Reading in a monotone; delivering speech in a stiff, wooden way without emotion or intonation.
彼のプレゼンは棒読みで、聴衆の興味を引けなかった。
His presentation was read in a monotone and failed to engage the audience.
台本をただ棒読みするだけでは、役に命が吹き込まれない。
Just reading the script in a monotone won't bring the character to life.
緊張してしまい、面接で棒読みになってしまった。
I got nervous and ended up speaking in a monotone during the interview.
Reading a classical Chinese text aloud without translating or converting it into Japanese word order (i.e., reading Chinese-text pronunciation).
古典の授業で教師は漢文を棒読みして内容を確認した。
In the classics class, the teacher read the Chinese text aloud in a monotone to check the content.