Orator verbis electris taldatorn en pedagogisk länk till läs- och skrivfärdighet: utprövning och utvärdering av taldatorbaserade träningsprogram för elever med läs- och skrivsvårigheter

Sammanfattning: This study presents results from a project named The OVE-project (Orator Verbis Electris i.e. electric speech machine). The aim of this thesis is to describe and to evaluate a set of computer - programs based on synthetic speech. The programs are designed for training phonological awareness and are intended to be used as a remedial tool for children with reading and writing problems. During the evaluation and data-collecting period the project was economically and technically connected to the department of Speech, Music and Hearing at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. My associate, during this period, late Karoly Galyas has been in charge of the technical part of the project while I have been responsible for the content and the design of programs as well as for the evaluation and the assessment studies. The thesis has two overall aims. The first is to describe, analyze and discuss the development of a specific work process based on computer based supervising with synthetic speech feedback intended for children with reading and writing problems. The second overall aim is to describe, analyze and discuss the effect of the speech feedback and the specific work process on children with reading and writing problems. The evaluation and the data collection has been done within three different phases and consists of three training studies and two experimental studies: one text reproduction study and one spelling test study. The results showed very convincingly that the speech feedback had a positive effect on the pupils' self esteem. Activity and motivation were highly improved. A remarkable improvement of the pupils' ability to concentrate and persevere was observed. The results from the spelling test study showed high improvement rates when speech feedback in ongoing writing was used compared to handwriting and ordinary computer writing without speech feedback. The potentials of the synthetic speech feedback as a means to improve reading and writing skills is discussed.