speech rate and speech amplitude.

37. The dynamic reading fluency improvement system of claim 34, wherein the dynamic reading fluency proficiency assessment system determines the user reading fluency level based on one or more of speech rhythm, speech stress and speech intonation.

40. The dynamic reading fluency improvement system of claim 34, wherein the reading fluency improvement circuit, routine or application provides at least one comprehension aid to the one comprehension aid comprising one or more of:

fluid documents, target text color markings, acoustic clues, exaggerated intonation.