Impact of AI-Generated Voice Narration on Students' Reading Comprehension

This study examined the effects of AI-generated voice narration on the reading comprehension skills of Grade 6 students. The research addressed the increasing integration of artificial intelligence in education and explored its potential to enhance literacy instruction through auditory and multimodal learning support. Reading comprehension remains a significant challenge among elementary learners, particularly during the transition from “learning to read” to “reading to learn,” making innovative instructional interventions increasingly important. Guided by Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory, Paivio’s Dual Coding Theory, and Mayer’s Multimedia Learning Theory, the study examined how AI-assisted narration supports learning through auditory and visual processing. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design was employed involving 46 Grade 6 students from a public elementary school in Cebu, Philippines. Participants were divided into a control group exposed to traditional self-reading instruction and an experimental group that utilized AI-generated voice narration during reading activities. Researcher-made comprehension tests were administered before and after the intervention to assess recall, vocabulary understanding, inference, and identification of main ideas. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Mann–Whitney U tests, and Wilcoxon Signed-Rank tests. Results showed that the experimental group demonstrated greater improvement in reading comprehension than the control group, with mean scores increasing from 14.74 to 17.13, while the control group showed only minimal gains from 14.83 to 15.22. Findings suggest that AI-generated voice narration can serve as an effective supplementary instructional tool for improving comprehension, learner engagement, and consistency of academic performance. The study highlights the importance of integrating AI-assisted reading technologies into classroom instruction to support diverse learners and promote inclusive literacy development.