SPEAK CLEARLY, TEACH CONFIDENTLY: EVALUATING PRAAT SOFTWARE IN PRONUNCIATION INSTRUCTION FOR EFL LEARNERS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21009/ishel.v1i1.57089Keywords:
I change the title and abstract into the new one, The topic is still about praat in language learning.Abstract
The researcher aims to determine the effectiveness of the use of Praat software to enhance the teaching of pronunciation and phonology among first year student in English Literature, in a private university in Jakarta. This research through descriptive qualitative method was concerned with acoustic analysis of students producing vowel contrasts, sentence-level intonation and patterns of lexical stress: formant measures (F1 and F2), pitch contour tracking and comparisons of stress durations. A group of 15 students were subjected to a guided pronunciation guided task and their recording files were examined and linked with those of the native speakers through Praat. It was found that despite the different levels of precise results that the students demonstrated, the visual graphic provided by Praat greatly enhanced their understanding of the segmental and suprasegmental errors. Although the software was incidentally not very well received at the first interpretation of the acoustic data, the students liked it. The fact that the study is integrative in its design - it deals with vowel quality, intonation and word stress, gives a global look at the topic of pronunciation training. The findings of this paper indicate that Praat is an excellent Computer-Assisted Pronunciation Training (CAPT) program which fills the gap between theoretical aspects of phonology and practice. This paper suggests the inclusion of Praat-based tasks into the curriculum more explicitly to promote individual contact, learner ownership and long-term pronunciation work
References
Boersma, P., & Weenink, D. (2024). Praat: Doing phonetics by computer (Version 6.4.09) [Software]. Retrieved from http://www.praat.org
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. DOI: 10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
Burri, M. (2015). Student attitudes toward the implementation of pronunciation instruction in a Japanese university English course. Language Teaching Research, 19(3), 292–319. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168814541735
Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D. M., & Goodwin, J. M. (2010). Teaching pronunciation: A course book and reference guide (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Chun, D. M. (2002). Discourse intonation in L2: From theory and research to practice. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Cruttenden, A. (1997). Intonation (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Derwing, T. M., & Munro, M. J. (2005). Second language accent and pronunciation teaching: A research-based approach. TESOL Quarterly, 39(3), 379–397. https://doi.org/10.2307/3588486
Escudero, P., & Boersma, P. (2004). Bridging the gap between L2 speech perception research and phonological theory. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 26(4), 551–585.
Foote, J. A., Trofimovich, P., Collins, L., & Urzúa, F. (2011). Pronunciation teaching practices in communicative second language classes. The Language Learning Journal, 39(1), 9–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/09571736.2010.536968
Fraser, H. (2000). Coordinating improvements in pronunciation teaching for adult learners of English as a second language. Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs (Australia).
Gilakjani, A. P. (2012). A study of factors affecting EFL learners’ English pronunciation learning and the strategies for instruction. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 2(3), 119–128.
Jenkins, J. (2000). The phonology of English as an international language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kang, O., & Thomson, R. I. (2020). Teaching and assessing pronunciation in second language learning. In M. O’Brien & J. Levis (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of second language acquisition and speaking (pp. 304–317). London: Routledge.
Kartal, G., & Uzun, L. (2018). The use of Praat in segmental and suprasegmental pronunciation teaching. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 14(2), 138–153.
Ladefoged, P., & Johnson, K. (2014). A course in phonetics (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Lee, J. S. (2018). Technology-enhanced pronunciation instruction in English as a foreign language classrooms: A systematic review. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 31(1–2), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2017.1382524
Levis, J. M. (2007). Computer technology in teaching and researching pronunciation. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 27, 184–202.
Levis, J. M., & Pickering, L. (2004). Teaching intonation in discourse using speech visualization technology. System, 32(4), 505–524. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2004.09.002
Li, X. (2019). Using Praat for English intonation teaching in Chinese EFL classrooms. Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education, 4(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40862-019-0072-z
Lord, G. (2005). (How) Can we teach foreign language pronunciation? On the effects of a Spanish phonetics course. Hispania, 88(2), 257–267.
Neri, A., Cucchiarini, C., & Strik, H. (2002). Feedback in computer assisted pronunciation training: Technology push or demand pull? In Proceedings of the International Speech Communication Association Conference (pp. 1209–1212).
Neri, A., Cucchiarini, C., Strik, H., & Boves, L. (2002). The pedagogy-technology interface in computer assisted pronunciation training. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 15(5), 441–467.
Pennington, M. C., & Rogerson-Revell, P. (2019). English pronunciation teaching and research: Contemporary perspectives. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Roach, P. (2009). English phonetics and phonology: A practical course (4th ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Wrembel, M. (2007). Innovations in phonetic training: The application of multimedia and CALL. Speech and Language Technology, 10, 239–250.
Zhang, C. (2010). The effects of stress and pitch on pronunciation in L2 learners. Journal of Second Language Pronunciation Studies, 2(1), 45–61.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Ichwan Suyudi
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
