The Effect of Exposure to the Visual Medium on Learning Pronunciation and Word Stress of L2 Learners

Abstract

This study examined the effect of exposure to the visual medium on learning pronunciation and word stress. Thirty junior high school students participated in this study. They were divided into an experimental and a control group each included 15 students. The participants were given a pretest in order to make sure that they were homogeneous with regard to their pronunciation and word stress. Both groups received instruction on key to phonetic symbols available in the back of their textbooks and on the stress of English words. The participants in the experimental group read the computerized written passages while they had access to the pronunciation of the target words through phonetic symbols of the words. The control group listened to the teacher reading the same passages and repeated after her without having any access to the computer and experimental materials. Finally, the attitudinal questionnaire was given to the participants in experimental group to elicit their attitude towards their practicing technique. The findings revealed that visual medium had significant effect on learning word stress but not pronunciation of target words. Furthermore, using computer as a visual medium increased students’ motivation for both pronunciation and word stress learning.