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.

Design of an Automatic English Pronunciation Error Correction System Based on Radio Magnetic Pronunciation Recording Devices

In this paper, a system for automatic detection and correction of mispronunciation of native Chinese learners of English by speech recognition technology is designed with the help of radiomagnetic pronunciation recording devices and computer-aided software. This paper extends the standard pronunciation dictionary by predicting the phoneme confusion rules in the language learner’s pronunciation that may lead to mispronunciation and generates an extended pronunciation dictionary containing the standard pronunciation of each word and the possible mispronunciation variations, and automatic speech recognition uses the extended pronunciation dictionary to detect and diagnose the learner’s mispronunciation of phonemes and provides real-time feedback. It is generated by systematic crosslinguistic phonological comparative analysis of the differences in phoneme pronunciation with each other, and a data-driven approach is used to do automatic phoneme recognition of learner speech and analyze the mapping relationship between the resulting mispronunciation and the corresponding standard pronunciation to automatically generate additional phoneme confusion rules. In this paper, we investigate various aspects of several issues related to the automatic correction of English pronunciation errors based on radiomagnetic pronunciation recording devices; design the general block diagram of the system, etc.; and discuss some key techniques and issues, including endpoint detection, feature extraction, and the system’s study of pronunciation standard algorithms, analyzing their respective characteristics. Finally, we design and implement a model of an automatic English pronunciation error correction system based on a radiomagnetic pronunciation recording device. Based on the characteristics of English pronunciation, the correction algorithm implemented in this system uses the similarity and pronunciation duration ratings based on the log posterior probability, which combines the scores of both, and standardizes this system scoring through linear mapping. This system can achieve the purpose of automatic recognition of English mispronunciation correction and, at the same time, improve the user’s spoken English pronunciation to a certain extent.

The Implementation of Online Accent Reduction Software to Improve Pronunciation of English and Arabic Department Students

The objective of this study is to implement accent reduction software in English pronunciation teaching. This study employed an experimental approach. There were forty students recruited from the English and Arabic departments. The students were split into two classes, with one class being treated as an experimental class and another class as a controlled class. Each class consisted of twenty students, ten English department students, and the other ten Arabic department students. We administered an experimental class with twelve meeting treatments using the Elsa accent reduction software to teach English pronunciation. Meanwhile, the controlled class was not given any treatments. The results show that there was a significant difference between the result of the pre-test and post-test of the students' pronunciations that were taught with the accent reduction software. It was found that the mean score of the experimental class was significantly improved from 53.12 to 85.44 after they were given the treatment. Meanwhile, the control group's mean score was also improved, but it was not significant from 49.33 to 59.11. Our study highlighted that the use of accent reduction software in teaching English pronunciations could help students to improve their English pronunciations. The students were able to imitate an English sound from the software. The limitation of this study is that we did not compare the results of English and Arabic students’ ability in pronunciations after the use of the software. Future studies are recommended to compare pronunciations between English and Arabic students through the use of the software to understand language background might affect the treatment.

Influence of Negative Transfer of Dialects on English Pronunciation and Teaching Strategies

In the process of students’ learning English pronunciation, some pronunciation errors caused by the negative transfer of Chinese are caused. If these negative transfer effects of Chinese cannot be overcome, it will hinder the improvement of students’ listening and speaking skills. This article analyzes the impact of negative dialect transfer on English phonetics learning from three aspects: phoneme, coherent pronunciation and intonation, and proposes some coping strategies, hoping to instruct teachers to help students overcome the impact of negative dialect transfer and improve their English pronunciation level during the listening and speaking teaching process.

Influența limbii materne în predarea pronunției în limba engleză

The present article treats a problem regarding the influence of the mother tongue in teaching English pronunciation. The importance and necessity of using the mother tongue in learning English are relevant. The obtained knowledge, skills and abilities in the mother tongue influence those from the foreign language, as a result thezy are in an interdependence, that observe concrete laws. This interdependence can both contribute to learning English, and hinder it. The formation of correct pronunciation skills depends on the the adjustment of the mother tongue phonological system tot that of the target language.

The Training Program Effectiveness to Improve English Pronunciation for Students with Hearing Impairments in the Elementary Level

This study aimed to determine the effect of a training program to improve English pronunciation for hard-of-hearing students. To achieve the aim of the study, the researchers used the quasi-experimental approach, and the study sample consisted of (30) students with hearing impairments from primary schools in the city of Irbid. The experimental group studied based on the training program and consisted of (15) students, and (15) students of the control group studied in the traditional way. A set of instruments has been prepared, which consists of an image-naming test and preparing a training program based on the curriculum for students to see their effectiveness in raising the level of pronunciation for students with hearing impairments in the English language. The results showed that there were statistically significant differences between the control and experimental groups in favour of the experimental group. The study recommended holding training courses (sound training) targeting parents of hearing-impaired students in order to develop the receptive and expressive language of their children.

Intelligent Correction System of Students’ English Pronunciation Errors Based on Speech Recognition Technology

With the increasingly frequent international exchanges, English has become a common language for communication between countries. Under this research background, in order to correct students’ wrong English pronunciation, an intelligent correction system for students’ English pronunciation errors based on speech recognition technology is designed. In order to provide a relatively stable hardware correction platform for voice data information, the sensor equipment is optimized and combined with the processor and intelligent correction circuit. On this basis, the MLP (Multilayer Perceptron) error correction function is defined, with the help of the known recognition confusion calculation results, the actual input speech error is processed by gain mismatch, and the software execution environment of the system is built. Combined with the related hardware structure, the intelligent correction system of students’ English pronunciation error based on speech recognition technology is successfully applied, and the comparative experiment is designed the practical application value of the system is highlighted.