Article Review (10%)

THE EFFECTS OF COMPUTER-ASSISTED PRONUNCIATION READINGS ON ESL LEARNERS’ USE OF PAUSING, STRESS, INTONATION AND OVERALL COMPREHENSIBILITY

Language Learning and Technology (October 2009), Volume 13, Number 3

http://llt.msu.edu/vol13num3/tannerlandon.pdf

This article was written by two authors; Mark W. Tanner and Melissa M. Landon. Mark Tanner is an Assistant Professor in the Linguistics and English Language Department at Brigham Young University. He is interested in researches such as pronunciation pedagogy and comprehensibility, self-directed learning and second language teacher education. Melissa Landon on the other hand is a full-time mother and a pat-time researcher. She holds an MA in TESOL from Brigham Young University. She has interests in researches of assessment and pronunciation instruction.

As the topic suggested, this research aims to assess and see how well a computer-assisted technique might help in improving ESL learners’ perception and production of key suprasegmental features. The researchers have made reviews on various literature of correct pronunciation readings as well as computer technology which is believed to be helpful in the teaching of English. In conducting the research, 75 ESL learners were involved in a 13-week experimental study. These learners were then divided into control and treatment groups. 11 weeks were given to the treatment group and they were having a self-directed computer-assisted using Cued Pronunciation Readings (CPR). These weeks are also known as Time 1. The results of both groups were collected on Week 13 which was also called as Time 2. After collecting the data, the researchers analyzed the treatment’s effect on the learner’s perception and production of pausing, word-stress and sentence-final intonation. Besides that, the learners’ level of perceived comprehensibility was also analyzed. Speech perception and production data at both Time 1 and Time 2 were collected from all learners in the ESL program’s computer lab. 4 categories of participants involve in the research, namely ESL Students, Native Speaking Informants, Teachers and Listeners. These four groups had different roles in the research. The ESL students were the main samples involved while the rest were the stimulus. These learners enrolled full-time in a university ESL program and had intermediate-level proficiency of English. In order to conduct the research, they were later divided into 6 groups. The native speakers on the other hand, acted as informants to the main sample. The researchers affirmed that the ESL learner’s performance on the tasks given would be appropriately measured if they used the same tasks on the native speakers. Ten native speakers involved in the study and they were al had knowledge in linguistics and ability to speak Standard American English. 6 teachers were selected to teach six different intermediate classes. All of them had at least a year experience in formal teaching. Three of them had to teach the control groups while the other three taught the treatment groups. 10 listeners were also selected in the research whereas they were divided into two groups. The first group rated the comprehensibility of all the participants while the second group, which included two expert judges, listened to the participants and wrote the results. Results from the 13-week experiment conducted showed that the treatment group had a significant effect on key suprasegemental features. The students in that group had improved after given such exposure to the learning of word pronouncing. For example, they have become better in recognizing the pause marks and they were able to produce the pause marks at the correct place. As for the students in treatment group themselves, they agreed that CPR has really helped them in learning about English pronunciation, speaking English more fluently and correctly. They also felt that people could understand them better and more easily.

As a future educator, I believe that a teacher’s job is not to spoon feed students. Students must learn how to be autonomous learners. Key suprasegemental features (pausing, word-stress and sentence-final intonation) are one of the language features that are fun to be learned and it would be more meaningful if the students learn it themselves by using technology. However, students always need a teacher’s guide to facilitate them as they might not fully understand what the program has taught them. Therefore, this research does really interest me. It shows how well the ESL learners can improve by having a self-directed computer assisted practice using CPR. Technology develops everyday and by having this kind of research, it is hoped that more programs or software will be built in order to meet the requirement of today’s world, which encourages people to be more self-directed especially in learning. Nevertheless, like stated earlier, teachers are still needed in supervising students’ achievement. This research is a well conducted research as it answered all the research questions and achieved the aims targeted. Besides that, the researchers used a well-planned method and I believe it was not easy to conduct such research which consumed a lot number of weeks. By having experts and other participants, this research has produced significant results of the study. In general, the research has given a new view of teaching pronunciation to teachers especially. Mispronunciation is one of the common mistakes done by students in learning English language besides grammar. Thus, by having a self-directed computer-assisted practice, students can learn themselves of the correct pronunciation of words and build their own confidence to speak English. Looking at it from Malaysian contexts, this research implies a lot in our education field especially in English teaching. Students nowadays are too shy to use English in public especially as they might not know how to use it in a correct way. Hence, I strongly believe that the self-directed computer-assisted practice as the research suggested would be very helpful.