Practical use of English pronunciation system for Japanese students in the CALL classroom

Author(s):  
Tatsuya Kawahara ◽  
Masatake Dantsuji ◽  
Yasushi Tsubota
ReCALL ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 173-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
YASUSHI TSUBOTA ◽  
MASATAKE DANTSUJI ◽  
TATSUYA KAWAHARA

We have developed an English pronunciation learning system which estimates the intelligibility of Japanese learners' speech and ranks their errors from the viewpoint of improving their intelligibility to native speakers. Error diagnosis is particularly important in self-study since students tend to spend time on aspects of pronunciation that do not noticeably affect intelligibility. As a preliminary experiment, the speech of seven Japanese students was scored from 1 (hardly intelligible) to 5 (perfectly intelligible) by a linguistic expert. We also computed their error rates for each skill. We found that each intelligibility level is characterized by its distribution of error rates. Thus, we modeled each intelligibility level in accordance with its error rate. Error priority was calculated by comparing students' error rate distributions with that of the corresponding model for each intelligibility level. As non-native speech is acoustically broader than the speech of native speakers, we developed an acoustic model to perform automatic error detection using speech data obtained from Japanese students. As for supra-segmental error detection, we categorized errors frequently made by Japanese students and developed a separate acoustic model for that type of error detection. Pronunciation learning using this system involves two phases. In the first phase, students experience virtual conversation through video clips. They receive an error profile based on pronunciation errors detected during the conversation. Using the profile, students are able to grasp characteristic tendencies in their pronunciation errors which in effect lower their intelligibility. In the second phase, students practise correcting their individual errors using words and short phrases. They then receive information regarding the errors detected during this round of practice and instructions for correcting the errors. We have begun using this system in a CALL class at Kyoto University. We have evaluated system performance through the use of questionnaires and analysis of speech data logged in the server, and will present our findings in this paper.


2020 ◽  
Vol 77 ◽  
pp. 02003
Author(s):  
Kanta Igarashi ◽  
Ian Wilson

For Japanese people, communicating with English speakers from abroad has become more common because of internationalization, and there are many people who want to improve their English-speaking skills. However, there are few environments where we can speak English outside of the classroom, so Japanese students rarely have a chance to study English pronunciation. Even if students do have a chance to take an English pronunciation class, teachers do not have enough time to individually teach each student pronunciation in a big class. Because of that, computers and smartphones may be one good type of tool to solve this problem. In this research, we develop a web-based application to help Japanese learners with their English pronunciation.


Author(s):  
Dentik Karyaningsih ◽  
Puji Siswanto

Lecture courses in the English Language Education Study Program of STKIP Setiabudhi Rangkasbitung are still conducted in face-to-face class, so the students who do not attend lectures cannot know the pronunciation material at that time, because the Pronunciation course is a practical course in the English pronunciation system. The E-Learning Pronunciation is built so that lectures can be carried out anywhere and anytime without reducing the quality of the teaching and learning process. Therefore, the students who are left behind can continue to follow the Pronunciation course material, as well as habituating students in utilizing communication and information technology. E-Learning Pronunciation is important to be built to improve the ability of students’ pronunciation when doing distance learning, so that students are clearer and more firm in understanding Pronunciation so that there are no errors in English pronunciation. Participants in this study were first semester students of English education study programs. This study uses an experimental research design with the Prototype System development method and system of testing uses Black box testing.


Author(s):  
Ali Akbar Khansir ◽  
Afsaneh Salehabadi

As the topic suggests, the research paper presents Study of Consonant Pronunciations Errors Committed by EFL Learners. Error analysis always tries to resolve language learners’ problems in acquiring second or foreign language setting. Learning to English pronunciation is perhaps as important as learning listening skill, speaking, and spelling. Errors in English pronunciation create several problems for English language learners in their works. In other words, most of the English language errors of pronunciation are due to the lack of knowledge of language learners. However, all the students in our sample are of age group (16-25) at Bushehr language institute and they are all Iranian nationals. In addition, all of them were female learners. An English pronunciation (consonant) test was used to get information about the knowledge of the learners in English pronunciation. Findings of this article indicated that the first and second hypotheses of this article were accepted, but the third hypothesis was rejected. However, the findings of this paper showed that the Iranian EFL students have problem to pronounce English sounds correctly.


Author(s):  
Ary Iswanto Wibowo

Era teknologi membuat kehidupan manusia menjadi lebih mudah. Salah satunya pemanfaatan teknologi di dunia pendidikan. Saat ini manusia tidak lepas dengan telepon genggam atau smartphone. Tujuan dilakukan penelitian ini diharapkan bahwa pemanfaatan aplikasi Android di smartphone dapat membantu mahasiswa untuk belajar dan mendalami pelafalan/pengucapan bahasa Inggris dimanapun mereka berada. Pelafalan atau pronunciation adalah bagian dari keahlian berbahasa Inggris. Pronunciation diperlukan untuk mencapai tujuan komunikasi antara pembicara dan pendengar. Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan metode kualitatif. Teknik pengumpulan data dilakukan secara observasi dan wawancara. Data sampel diambil secara acak untuk mewakili keseluruhan data. Deskripsi ceklist observasi meliputi: (1) Penggunaan aplikasi Android untuk mengajar pronunciation di program studi sekretaris semester tiga Akademi Sekretaris dan Manajemen BSI Jakarta dan (2) hasil pronunciation para mahasiswa selama penggunaan aplikasi. Subyek penelitian ini adalah mahasiswa semester tiga program studi sekretaris Bina Sarana Informatika Jakarta. Dalam hasil penelitian ini menunjukan bahwa aplikasi TFlat English Pronunciation berjalan dengan baik.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (40) ◽  
pp. 631-654
Author(s):  
Khaldoon Waleed Husam Al-Mofti

For Iraqi EFL learners who are studying English pronunciation in a traditional instruction method often requires more effort and hard work. Thus, using new methods of teaching such as the flipped classroom model (FCM) is necessary to facilitate learning and improve performance. Hence, this study reports on explanatory research that investigates the effect of using the FCM in the teaching of English pronunciation for Iraqi EFL learners at the university level. The study implemented mixed research methods for data collection in a quasi-experimental analysis. Therefore, two tests were conducted on the assigned groups to measure the effect of the FCM before and after the intervention. Besides, a questionnaire and interviews were used on the experiment group students to collect data about their perceptions of the FCM. The study length (lasted)  was 15 weeks and is comprised of 60 students from the department of English, College of Arts at the University of Anbar. The students were divided into two groups, experimental, and control with 30 students in each group. The findings revealed that there was a significant statistical difference between the two groups in favour of the experimental group with better performance, indicating that the FCM has considerably assisted the Iraqi EFL learners to improve their English pronunciation. Moreover, the students expressed their positive feedback and satisfaction on the use of the FCM in their responses to the questionnaire and the interviews. As such, the current study recommends further research to study the effect of applying the FCM in areas and disciplines other than language learning.


Author(s):  
Aliv Faizal M ◽  
Akhmad Alimudin

English pronunciation has long been taught through the delivery of phonetic symbols to study the sound of each phoneme in English. In Multimedia Broadcasting study program at Surabaya State Electronics Polytechnic, pronunciation has long been delivered to the students through guidebooks in the form of phonetic symbols that teach basic sound pronunciation in English. English teachers practice the sound of each phoneme directly to thestudents. After going through various observations based on the track record of student achievement of this pronunciation material, I as a teacher as well as researcher found that my student achievement was less than the desired target. This was due to the limited source of English pronunciation learning where students only learned face-to-face in the classroom. Through the use of English learning media of pronunciation interactively using speech recognition technology, it was expected that Multimedia Broadcasting course students in Surabaya State Electronics Polytechnic could improve their English pronunciation ability. After students complete the English pronunciation training sequence using pronunciation application using speech recognition technology, the data from the interview stated that the students felt more confident and improved their pronunciation ability and also felt the increased motivation to learn English pronunciation using English pronunciation learning app using speech recognition technology.Keywords: English pronunciation, teaching, multimedia, speech recognition technology, and pronunciation app.


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