Pronunciation Performance Research Articles

Effects of Video-based Shadowing on Suprasegmental Features: EFL Learners' Pronunciation Performance and Attitudes

The study was conducted to investigate the effects of video-based shadowing on pre-intermediate EFL learners' pronunciation performance of suprasegmental features as well as explore their attitudes toward the technique. The study employed three instruments including pre-and post-tests, a questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews, to triangulate the data. The results showed that participants made an improvement in their pronunciation performance of suprasegmental features, especially intonation. In other words, video-based shadowing has positive effects on the participants' pronunciation performance of suprasegmental features. Besides, they had positive attitudes toward video-based shadowing and outlined some benefits of using the technique. Furthermore, the participants' preference for how to practice video-based shadowing was also discovered.

The Effectiveness of L2 Pronunciation Instruction: A Critical Systematic Review of the Intervention Studies

Pronunciation instruction studies have taken considerable attention in the field of foreign language teaching and research in recent years. In this systematic review, only the intervention studies indexed in SSCI were included. A literature search up to April 2024 was conducted using the Web of Science and relevant meta-analytic studies. 55 interventions met the eligibility criteria based on the PRISMA 2020. This review is twofold: to examine the effects of English L2 pronunciation instruction and to identify the methodological status of these studies in terms of treatment formulation, design, sampling type/size, treatment duration and outcome measures. Results showed that pronunciation instruction treatments positively affected L2 users’ pronunciation performance. Regarding research methodology, the studies employed mostly pre- and post-tests, with at least one experimental group having relatively few delayed tests. The most common participant group was undergraduate students with pre-intermediate and intermediate levels. The participants' performance tended to be measured through technological tools in recent years. The suprasegmental features of speech increasingly took place compared to the mere segmental features. These studies also tended to include native speakers’ ratings in the assessment phase of the instruction. The findings of this study are assumed to provide insights and recommendations for future research studies

Embedding Artificial Intelligent Applications in Higher Educational Institutions to Improve Students’ Pronunciation Performance

This study investigates the integration of Elsa Speak, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) application, into higher education to enhance the pronunciation skills of English Foreign Language Learners (EFLL) at a Jordanian university. Grounded in a comprehensive literature review, this study adopts a mixed-methods approach, utilizing a pre-post-test-controlled group design with a sample of 12 students. The seven-week intervention employing Elsa Speak demonstrates a significant improvement in pronunciation skills, supported by statistical analyses and positive student perceptions gathered through questionnaires. The findings contribute to the broader discourse on AI in education, highlighting the practical impact of such applications on language learning, specifically pronunciation improvement in higher education. The study advocates the continued exploration and strategic integration of AI tools, such as Elsa Speak, into language education practices.

Mobile-assisted language learning and pronunciation instruction: A systematic literature review

AbstractIn recent years, learners worldwide have expressed increasing interest in mobile learning and the utilization of mobile devices for language learning purposes. However, few research synthesis studies have focused on pronunciation development in relation to employing MALL (mobile-assisted language learning). This review article contributes to the discourse on how mobile learning aids in acquiring and practicing EFL (English as a foreign language) pronunciation since it is this language system that is both a crucial and frequently neglected aspect of English language learning. With the emergence of e-generation, it is necessary to investigate the influence of MALL on pronunciation acquisition. This paper provides a systematic literature review of the findings of 15 empirical studies published between 2015 and 2022, which is based on PRISMA 2020. The aim of the review is threefold: to investigate the effect of mobile devices on L2 learners’ pronunciation performance, examine learners’ attitudes toward employing mobile learning for pronunciation practice and development, and identify which mobile devices and apps are present in the process. The results indicate that overall, mobile learning exerts a beneficial impact on L2 pronunciation and that participants in the reviewed studies demonstrate positive attitudes toward MALL. Moreover, smartphones appear to be at the center of attention as the primary mobile device, and it was revealed that a variety of mobile apps and platforms have been employed in the studies. The article concludes with pedagogical implications and recommendations for potential research exploration in the future.

Exploring the effects of modality and variability on EFL learners’ pronunciation of English diphthongs: a student perspective on HVPT implementation

Recognizing the importance of effective pronunciation training for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners is paramount for improving their comprehensive language proficiency and communication skills. This study investigated the influence of High Variability Pronunciation Training (HVPT) with and without captions, on the accuracy of English diphthong pronunciations among Saudi EFL learners. A total of 56 undergraduate EFL learners participated in the study, undergoing multiple sessions of high-variability (HV) and low-variability (LV) pronunciation training. Various assessments were conducted to measure the learners’ performance, including pretests, posttests, generalized tests, and delayed tests. Additionally, a survey was conducted to gain insights into the participants’ perceptions of using YouGlish, a multimodal tool, as part of the training process. Data analysis used statistical techniques such as t-tests, ANOVA tests, and descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings indicate that both HV and LV improved the learners’ performance in English pronunciation, regardless of captioning. LV without captions consistently yielded the highest scores. The students also had positive perceptions of YouGlish as a multimodal tool. These results offer valuable insights into the efficacy of HV and LV in facilitating EFL learners’ speech production and offer implications for educators and practitioners involved in designing effective instructional strategies for enhancing EFL learners’ pronunciation skills.

Exploring the impact of audio self‐modelling on Chinese as a foreign language students' tone pronunciation skill, self‐efficacy, and motivation

AbstractBackground studyChinese tone pronunciation instruction gains increasingly attention and various instructional strategies have been studied to develop effective tones in students. Students usually listen to successful pronunciation stimuli provided by the teacher or peers, to be copied by themselves. However, individuals seem more sensitive to learn from their own voice to develop adequate tone pronunciation. Self‐Modelling is an instructional strategy that builds on learning from ones' own behaviour to develop target behaviours. Most available research builds on visual cues; hence the label Visual Self Modelling (VSM) that presents learners with videoclips of their own behaviour. VSM had been found to be successful to develop a range of skills. However, when focusing on language pronunciation, audio cues are to be preferred to direct the modelling process. This inspired the authors to the design of audio self‐modelling (ASM) that starts from recordings of students' pronunciation. These auditory recordings are hypothesized to be more appropriate as a base for self‐modelling.ObjectivesThe purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of ASM when training Chinese as a foreign language students' tone pronunciation (focus on contour, pitch, duration. Additionally, the study explores the impact of ASM on students' self‐efficacy and motivation and the relationship between students' tone pronunciation skill, self‐efficacy, and motivation.MethodA quasi‐experimental design was adopted, involving 26 students in a six‐week intervention to study the improvement of their pronunciation of Chinese tones at word level. Seventeen students in the experimental condition were trained via ASM; the other nine students studied pronunciation as usual on the base of teacher provided pronunciation stimuli and corrective feedback. Students in the ASM were also individually interviewed about their learning experience.ResultsAnalysis of the quantitative pre‐ and post‐tests scores show that ASM results in a significantly higher posttest score for in each of the tone criteria as compared to the control group (contour, pitch and duration). Also, students' self‐efficacy and motivation improved to a significantly higher extent in the ASM research condition. No significant correlations were found between CFL students' tone pronunciation performance and their self‐efficacy and motivation. Analysis of the interview data further indicated that CFL students put forward positive attitudes and perceptions about ASM, next to some concerns.ConclusionThe significant findings present empirical evidence as to the efficacy of ASM as an instructional strategy to develop L2 skills, and push the idea to adopt self‐modelling on the base of person auditory recordings to direct L2 pronunciation instruction.

PROMOTING STUDENT TEACHERS' TEACHING PRACTICUM WITHIN DESIGNATED SPEAKING CLASS

This study aims at promoting undergraduate student teachers’ teaching practicum that highlights the pedagogical and teaching performance within the designated speaking class. Four senior student teachers participated in five weeks’ teaching practicum through the purposive sampling selection. The method of this study used observation, questionnaire, and teaching practicum documents to facilitate the qualitative analysis in relevance with student teachers’ teaching files, running-methods course, and classroom observations. The core practices of probing pedagogical activities engaged student teachers in intrinsic discussions explicitly and implicitly. The substantial pedagogical matters and their sub-matters were experientially derived from the relevant practicality into the common sense of instruction criteria on planning, implementation, and reflection stages. The discussion substance highlighted daily speaking performance in vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, fluency, and content among freshmen and sophomores. This study recommends student teachers improve their theoretical and practical teaching methods by accommodating enumeration and sense-making classroom discussion.

The effectiveness of automatic speech recognition in ESL/EFL pronunciation: A meta-analysis

AbstractThis meta-analytic study explores the overall effectiveness of automatic speech recognition (ASR) on ESL/EFL student pronunciation performance. Data with 15 studies representing 38 effect sizes found from 2008 to 2021 were meta-analyzed. The findings of the meta-analysis indicated that ASR has a medium overall effect size (g = 0.69). Results from moderator analyses suggest that (1) ASR with explicit corrective feedback is largely effective, while ASR with indirect feedback (e.g. ASR dictation) is moderately effective; (2) ASR has a large effect on segmental pronunciation but a small effect on suprasegmental pronunciation; (3) medium to long treatment duration of ASR results in higher learning outcomes, but short duration offers no differential effect compared to a non-ASR condition; (4) practicing pronunciation with peers in an ASR condition produces a large effect, but the effect is small when practicing alone; (5) ASR is largely effective for adult (i.e. 18 years old and above) and intermediate English learners. Overall, ASR is a beneficial application and is recommended for assisting L2 student pronunciation development.

Examining the effect of phonological awareness instruction on EFL learners’ pronunciation and motivation

ELT teachers in Indonesia mostly apply an integrative language teaching approach to cover the linguistic elements of language skills. However, the pronunciation in speaking exposure is required to be accurate through the intervention of phonological awareness. Thus, this study examines the effect of phonological awareness on students’ English pronunciation and how it provokes students’ motivation in speaking English. This study used a pretest-posttest control group design. The experimental group which consisted of 36 participants was given a phonological awareness intervention and the control group which consisted of 36 participants was given without any intervention. The instruments of the study were a text reading-aloud task and a questionnaire. Data were then analyzed using Pearson correlation and independent sample t-test. The findings revealed that phonological awareness instruction positively impacted participants’ pronunciation performance with better phonemes articulation, more appropriate stress determination, and more adequate intonation that directly provoked their speaking motivation. Therefore, EFL teachers should determine the phonological awareness approach for the potential English competence and performance integrated into the learning syllabus more intensively.

The Effect of Communicative Games on Developing Intermediate School Students Pronunciation Performance

This study aims to reveal the effect of communication games on developing intermediate students' pronunciation. To achieve this aim, a quasi-experimental design was used. A pretest and a posttest were used to collect the data. A selected communication games were used to training the students to develop their pronunciation performance. The participants were 68 male students from second grade intermediate school in Baghdad. The results revealed that there is no statistical significance difference between the mean scores of the students in the experimental and control groups due to the teaching method. The researcher suggested to expose students to electronic communication games that provide the sound of the word from a native source.

Thanks or Tanks: Training with Tactile Cues Improves Learners’ Accuracy of English Interdental Consonants in an Oral Reading Task

ABSTRACT The present study investigates whether training second language pronunciation with tactile cues facilitates the production of non-native sounds involving accessible articulatory features. In a between-subjects experiment with a pretest-training-posttest design, 50 Turkish learners of English received audiovisual training on a set of target words and sentences containing two English interdental fricatives, /θ/ and /ð/, in one of two conditions, tactile and non-tactile. The tactile condition involved self-touching the tongue as it protruded during pronunciation of the two target sounds. Participants’ pronunciation performance was assessed through a word-imitation task, a sentence-imitation task, and a discourse reading task. Results showed that while both training conditions helped learners to improve their pronunciation performance in all three tasks, the tactile condition triggered greater improvements in the discourse reading task. These results extend previous findings on the benefits of tactile input for speech perception and suggest the efficacy of multisensory training paradigms for improving second language pronunciation.

THE CORRELATION BETWEEN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS AND THEIR PRONUNCIATION OF ENGLISH INFLECTIONAL MORPHEMES –ED AND -S: A CASE IN THE MEKONG DELTA OF VIETNAM

This study examined the relationship between high school students' phonological awareness and their performance in pronouncing allomorphs of English inflectional morphemes -ed and -s. The study involved 31 high school students in Can Tho City in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. Data of the study were collected through a pronunciation written test (PWT) and a pronunciation oral test (POT). The findings pointed out that all the students had phonological knowledge of the two morphemes; however, the majority of the participants made errors in pronouncing them which indicated their lack of pronunciation performance. In addition, there was no correlation between the students’ phonological awareness and their pronunciation performance detected in the study. Based on the results, pedagogical implications were suggested.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0307/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Using Homophone Games To Improve Pronunciation Performance For Non-English Majors

Using Homophone Games To Improve Pronunciation Performance For Non-English Majors

Dysphagia diagnosis system with integrated speech analysis from throat vibration

Dysphagia is a widespread swallowing disorder. One of the most widely used clinical assessments is the bedside swallowing disorder screening, including the water swallow test. This method can only diagnose the disease according to the choking situation of the liquid, and the aspiration may appear during the drinking water test. In this paper, an automatic diagnostic system is designed according to the patient’s performance in pronunciation. To diagnose dysphagia, we treat it as a binary classification task. We use a throat vibrator to collect the vibration signals of the subjects during pronunciation for clear speech signals. Feature engineering techniques, including feature extraction, data balancing and dimensionality reduction are implemented to extract the features for classification. Three popular classifiers are integrated to make the final predictions. Experimental results show that the integrated classifier performs better with accuracy = 72.09%, sensitivity = 63.64% and specificity = 80.95% respectively. Different from the traditional clinical ways, a new machine learning based swallowing disorders detection system is proposed with vibration signals of throat acquired for high-quality speech analysis. It may help to realize a portal and low-cost telemedicine device for dysphagia diagnosis at home.

인도네시아인 학습자의 숙달도에 따른 한국어 치경폐쇄음 습득 연구

This study examined the acquisition of Korean stop sounds /t/(ㄷ), /t’/(ㄸ), and /th/(ㅌ) by Indonesian learners of Korean using a behavioral experiment called AX Discrimination Task, and voice production test analyzed by Praat. Nineteen advanced learners and nineteen intermediate learners participated in both tasks. Result of AX discrimination task showed that Indonesian learners were significantly less accurate than native speakers of Korean, and intermediate learners were significantly less accurate than advanced learners in discriminating /t/(ㄷ), /t’/(ㄸ), and /th/(ㅌ). Besides, in terms of reaction time, intermediate learners were the slowest participants in recognizing /t/(ㄷ), /t’/(ㄸ), and /th/(ㅌ). Meanwhile, in the voice production test, both intermediate and advanced learners revealed significant differences in pronouncing /t/(ㄷ), /t’/(ㄸ), and /th/(ㅌ) compared to native Korean. The results of this study showed in perceiving and producing Korean stop sounds /t/(ㄷ), /t’/(ㄸ), and /th/(ㅌ) between the Indonesian learners and native Korean. Overall, this study indicates that in terms of perceiving and producing Korean stop sounds /t/(ㄷ), /t’/(ㄸ), and /th/(ㅌ), and advanced learners shows an increase than intermediate learners, this indirectly proves that lower proficiency predicts lower pronunciation performance as claimed also by Higgs and Cliford’s(1982) on their relative contribution model. This study also revealed similar results with previous studies, where basic, intermediate and advance learners showed significant difference in perceiving and producing Korean stop sounds, while intermediate or advanced learners showed perceiving and producing Korean stop sound that was much closer to that of native Korean(Kim, 2012; Kim, 2006).

The nexus between grit and pronunciation performance among EFL learners: the mediating role of pronunciation self-efficacy beliefs

PurposeGrit is a novel, rather an important psychological variable that has been associated with performance in the English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL) context. However, there is a dearth of research on the relationship of grit and pronunciation performance among EFL learners. Consequently, the current study sought to establish the association between grit and the pronunciation performance of Saudi EFL learners by employing pronunciation self-efficacy beliefs as a mediating variable.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative correlational research design was deployed in this research. Data were collected from 350 Saudi university EFL learners using questionnaires and a pronunciation test.FindingsFindings indicated that both the dimensions of grit (i.e. perseverance of effort and consistency of interest) showed a significant and positive association with the learners' pronunciation self-efficacy beliefs. Also, the pronunciation self-efficacy beliefs showed a significant and positive association with the pronunciation performance. Lastly, findings indicated that pronunciation self-efficacy beliefs mediated the association between girt (i.e. perseverance of effort and consistency of interest) and pronunciation performance.Originality/valueThe study’s findings have implications for the EFL classroom. By incorporating grit and self-efficacy beliefs into students, teachers can enhance their students' English pronunciation performance.

The Evolution of Assessment in English Pronunciation: The Case of Hong Kong (1978-2018)

ABSTRACT This study tracked the development of Hong Kong’s assessment practices for English pronunciation over the past four decades, with reference to the nativeness and intelligibility principles in L2 pronunciation research and pedagogy. Specifically, it evaluated changes in assessors’ comments on candidates’ English pronunciation performance in school-exit public examinations between 1978 and 2018. Qualitative and quantitative content analyses were conducted on the examination report for each year to identify themes related to candidates’ pronunciation ‘problems’, including ‘word-based’ features (word pronunciation, word stress, segmentals), ‘discourse-based’ features (suprasegmentals) and ‘delivery’ (clarity, fluency, loudness, naturalness, pacing). In the examination reports, candidates’ problems with word-based features (particularly word pronunciation) received the most attention across the decades. Most of the comments in later reports were aligned with the intelligibility principle, particularly at the segmental level (e.g., missing consonants, simplification of consonant clusters, word pronunciation). These assessment practices were potentially influenced by the teaching methods recommended in the different ELT curricula over time (i.e., from an oral-structural to a communicative/task-based language teaching approach), and also by the assessors’ judgements. The paper concludes by proposing a research agenda for the promotion of an evidence-based approach that can inform future assessment practices.

Enhancing Discrimination and Production of English Vowels Using Task-Based Training

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of task-based training program on the discrimination and production of English vowels. It also examined the extent to which these two levels of pronunciation performance are correlated. The participants, consisting of 66, were selected from the first year English department students at the Faculty of Education Al Azhar University. A test of vowel discrimination and production, made up of two parts, was constructed for the study. The program, comprising 32 tasks recorded by a native speaker teacher of English, was administered in 10 weeks for the experimental group students, including pre and posttests. Results indicated that task-based training proved effective in the discrimination and production of vowels. Results also indicated that discrimination and production are positively correlated. The study called for adopting task-based training and explicit instruction of pronunciation to help learners be aware of the constituent parts of vowel sounds and develop acute discrimination that relates to enhanced production.

Developing english speaking skill through online interactive and communicative lessons

The basic aim of this article is to enhance communicative English skill of secondary students that have difficulties on speaking. It is intended to address these questions: a) Are the employment of online communicative lessons helpful to develop learners’ conversation skills compared to face-to-face classroom that is offline class with English speakers; b) Do we have any differences in the performance enhancements contributed with the help of the two learning approaches?; c) What learning approach improves the learners’ communicative performance very well?; and d) What are the advantages and disadvantages of each learning approach in improving oral speech? There are 50 participants in this paper. They were basically sampled and classified into two groups: on learning through online conversation lessons and the other by classroom interaction with an English speaker. They were individually interviewed to evaluate and check their spoken English performance before the attitudes and after finishing the lessons. Video-recorded was done by Students with their interviews and conversations practices for close analysis following Conversation Analysis (CA) principles and rated in the following peculiarities: accuracy, complexity, fluency, vocabulary, appropriacy, pronunciation, and grammar. The main tools of research employed in this work were spoken communication tasks for pre-and post-tests. The research findings based on statistical and CA analysis indicates that the students’ oral English speaking remarkably enhanced by the usage of online lessons and interactive classroom with. The learners engaged in classroom interaction, however, became basically more fluent and had a broader variety of vocabulary than those learning through online conversations, even though their performance in pronunciation were similar. Thus, it was recommended that teachers utilize online lessons not as the sole language learning activity but as an addition to classroom interaction to focus on main speech features.

Advantages and disadvantages of interactive pronouncing methods while teaching pronunciation

This paper presents a research carried out to x-ray the effects of using interactive multimedia on the English language pronunciation performance of pupils in the Nigerian primary School. The simple observation technique and a well-structured questionnaire were used coupled with class test to show whether the effect is negative or positive. Pupils from grade one to grade five were randomly selected and all the class teachers responded appropriately to the questionnaires administered to them. A well-structured formative test was also given to the pupils in order to ascertain the status of effect and the level of impact of interactive digital multimedia on English Language pronunciation performance of pupils. This paper illustrates that adopting the interactive multimedia technology in education makes it possible to achieve effective teaching and training in multiple domains which was not possible in the traditional text based environment.