1. Effectiveness Evaluation of
Learning Pronunciation for
Vocational College Students via
Computer Assisted Pronunciation
Training
Presenter: Sze-Chu Liu
Adviser: Dr. Po-Yi Hung
Instructor: Dr. Pi-Ying Teresa Hsu
Date: June 17, 2013
3. INTRODUCTION
Definition of the Terms
Background of the Study
Purposes of the Study
Research Question
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4. Definition of the Terms
CALL = Computer Assisted Language
Learning
CAPT = Computer Assisted
Pronunciation Training
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5. Background of the Study
A report recently released shows that the
proficiency of English of Taiwan adults is
ranked 30 and categorized into
“intermediate-low level”, falling behind
neighboring countries such as Japan and
Korea.
(Education First, 2012)
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6. Background of the Study
The students from private vocational
colleges and universities scored an
averaged 434 points in 2011 TOEIC
tests, the lowest among all kinds of
colleges and universities.
(ETS statistics, 2012)
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7. Background of the Study
The importance of teaching pronunciation
is emphasized by Audioligualism and
Oral Approach.
(Celce-Murcia, Brinton,
& Goodwin, 2010, p. 3)
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8. Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to evaluate
the performance of learning English
pronunciation by CAPT for vocational
college students in central Taiwan.
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9. Research Question
Are CAPT tools effective in improving
pronunciation quality for vocational
college students?
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10. Hypothesis
Pronunciation quality of students in a
vocational university is significantly
improved after a training course using
CAPT tools.
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Teaching
Pronunciation
with CAPT
Pronunciation
Quality
11. Literature Review
An important tenet of structural linguistics
was that the primary medium of language
is oral: Speech is language.
(Richards & Rodgers, 2001, p.55)
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12. Literature Review
The advantages of CALL-based
pedagogy over conventional materials are
in the provision of self-paced learning,
patient tutoring, immediate and
individualized instruction, and detailed
records of achievement.
(Nunan, 2011, p.216)
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13. Literature Review
Teaching pronunciation with CAPT
Pronunciation of difficult and unknown
words significantly in a time period
(Neri et al., 2008)
Acquisition of second language prosody and
generalization to segmental accuracy and
novel sentences with automatic visual
display of the speaker’s intonation
(Hardison, 2004)
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16. Participants
Experimental
Group
Control Group
Sampling
Ranked and listed according to
their English scores of the
Joint Entrance Examination
Systematic sample with a
random start combined with
stratification from the middle
50%
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21. Training Procedure
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Experimental
Group
Control Group
Teacher Taught by the same teacher
Syllabus Elementary level oral practice
Period One session per week for 12 weeks
Teaching
Blended
teaching with
CAPT
40 minutes
teach-led
40 minutes with
CAPT
Traditional
teaching
80 minutes
per
session
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22. Rating Procedure
Sentence#1
Sentence #2
Sentence #50
S2S1 S90
Audio file #1
Audio file #2
Audio file #50
The pronunciation quality of each utterance is scored on a 100-point scale.
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24. Rating Procedure
Three English teachers grade the
pronunciation by the recordings.
Grading items
Word-level pronunciation (35%)
Intonation (25%)
Fluency (25%)
Volume (15%)
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25. Pilot Study
One class of students attending Practical
English Fall semester 2013 will be studied.
The pronunciation quality of the class
before and after using CAPT for six weeks
will be measured and compared.
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26. Statistical Analysis
Cronbach alpha test
On the scores given by three raters and MyET
To test the reliability of measurements
ANOVA (F-test)
On the pretest and posttest scores
To examine the difference of learning
performance between the experimental group
and control group
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