The impact of integrating Microsoft Teams – Reading Progress as an Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform for promoting learners’ reading aloud skills

The growing significance of artificial intelligence and numerous AI supported educational applications have attracted the attention of educators worldwide. Consequently, AI and software developers have begun creating numerous AI supported applications for teaching and learning. The paper explains the importance of the impacts of the Microsoft Teams – Reading Progress tool as an artificial intelligence platform for promoting ESL students’ loud reading and pronunciation skills. This explorative experimental action research was conducted during the fall semester among Level 4 students (N = 24) at the Preparatory Study Centre (English Language Centre) at the University of Technology and Applied Sciences, Al-Musannah (UTAS-A), Oman. The study was administered in a quasi-experimental design, where the researcher measured the outcome variables (number of correct words, rate of accuracy, number of mispronunciations, omissions, repetition, and self-corrections) before and after the intervention of Reading Progress and compared the pretest and post-test results of the experimental group and the control group to determine the causality factors. Furthermore, a gender wise analysis of the experimental group was performed. The quantitative data analysis revealed an overall improvement in most variables in the post-test, with a statistically significant difference in the number of mispronounced words. The qualitative analysis revealed positive perceptions of the AI-powered Reading Progress tool, noting benefits like increased confidence, gaining new vocabulary, and improved speaking skills. Additionally, participants felt certain challenges, such as pronunciation, distractions, and time constraints, and they suggested improvements regarding diverse texts and more AI use. Moreover, though Gender-wise differences were noted, there were not statistically significant.