Week 3. CALL in Pronunciation

Pronunciation is the essential part of learning language. It is very important in general, but as I am computer-minded, the CAPT (Computer Assisted Pronunciation Training) interests me more than usual pronunciation teaching. I mark out two types of computer based learning pronunciation:

1. First type is passive, when students hear the pronunciation and try to repeat it without the correction. As I wrote in previous my posts, I am using Voki and SitePals for teaching this type of pronunciation. The avatars give the instructions for my students on their homework assignments. Students recognize and repeat spoken language so they learn to pronounce better. Maria Busa in her work "New Perspectives in Teaching Pronunciation" talks about 'Talking Heads' as an aid for teaching pronunciation. She emphasizes that students feel less stress talking to artificial teachers. I absolutely agree, these teachers never raise the voice, they do what the program says to do. But I also think that the real teacher should play the first role in the play. Only human being can decide what is better for his/her student. The artificial teachers, avatars or 'Talking Heads' as M.Busa says, can help students learn when they are at home. I widely use this in my classes and I can say that my students are not very stressed about their pronunciation. Of course, we have a lot to do for improving it, but we do it with fun!
2. Second type is active, when students pronounce the words and get the instant feedback on their success. This type is based on voice recognition software. Juila Gong in her study "The employment of CALL in Teaching Second/Foreign Language Speaking Skills" speaks about advantages and disadvantages of this type of learning the pronunciation: 

ADVANTAGES:

• computer environment is highly motivating (no stress)
• provides information in wide forms (text, graphics, sounds, videos, etc.)
• learning more flexible and personalized (different students have different needs)
• spontaneous feedback
• interaction between users free of restriction of time and distance

DISADVANTAGES

• unable to understand natural language
• quality and cost 
• virtual reality

As we see J.Gong distinguishes more advantages than disadvantages, but in real lesson using voice recognition programs or sites is very challenging. I have tried it with my students and many of them lost their patience as the programs didn't recognize their speech. Some years ago we have tried TriplePlayPlus, English+ CD-ROMs, etc. Recently Robert suggested to try voice recognition for search with Chrome browser. It was interesting experience, but I am going to use this only as additional and engaging source, as it lacks of reliability. I will not stop looking for interesting software in this field and I hope that one day I will plan homework assignments with voice recognition!