How to use Microsoft Reading Coach in Immersive Reader

In this post, we will show you how to use Microsoft Reading Coach in Immersive Reader on a Windows PC. The Reading Coach feature helps students or individuals practice reading and build their literacy skills. You start by reading a paragraph or a document in the supported app, and based on that, your reading report is generated by the Reading Coach tool. The reading report shows the reading accuracy, time taken for reading, number of correct words per minute, and the words you find most challenging while reading them. You will also be able to practice those words and this overall helps to build your reading skills.

As of now, only a preview of Reading Coach is available in Office or Microsoft 365 (OneNote for Web and Word for web), Minecraft: Education Edition, OneNote Desktop 365, Teams Assignments, etc. Later, it will become available on more platforms or apps. You can also use the web app or Microsoft Store app of Reading Coach separately.

While using Reading Coach Preview in the supported apps only helps to practice words and generate a reading report, its web app and Microsoft Store app offer more features. For example, you can create a story using AI based on a character (say Dog, Beer, etc.), location, etc., choose your reading level (between 1 and 8), select and read a passage from their library, add your own passage, view your achievements, and progress history. We might also be able to get all such features in the supported apps later.

How to use Microsoft Reading Coach in Immersive Reader

To use the Microsoft Reading Coach in Immersive Reader to get feedback and practice reading, use the following steps:

Open the Immersive Reader in the supported app
Turn on the Reading Coach
Start the reading
Get the reading report
Practice the difficult words
Customize Reading Coach Settings.

Let’s check these steps in detail.

1] Open the Immersive Reader in the supported app

Open any app that supports Immersive Reader. Here, we are using Word for web or Microsoft Word Online. Open a Word document > access View menu > and click on the Immersive Reader option under the Document Views section.

Read: How to use Immersive Reader in Word and Edge

2] Turn on the Reading Coach

Once the Immersive Reader is activated, click on the Reading Preferences option available on the top right part. After that, use the Reading Coach toggle to turn it on.

3] Start the reading

Press the Microphone icon present in the bottom middle part to start the reading. A Welcome box for Reading Coach will open. While using it for the first time, you need to allow Reading Coach to access your microphone. After that, press the Start reading button in that Welcome box and a countdown will begin.

Now, read the paragraph or Word document. The recommended time for reading is up to 10 minutes for a better report, but you can do it more or less. Once you are done, press the Stop reading button in the Immersive Reader mode.

4] Get the reading report

As soon as you stop reading, your reading report is generated immediately. In that report, you will see:

Your reading accuracy in percentage
How much time you spend on reading the content
Correct words per minute, and
Words that you find difficult to read or you struggled the most.

5] Practice the difficult words

This is an interesting and important feature of Reading Coach. Based on the words that it finds most difficult for you to read; it provides an easy way to practice those words. Press the Practice words button in the reading report. Now all those words will be in front of you. Select a word for practice. For each word, it provides the options to:

Stretch the word: to make it easy for you to read
Hear the word, and
A Picture Dictionary that provides an image related to that particular word. However, this option won’t be available for every word.

When you are ready, press the Microphone icon and read or pronounce that word. After that, you can jump to the next word, and so on.

6] Customize Reading Coach Settings

To customize the Reading Coach settings, click on the Reading Preferences option in the Immersive Reader of the app you’re using, and click on the Edit button available for the Reading Coach option. A pop-up will open. Available settings for customization are:

Pronunciation sensitivity: You can adjust this setting to Less sensitive, More sensitive, or Default. It helps the feature to decide how strict it should be when listening to your reading and estimating errors
Choose a voice: Apart from using the default voice (Jenny), 25+ more voices are available to choose from
Select prompt style: You can either select a More direct or More supportive prompt style for the Reading Coach.

That’s all.

How does Microsoft Reading Coach work?

Microsoft Reading Coach is an AI-powered tool and it works by stories, documents, or a paragraph read by students or a user on a Microphone on his/her computer. Based on the reading, it automatically finds/detects challenging words for the user and provides a platform to learn or practice those words more easily.

Is Microsoft Reading Coach free?

The answer is Yes. Microsoft Reading Coach is free for individual learners and students. However, you can only use its preview version for now. You can use the Reading Coach web app, Microsoft Store app, or use it within a supported app (like OneNote for web).