Immersive Reader
Overview
Microsoft's Immersive Reader technology has been integrated into the Perfection Next®
learning platform. The immersive reader features are available for eBooks and Interactive Editions. The capabilities of Immersive Reader implement proven techniques to improve reading and writing for people regardless of their age or ability.
Improving Comprehension
Immersive Reader can help improve comprehension by...
Supporting fluency for English language learners or readers of other languages
Helping to build confidence for emerging readers as they learn to read at higher levels
Offering text decoding solutions for students with dyslexia and other learning needs
Providing individual word or whole text translations into over 120 languages with many of them to be read aloud
Providing scaffolding to ensure students with a variety of learning needs have access to grade-levels texts
Building a Foundation for Future Success
Inclusive education tools give more students personalized access to their curriculum, optimize teacher time, and improve learning outcomes.
Students grow their potential and gain independence.
Teachers are more empowered to engage every learner.
Schools build reputations as positive places that promote equity and inclusion.
Feature | Proven Benefit |
Enhanced diction | Improves text authoring |
Focus mode | Sustains attention and improves reading speed |
Immersive reading | Improves comprehension and sustains attention |
Font spacing and short lines | Improves reading speed by reducing "visual crowding" |
Parts of speech | Supports instruction and improves writing quality |
Syllabification | Improves word recognition |
Read Aloud | Reduces cognitive load by reading materials |
Real-time translation | Supports non-native (ELL in the United States) in accessing content knowledge |
Launching Immersive Reader
Selecting the Immersive Reader icon in the upper left corner of the Content Area.
This will launch the Microsoft Immersive Reader in Perfection Next®.
Read Aloud
Immersive Reader allows one to play an audio version of the materials. Not only is this available in English, but if the document has been converted to another language then it can also be read in that language as well. Note that not all languages support read aloud but the vast majority due.
One can select the Play button to enable text-to-speech in Immersive Reader. To the right of the play button are Voice Setting that enable the user to change the voice and speed of reading the text.
Text Preferences
Text preferences in Immersive Reader allow users to customize the appearance of text to improve readability and remove visual distractions. Text preferences can be found in the Immersive Reader toolbar.
Here are some of the text preferences available in Immersive Reader:
Text Size: Adjust the size of the text by moving the slider left or right
Increase Spacing: Increase the spacing between lines of text
Font: Change the font
Themes: Choose from a variety of page themes and color options
Show Source Formatting: Show or hide source formatting
Grammar Options
The grammar options in Microsoft's Immersive Reader help readers understand complex sentences and improve reading comprehension:
Syllables: Break words into syllables by showing dots between them
Parts of Speech: Highlight nouns, verbs, adjectives, or adverbs in different colors
Show labels: Display abbreviated parts of speech in the corresponding color
Customize highlight colors: Choose from a range of colors to align with school policies or your needs
Reading Preferences
Reading preferences in Microsoft Immersive Reader allow users to change the way they interact with text:
Line Focus: Highlights one, three, or five lines at a time to help readers focus.
Picture Dictionary: Displays an image or illustration related to a word when clicked. Users can also hear the word pronounced.
Translate: Changes the language of the text to a user's preferred language. Users can translate a single word or the entire document.
Full Screen Mode
Users can enter full screen mode to strip away the Navigation and Information Bars in Perfection Next to allow one to focus on the content and maximize screen real estate.
Return to Lesson
The back arrow allows one to exit the Immersive Reader view and return to the lesson within Perfection Next®.
Supported Languages
Language | Translation | Read Aloud |
Afrikaans |  |  |
Albanian |
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Amharic |
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Arabic (Egyptian) | |
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Arabic (Saudi Arabia) | |
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Armenian | |
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Assamese | |  |
Azerbaijani | |
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Bangla | |
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Bashkir | |  |
Bosnian | |
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Bulgarian | |
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Burmese | |
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Cantonese (Traditional) | |  |
Catalan | |
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Chinese (Literary) | |
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Chinese Simplified (China) | |
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Chinese Simplified (Singapore) | |
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Chinese Traditional (China) | |
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Chinese Traditional (Hong Kong) | |
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Chinese Traditional (Macao SAR) | |
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Chinese Traditional (Taiwan) | |
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Croatian | |
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Czech | |
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Danish | |
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Dari | |  |
Divehi | |  |
Dutch | |
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English (Australia) | |
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English (Canada) | |
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English (Hong Kong SAR) | |
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English (Ireland) | |
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English (United Kingdom) | |
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English (Unite States) | |
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Estonian | |
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Faroese | |  |
Fijian | |  |
Filipino | |
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Finnish | |
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French (Canada) | |
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French (France) | |
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French (Switzerland) | |
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Georgian | |
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German (Austria) | |
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German (Germany) | |
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German (Switzerland) | |
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Greek | |
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Gujarati | |
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Haitian Creole | |  |
Hebrew | |
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Hindi | |
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Hmong Daw | |  |
Hungarian | |
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Icelandic | |
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Indonesian | |
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Inuinnaqtun | |  |
Inuktitut | |
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Inuktitut (Latin) | |  |
Irish | |
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Italian | |
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Japanese | |
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Kannada | |
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Kazakh | |
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Khmer | |
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Kiswahili | |
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Korean | |
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Kurdish (Central) | |  |
Kurdish (Northern) | |  |
Kyrgyz | |  |
Lao | |
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Latvian | |
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Lithuanian | |
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Macedonian | |
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Malagasy | |  |
Malay | |
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Malayalam | |
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Maltese | |
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Maori | |  |
Marathi | |
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Mongolian (Cyrillic) | |
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Mongolian (Traditional) | |
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Nepali | |
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Norwegian | |
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Odia | |  |
Pashto | |
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Persian | |
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Polish | |
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Portugese (Brazil) | |
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Portuguese (Portugal) | |
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Punjabi | |  |
Queretaro Otomi | |  |
Romanian | |
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Russian | |
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Samoan | |  |
Serbian (Cyrillic) | |
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Serbian (Latin) | |  |
Slovak | |
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Slovenian | |
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Somali | |
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Spanish (Latin America) | |
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Spanish (Mexico) | |
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Spanish (Spain) | |
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Swedish | |
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Tahitian | |  |
Tamil | |
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Tatar | |  |
Telugu | |
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Thai | |
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Tibetan | |  |
Tigrinya | |  |
Tongan | |  |
Turkish | |
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Turkmen | |  |
Ukrainian | |
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Upper Sorbian | |  |
Urdu | |
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Uyghur | |  |
Uzbek (Latin) | |
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Vietnamese | |
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Welsh | |
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Yucatec Maya | |  |
Zulu | |
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Research
Research behind Immersive Reader from Microsoft for inclusive classrooms.
Font Spacing
10% faster and 50% fewer reading errors when reading text with optimized layout
— Marco Zorzi, et al, Extra-large letter spacing improves reading in dyslexia
Findings point to subtype of dyslexia involving elevated crowding and demonstrate that individuals benefit from interventions personalized to their specific impairments.
— Jason Yeatman, et al, Optimizing text for an individual's visual system: The contribution of visual crowding to reading difficulties
Line Length
27% increase in reading speed when using short line lengths
— Matthew H. Schneps, et. al., Shorter Lines Facilitate Reading in Those Who Struggle
Breaking Words into Syllables
10% increase in reading comprehension for adults with syllabification
— Yu-Chi Tai, et. al., Within-Word Text Segmentation on Lexical Processing and Reading
Building the syllabic bridge from available phonological syllables and frequent letter clusters may therefore be the first step in learning to read.
— Nadège Doignon-Camus, et. al., The syllabic bridge: The first step in learning spelling-to-sound
Page Color
The children who chose a colored overlay read more slowly without the overlay than with it. These children reported more symptoms of visual discomfort and showed signs of tiring when they read without the overlay.
— Arnold J. Wilkins, et.al, Coloured overlays, visual discomfort, visual search and classroom reading
Text-to-Speech (Read Aloud) and Word or Line Highlighting
It was concluded that students with learning disabilities in all grades, except the 7th grade… benefitted from the read aloud accommodation more than their typical peers, presenting a differential boost.
— Georgia Andreou, et.al., Accommodations on Reading Comprehension Assessment for Students with Learning Disabilities: A Review Study
Simultaneous highlighting and voicing text – “Dual highlighting is a related software feature, sometimes called masking, in which the context (sentence or paragraph) is highlighted in one color while the spoken word is highlighted in a second color, making it easier for readers to stay in sync with the spoken text….They found that students with LD who were given text passages with bimodal input performed as well on the comprehension questions as the average reader control group with visual input alone.
— Heidi Pacuilla, Assistive Technology and Adult Literacy: Access and Benefits (2007)
"Elkind examined the effectiveness of using speech synthesis during reading tasks on reading performance for post-secondary students with dyslexia. Their results showed participants not only demonstrated improved reading rates and comprehension, but also increased their ability to sustain attention while reading.”
— Kim Floyd, et. al., The Efficacy of Assistive Technology on Reading Comprehension for Postsecondary Students with Learning Disabilities (2012)
The use of screen readers or other text-to-speech software has led to increased reading comprehension performance for students with the weakest reading skills.
— Kim Floyd, et. al., The Efficacy of Assistive Technology on Reading Comprehension for Postsecondary Students with Learning Disabilities (2012)
For students with reading disabilities, text-to-speech technologies may assist students with reading comprehension – a meta-analysis.
— Sarah Wood, et. al., Does Use of Text-to-Speech and Related Read-Aloud Tools Improve Reading Comprehension for Students With Reading Disabilities? A Meta-Analysis
Sitka Font
During the typeface's development, we tested how well people could read each of the letters in the typeface, and used the test results to inform design decisions.
— Kevin Larson, et al., Sitka Font: A collaboration between type design and science