Computer Aided pronunciation Computer Aided pronunciation Pedagogy : Pedagogy : Promise , Limitations , Promise , Limitations ,

DirectionsDirections

Martha C. PenningtonThe Spires Research Centre, University of

Luton

1) The need for CAP

• Why pronunciation is important ?

• Pronunciation indicates self-image.• The better the pronunciation , the better

the communication .

• The effect of puberty on pronunciation : “ fossilization” or “diminishing returns”.

• CAP can be a medium for increasing user’s access to his pronunciation . ( esp. adults )

2) Technology for CAP

• Standard personal computer.• Microphone or recorded speech.

3) Advantages for CAP

• A) It is much faster than human being in performing an analysis & giving feedback to the user’s speech .

• B) The analysis of user’s speech is infinitely repeatable.

• C) It is precise & reliable.

• D) Superior to human being ( Has no limitation of hearing , judgment or patience )

Advantages of CAP

E) More authoritative & salient than human being .

F) Computer can individualize the instruction for each person.

G) Available any where & any time .It depends on the situation ___can be

used individually or in groups. CAP can help students to build up

their confidence while developing skills in the pronunciation.

To sum up :

CAP is :Quick , repeatable , precise , reliable ,

authoritative , available & can be used individually or in groups .

Limitations of CAP

A) Certain aspects of the speech analysis e.g. simplified or modified waveforms can not be trained by presentation.

A) Speech analysis softwares are mainly designed for individual use & may be impractical for whole-class instruction.

B) These softwares are not sensitive to every new voice & can not restrict the instruction for every individual.

Limitation of CAP

C) CAP is not exactly aware of standard pronunciation of the target language since it only contains one kind of sample voices which are recorded as a model for imitation. So CAP has no base line for allowable deviations from correct pronunciation

D) Overwhelming emphasis in computer-based work on pronunciation has been toward decontextualized mechanics of articulation.

5) Directions for CAP

The writer of the article Ms. Martha C. Pennington proposed some principles for improving the limitation of CAI.

1) Start from theoretical position. Teaching the prosodic aspects of phonology __ intonation ,rhythm , rules of lining words will have a far greater pay off than individual sounds since these sounds are greatly different in the context.

Directions for CAP

• 2) Establish a baseline for pronunciation. A range of accents should be provided, as a way to aid the learner to develop an awareness of variation that exist among the target language.

• 3) Set an overall goal for performance. According to the learner’s characteristics & language level of proficiency , the software must provide particular pronunciation instruction e.g. asking different types of questions in different situations.

Directions for CAP

4) Build in specific targets for performance. Developers must consider what items ,structures , skills or tasks will be good indicators of learner’s progress or achievement.

5) Build skills in stages e.g. move from easier to more challenging tasks. In fact , much of instruction CAP is essence a form of decontextualized articulation practice ,without any attempt to link from one learning stage to another.

Direction for CAP

• 6) Link pronunciation to other learning• & communicative goals such as

vocabulary , grammar , discourse & pragmatic .

• 7) Design on a principled curriculum . It means that computer itself can’t design a full-fledged curriculum for learning , so a professional instructor must design a suitable curriculum.

Directions for CAP

• 8) Design based on creative use of properties of

computer medium. CAP should be based on

communicative or task-based syllabus.

• 9) CAP should raise learner’s awareness of the

contrast of the L1 & L2. Awareness of contrast

can be built by showing computer analyses side

by side for parallel features in two languages or

in different dialects of the target language.

Directions for CAP

• 10) Providing opportunities for exploration of video or audio data base by CAP. It means that according to the learner’s needs & subject matter of the training , the software must be able to browse the contextualized usage of it in different videos or audio.

6) A prototype for CAP

• Rochet’s ( 1990) software for teaching French vowels to native speaker’s of English.

I hope you found the presentation useful …

The End !