Foreign Language Pronunciation Research Articles

AI and AI-powered tools for pronunciation training

Abstract Artificial intelligence (AI) is taking over many spheres of human life, including language pedagogy. While some areas need to find their ground with AI and resolve ethical issues arising from its use, other spheres of education, such as pronunciation, may benefit from the system’s ability to communicate with learners and provide them with implicit feedback while carrying out different communication tasks. This technical advancement of AI then opens doors for further educational opportunities that have not existed in the past. The study aims to explore the existing use of AI-powered tools in foreign language pronunciation training by meta-analysis of 15 research papers benefiting from using AI and AI-powered tools (mobile and web applications, chatbots, intelligent virtual assistants) and provide suggestions for their future applications in educational practice. The research results also indicate that this field of study is still underrepresented in language pedagogy. The existing experience with AI-powered tools confirms a relatively good experience in developing intelligibility, increasing motivation and addressing the speaking anxiety of foreign language learners in formal and informal learning settings.

Audio-synchronized textual enhancement in foreign language pronunciation learning from videos

The benefits of multimodal input on foreign language listening comprehension and vocabulary learning are well-established, but only recently has its impact on pronunciation been explored. In this study, we audio-synchronized the highlighting of target words in captions to promote the activation of their phonolexical representations at the time they are auditorily processed and improve phonological updating in the mental lexicon. We recorded the eye movements of 58 L1-Spanish/Catalan learners of English as they watched two videos with target words (TWs) highlighted 500 ms or 300 ms before auditory onset, highlighted from caption onset or, alternatively, under one of two control conditions (unenhanced and uncaptioned). We assessed updating of phonolexical forms in terms of more accurate and faster rejection of mispronunciations of the TWs from pre-to post-test. Results showed that 300 ms synchronized enhancement and unsynchronized enhancement led to longer fixation duration, unsynchronized enhancement reduced TW skipping probability, and both synchronized conditions promoted higher audio-visual synchrony in learners' caption reading. While only the unsynchronized condition resulted in more accurate responses at post-test, all enhancement conditions led to significantly faster rejection of mispronunciations. These initial findings call for further research on audio-synchronized enhancement and its potential benefits for L2 pronunciation learning.

What Makes a Foreign Language Intelligible? An Examination of the Impact of Musical Ability and Individual Differences on Language Perception and How Intelligible Foreign Languages Appear.

Previous research suggests that musical ability is associated with language processing and foreign language pronunciation. Whether musical ability is associated with the ability to generate intelligible unfamiliar utterances has not been investigated. Furthermore, how unfamiliar languages are perceived has rarely been related to musical ability. We tested 80 healthy adults, with a mean age of 34.05 and a combination of 41 women and 39 men. We used batteries of perceptual and generational music and language measures to assess foreign language intelligibility and musical capacity. Regression analysis revealed that five measures explained the variance in the intelligibility of unfamiliar foreign utterances. These were short-term memory capacity, melodic singing ability, speech perception ability, and how melodic and memorable the utterances sounded to the participants. Correlational analyses revealed that musical aptitude measures are related to melodic perception and how memorable unfamiliar utterances sound, whereas singing aptitude is related to the perceived difficulty level of the language material. These findings provide novel evidence of the link between musical and speech abilities. In particular, intelligibility measures are associated with singing aptitude and how melodic languages appear to be. As impressions on how foreign languages are perceived are also related to musical capacities, perceptual language parameters address a new perspective that facilitates the understanding of the link between music and language in general.

Leveraging audible and inaudible signals for pronunciation training by sensing articulation through a smartphone

• Under pronunciation principles, this paper presents a smartphone-based pronunciation training system for practicing monophthong regarding vowel articulation. • Speech and ultrasonic signals are captured and analyzed simultaneously to determine the tongue position and shape of the lips respecting uttering vowels. • The proposed system implementing a commercial smartphone is robust with high accuracy for practical scenarios. • The evaluation for its impact on user experience shows that the proposed system has raised learning engagement and enjoyment. Learning a foreign language pronunciation is the most challenging task for non-native speakers. Improving pronunciation based on feedback on pronunciation error scores is also not easy for learners. Our goal is to develop an alternative approach to pronunciation training that can point out articulation errors at the phoneme level to users through a smartphone-based system. Using self-correction as a means of ensuring learners' engagement, we focus on self-correction of pronunciation by adjusting articulation. In order to identify articulation concerning pronunciation, the system evaluates both audible and inaudible acoustic signals to examine fine-grained frequency-shifting direction of mouth movements and tongue position simultaneously. The result shows that the system can reach an average accuracy of 99.09% and is robust in different scenarios and genders. Additionally, the evaluation of the user study reveals that the proposed system provides positive user experiences and allows learners to improve their pronunciation more efficiently.

Реализация принципа социокультурной направленности в обучении иноязычному произношению в вузе

This article is an interdisciplinary study of the currently relevant problem of co-studying language and culture in the aspect of linguodidactic interpretation of the sociocultural orientation principle of teaching foreign-language pronunciation. The aim of the study is to develop methods and techniques for implementing the principle of socio-cultural orientation in teaching foreign-language pronunciation at the university. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the description of the sociocultural orientation principle in relation to the phonetic aspect of the English language, the introduction of the new notion of “phonocultureme” into the practice of teaching foreign-language pronunciation at the university. As a result, it is proved that the analysis of the features of cultural meanings manifestation in the system of phonetic means of English speech arrangement contributes to the definition of methods and techniques for teaching foreign-language pronunciation at the university, taking into account the principle of socio-cultural orientation.

Individual Differences in Singing Behavior during Childhood Predicts Language Performance during Adulthood

Research on singing and language abilities has gained considerable interest in the past decade. While several studies about singing ability and language capacity have been published, investigations on individual differences in singing behavior during childhood and its relationship to language capacity in adulthood have largely been neglected. We wanted to focus our study on whether individuals who had sung more often during childhood than their peers were also better in language and music capacity during adulthood. We used questionnaires to assess singing behavior of adults during childhood and tested them for their singing ability, their music perception skills, and their ability to perceive and pronounce unfamiliar languages. The results have revealed that the more often individuals had sung during childhood, the better their singing ability and language pronunciation skills were, while the amount of childhood singing was less predictive on music and language perception skills. We suggest that the amount of singing during childhood seems to influence the ability to sing and the ability to acquire foreign language pronunciation later in adulthood.

Phonodidactics is not so black as it is painted: traditions and trends in FL pronunciation teaching

By a curious paradox, the indispensability of intelligible, comprehensible and minimally accented foreign language (FL) speech in oral communication does not translate into intensive pronunciation practice in instructed settings. Teaching pronunciation usually poses a major challenge to language instructors both at the level of planning and implementation of pronunciation teaching activities, and is therefore frequently frowned upon to the advantage of the remaining language subsystems. However, underdeveloped FL pronunciation skills carry negative consequences every time learners enter into oral conversations. The problem takes on yet greater significance nowadays when the increased mobility of 21st century societies raises the likelihood of students making contacts with native and non-native speakers of the target language (TL). On having, firstly, enumerated some of the culprits responsible for the inferiority of pronunciation component in everyday language classroom routine and, secondly, demonstrated the importance of the subskill in establishing contacts with native and non-native speakers of the TL, we attempt to provide a general overview of the well-established traditions and main trends in the field of phonodidactics. In view of the above, our primary objective is to first and foremost overcome deep-rooted prejudices against including the pronunciation component in language classrooms by developing readers’ awareness on the fundamentals of pronunciation teaching.

Foreign Language Pronunciation Teaching: cognitive, psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic grounds

Foreign Language Pronunciation Teaching: cognitive, psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic grounds

A study on the relationship between musical ability and EFL pronunciation proficiency

This study investigates the relationship between musical ability and pronunciation proficiency of English as a foreign language [EFL] of university students of English philology. English pronunciation of the participants is evaluated by academic teachers of English in three categories: the general impression of the foreign or native accent, the accuracy of production of English sounds and the use of word stress and intonation. This experiment was conducted entirely online. Participants’ musical ability was tested using Gordon’s Advanced Measure of Music Audiation [AMMA]. The results of this study demonstrate a moderately positive correlation between musicality and FL pronunciation proficiency. The more musical students, the higher marks from the judges. The present findings seem to be consistent with other studies which suggest that musical skills may positively affect the acquisition of foreign language pronunciation.

PHONETIC DIFFICULTIES FACED BY STUDENTS LEARNING ENGLISH IN THE LANGUAGE ENVIRONMENT

The urgency of the topic outlined in the article is explained by the increasing demand for qualified teachers who have a good command of a foreign language. The phonological competence of academic students who will become teachers of English in the future under the conditions of modern challenges and digital age is of great importance. The article provides a theoretical analysis of students’ phonetic complexities while learning a foreign language and the demand for improving students’ phonological competence in the learning environment. The analysis shows that interest in the topic of phonetic difficulties faced by students learning English is constantly growing. Thus, the purpose of the article is to research and analyze common phonetic difficulties faced by students learning English in the language environment and identify key aspects that affect constantly the acquisition of English by students studying university foreign language courses when their major is English, and what is more, they are future teachers of English for secondary schools in Ukraine. Moreover, the present investigation describes key factors that affect considerably the acquisition of the foreign language by students studying university foreign language courses namely Practical Phonetics, Theoretical Phonetics at Faculty of Foreign Languages of Pavlo Tychyna Uman State Pedagogical University. The materials of this article may be of use to higher school lecturers and researchers who are interested in mastering phonological competence and developing their foreign language communicative competence as well.
 Keywords: phonological competence; phonetic difficulties; phonological awareness; phonetics; foreign language pronunciation; pronunciation skills; learning foreign language; language environment.

Проблема определения уровня произносительной культуры у студентов первого курса педагогического вуза

The paper examines the problems of forming foreign language pronunciation culture among first-year pedagogical students. The article presents the results of auditory analysis of students’ spontaneous and non-spontaneous English speech. The researcher introduces criteria to assess the level of students’ foreign language pronunciation culture, identifies the most frequent deviations from articulatory and prosodic norms of the English language, and herein lies scientific originality of the study. The research findings are as follows: the author proves that the level of students’ foreign language pronunciation culture does not fully satisfy the requirements, which determines the necessity of purposeful work to improve their phonetic competence.

The Melody of Speech: What the Melodic Perception of Speech Reveals about Language Performance and Musical Abilities

Research has shown that melody not only plays a crucial role in music but also in language acquisition processes. Evidence has been provided that melody helps in retrieving, remembering, and memorizing new language material, while relatively little is known about whether individuals who perceive speech as more melodic than others also benefit in the acquisition of oral languages. In this investigation, we wanted to show which impact the subjective melodic perception of speech has on the pronunciation of unfamiliar foreign languages. We tested 86 participants for how melodic they perceived five unfamiliar languages, for their ability to repeat and pronounce the respective five languages, for their musical abilities, and for their short-term memory (STM). The results revealed that 59 percent of the variance in the language pronunciation tasks could be explained by five predictors: the number of foreign languages spoken, short-term memory capacity, tonal aptitude, melodic singing ability, and how melodic the languages appeared to the participants. Group comparisons showed that individuals who perceived languages as more melodic performed significantly better in all language tasks than those who did not. However, even though we expected musical measures to be related to the melodic perception of foreign languages, we could only detect some correlations to rhythmical and tonal musical aptitude. Overall, the findings of this investigation add a new dimension to language research, which shows that individuals who perceive natural languages to be more melodic than others also retrieve and pronounce utterances more accurately.

Pedagogical content knowledge: A systematic review of Chinese language pronunciation teaching in the CFL context

AbstractThe increasing attention on Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) pronunciation instruction gives us an opportunity to look into the current directions of teaching CFL and the specific instructional pronunciation strategies employed by CFL teachers. This paper offers a review of empirical evidence on the use and impact of instructional pronunciation strategies in the CFL field from 1980 to 2019. Our findings reveal that: (1) controlled segmental‐based strategies—such as comparative strategies, listening, and repeating strategies—are used widely and effectively to improve pronunciation of Chinese initials and finals; (2) suprasegmental‐based strategies, especially computer‐assisted strategies, largely improve CFL students' tone accuracy; and (3) the validity of assessments in quantitative studies needs to be further developed by including comparative groups, making tests before and after instructions, and involving discourse assessment contents.

Balinese Students Pronunciation in Learning English: A Case Study of Sixth-Grade Students at SDN 1 Petulu Ubud

This study is aimed to identify how the Balinese students pronounce English consonants and to analyse the factors that influenced the Balinese student’s pronunciation in pronouncing English consonants. This study was conducted as field research and the data was collected from the Balinese student’s pronunciation by recording their voices in pronouncing the target phonemes. Besides, interviewing was also done to know the factors that influence them in pronouncing the target phonemes. Data of this research was descriptively analysed by using qualitative methods and analysed by the theory proposed by Roach, Brown, and Harmer. The consonants chosen were the consonants that mostly do not occur in their native language structure such as /f/, /?/, /?/, /?/, /v/, /ð/, /z/, /?/, /?/ and the chosen English consonants that are pronounced differently from what it has written is /k/. The Balinese students were not familiar with those phonemes caused they found difficulties when they pronounced those phonemes sound. Foreign language pronunciation of the students was influenced by some factors: Age, First language interference, Learner differences (student’s aptitude and intelligence), and Motivation (teacher and other students).

この外国語様発話は何に由来するものか─左上側頭回皮質下出血による Foreign Accent Syndrome の検討─

この外国語様発話は何に由来するものか─左上側頭回皮質下出血による Foreign Accent Syndrome の検討─

CAPT and its Effect on English Language Pronunciation Enhancement: Evidence from Bilinguals and Monolinguals

Nowadays there are several challenges for English teachers as well as researchers regarding how to teach foreign language pronunciation more effectively. The current study aimed to explore the effect of computer-assisted pronunciation teaching (CAPT) on Persian monolinguals and Turkmen- Persian and also Baloch- Persian bilinguals’ pronunciation considering production and perception. A sample of 48 female mono and bilingual 7th-grade students participated in this study and made the experimental and comparison groups. All the participants took the Oxford Placement Test and accordingly were in the beginner level of English language proficiency (95.83% of the participants’ scores ranged from 0 to 15). The experimental group experienced a technology-based instruction while the comparison group benefited from traditional listen and repeat method of pronunciation teaching. Two Two-way between-group ANOVAs were used to define the influence of CAPT on pronunciation production and perception of the mono and bilingual participants. The results of the study indicated that CAPT had a significant effect on pronunciation production while pronunciation perception was comparatively more enhanced through the traditional method. Regarding mono and bilingualism, it was also found that bilinguals significantly outperformed monolinguals in pronunciation production in both groups while there was no significant difference between them in pronunciation perception. There were also no interaction effects for pronunciation perception or production scores. The results generally showed that CAPT can be beneficial specifically when it is used along with traditional methods at schools in beginner levels.

Contrastive vs Non-Contrastive Meta-Phonetic Input in Teaching Foreign Language Pronunciation

Presque toutes les etudes sur l’enseignement metaphonetique explicite de la prononciation des langues etrangeres (L2) confirment son effet facilitateur. Cependant, jusqu’a present, il n’existe pratiquement aucune etude sur l’enseignement metaphonetique contrastif (L1-L2). La presente etude examine l’efficacite de ce type d’enseignement par rapport a l’efficacite de l’enseignement metaphonetique non contrastif (L2), en analysant experimentalement la prononciation anglaise de 80 adultes slovaques. La qualite de leur prononciation anglaise, telle qu’elle se reflete dans la structure des voyelles, est mesuree avant et apres l’input contrastif dans le groupe experimental et l’input non contrastif dans le groupe controle. Les valeurs sont ensuite comparees aux valeurs standard des voyelles de l’anglais britannique. On fait l’hypothese que les voyelles anglaises produites par le groupe experimental se rapprochent davantage des valeurs standard que les voyelles produites par le groupe controle. Les resultats montrent une approximation plus juste dans le groupe experimental, ce qui indique une plus grande efficacite de l’entree metaphonetique contrastive dans l’enseignement de la prononciation des langues etrangeres.

CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS IN TEACHING ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION

The objective of the work is the application of contrastive approach in teaching English to analyse the pros and cons of the contrastive method in teaching foreign language pronunciation to young learners compared to non-contrastive (monolingual) method used at our Slovak primary schools. This article determines the dominant influence of the learner’s mother tongue/native language (L1) in the process of learning/teaching pronunciation foreign/second language (L2) and by using contrastive approach tries to enhance positive transfer from the L1 and the reduction of possible negative transfer from L1 to L2 using appropriate teaching techniques and effective tools. The study will be carried out on English language non-native teachers working at a public and private Slovak primary school to find out their needs in the field of teaching pronunciation (questionnaires) and will be focused on quasi-experimental pupils’ group trained separately with and without contrastive approach before recording them and analysing the results. The experimental group will be trained in cognitive contrastive approach concerning segmental, suprasegmental and prosodic phonetics systems comparing Slovak and English languages sound systems. The control group will be trained by using imitative-intuitive ways with the same texts in reading and free speaking topics as the first group. Both qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques will be used in the study and the triangulation of research methods will be finished by contend analyses of mainly used English textbooks which are mail regular sources for learning/teaching pronunciation.
 The most important will be the practical output for teachers and pupils in creating specially designed pronunciation concerned materials for meeting specific needs of our Slovak primary school level determining the influence and interference of Slovak mother tongue in learning/teaching pronunciation.

The effectiveness of computer‐assisted pronunciation training: A meta‐analysis

Computers are used in almost all aspects of language learning and have also created numerous opportunities in this area. This study aims to examine the overall effectiveness of using a computer in pronunciation learning and training. A meta‐analysis of studies was conducted, which compared the outcomes of students learning the pronunciation of a foreign language (FL) using a computer with the results from those learning pronunciation based on traditional methods of teaching. This meta‐analysis examined how effect sizes varied depending on the learners’ age, learners’ target language proficiency, features of pronunciation, educational level, settings, treatment duration, and assessment tasks. This meta‐analysis examined the effect of using a computer on pronunciation learning by reviewing 20 studies involving 1014 participants. The findings of the meta‐analysis suggest that computer‐assisted training has a positive effect on FL pronunciation (d = 0.68), and is equally effective for both young and adult learners, but more effective for beginner and intermediate learners than advanced learners. The studies also suggest that computer‐assisted pronunciation training (CAPT) is more beneficial for university students than for school students. However, caution has to be exercised in interpreting the results. The small number of studies, all of very low quality (most with fewer than 100 participants, conducted within the same institution using intervention‐related assessments) means that the evidence of effectiveness can only be indicative and not conclusive. More robust, large‐scale studies involving several institutions and using objective standardised tests would be needed for more conclusive results.

Current approaches to pronunciation instruction: A longitudinal case study in French

A body of previous work in second‐ and foreign language pronunciation instruction (e.g., Lord, ; Miller, ) has shown that explicit phonetic and pronunciation instruction is beneficial. However, Olson () noted that just a few minutes per week of instruction are devoted to pronunciation in most classrooms. What is the effect of such limited, sporadic attention to this critical aspect of language? This study traced the longitudinal development of four students over the first four semesters of French language study at a large Midwestern university. Analyses focused on a global measure of pronunciation accuracy—the number of incorrectly pronounced syllables (Lappin‐Fortin, ; Sturm, )—and included qualitative analyses of the types of errors participants continued to make. Results indicate that students’ pronunciation does improve to a certain extent but that progress is inconsistent both across phonemes and across students. This baseline study sets the stage for future studies of the impact of systematic, explicit instruction.