Can text to speech improve students’ performance?

How to improve your grades with a voice synthesiser

Research has shown that using a text to speech or voice synthesiser technology can be beneficial for students in their day-to-day tasks and ultimately can lead to a performance improvement.

What is a voice synthesiser?

A voice synthesiser is a tool that uses text to speech (TTS) technology to interpret any given text and read it aloud. A speech synthesiser can read, interpret, and understand the phonemes and graphemes of one or more languages, then turn them into an audible track. There are several types of voice synthesisers available on the market:

• Apps: there are many apps offering TTS services both on the App and Play Store. Speak4Me is one of them, and it’s available for iPhone and iPad.

• Softwares: several literacy programs for desktop computers support TTS technology. Moreover, some websites offer voice synthesisers directly on-site.

• Built-in TTS: some devices have integrated TTS tools, such as certain PCs and smartphones.

The popularity of TTS technology is increasingly growing as it proves extremely useful for a variety of businesses and institutions.

The benefits of TTS in the Education field

While a company might take advantage of TTS technology for advertising and/or customer care purposes, an educational institute could use it to assist their students. For example, voice synthesisers can be extremely beneficial for students who suffer from learning disabilities as well as for those who would just like to improve their performance.

TTS for students with disabilities

Sometimes there are students who suffer from learning disabilities such as ADHD and dyslexia, or who find it difficult to express themselves properly because of aphasia or any other type of problem (vocal cord surgery, tooth removal etc.). In order to make comprehension and speaking easy for such students, schools and universities should adopt tools powered by text to speech technology. Voice synthesisers make education more accessible by empowering students with disabilities to speak, read and comprehend like anybody else.

TTS for studying and memorising

Research has proven that reading and listening to a text at the same time improves comprehension and helps to break down reading barriers. This means that anyone, not just students with disabilities, could benefit from TTS technology. Text to speech is a great studying tool as it puts focus on the meaning of the text rather than on its pronunciation. This is awesome when learning a foreign language, among the others, or when trying to memorise several concepts in sight of an exam. Moreover, voice synthesisers such as Speak4Me allow students to listen to books, summaries and skim research papers… they’re a real godsend! Students of any age could use a voice synthesiser to proofread, multitask and study faster. Ultimately, they can use TTS at their own pace to improve their reading skills and pronunciation. All this in the comfort of their home.