TASK 2: ARTICLE REVIEW
>> Friday 26 February 2010
THE EFFECTS OF COMPUTER ASSISTED PRONUNCIATION READINGS ON ESL LEARNERS' USE OF PAUSING, STRESS, INTONATION, AND OVERALL COMPREHENSIBILITY.
Language Learning and Technology (October 2009, Volume 13, No. 3, pp. 51-62)
Mark W. Tanner & Melissa M. Landon, Brigham Young University.
Melissa Landon holds an MA in TESOL from Brigham Young University. She is currently a full-time mother and part-time researcher. Her research interests include assessment and pronunciation instruction.
E-mail: melisma37@yahoo.com
Mark Tanner is an Assistant Professor in the Linguistics and English Language Department at Brigham Young University. His research interests include pronunciation pedagogy and comprehensibility research, self-directed learning, and second language teacher education.
E-mail: mark_tanner@byu.edu
Link: http://llt.msu.edu/vol13num3/tannerlandon.pdf
Summary of the Article
The aim of this research is to find out the effect of computer-assisted pronunciation reading on ESL learner's use of pausing, stress, intonation, and overall comprehensibility. Over time, teachers had experimented different strategies to help ESL students to achieve at least nearly-native like pronunciation. Computer-aided pronunciation had offer many opportunity for students to measure their own progress in pronunciation as it is self-directed and provides immediate feedback on the correctness of their response to the task. The researcher wants to find out the the learners' perception on the use of pausing, stress, sentence-final intonation. Apart from that, the researcher also wants to find out to what extend do cued pronunciation reading practiced affect the use of pausing, stress and sentence-final intonation in controlled production, besides on to what extend it affect the learners' overall comprehensibility of the spontaneous speech tasks.
Tanner and Landon (2009) had conducted a 13-week experimental study in which 75 sample of ESL learners were used. They were divided into two groups, namely the control group and the treatment group. The treatment group were all of intermediate-level proficiency with the range of age from 17 to 54. All of the participants had at least studied English for two months to 17 years with the min of four months. The participants were categorized into three categories, namely Asian language speakers, Romance language speakers and others. The treatment group was exposed to 11-week of self-directed computer-assisted practice by using Cued Pronunciation Readings (CPRs). Speech production and production samples were collected at Time 1(the first week of the study and Time 2 (week 13). A group of ten Native Speaking (NS) Informants were also been invited to help with the study. They were 5 males and 5 females enrolled in a graduate TESOL programs. All of them were from western United States and had sufficient knowledge in linguistics and able to speak the Standard American English fluently and accurately. They had to do the same task as the treatment group.
The participants had to sit for seven computerized tasks; five spontaneous elicitation tasks, one perception task, and one controlled production task, in that order. In the spontaneous task, they had to tell story based on sequence pictures, suggested solutions to the problems, discussed the advantages and disadvantages of an issue, expressed their opinion on some topics and explained changes made in a schedule events. for the perception task, participants had to mark pauses, stressed words and sentence-final intonation based on the recorded passage that they hear. the controlled production task required participants to read a passage aloud. They were given only one minute to read the passage silently before reading it aloud. The data were collected in two time interval namely Time 1 and Time 2. Both of the tests are of the similar type with the different pictures, topics and etc.
Results from the study shows that the treatment, that is by using computer-aided pronunciation, had significant effects on the learners' perception of pausing and words stress. Even with the limited time spent using CPRs in a self-directed environment, learners had shows improvements in their supra-segmental features of their pronunciation. After the treatment, participants had showed that the missing pause marks had decreased indicating that their awareness of appropriate pausing had increased. The same results for the stress marks showing that their level of awareness on stress marks had increased. Overall, it had been found out that participants showed improvements after undergoes self-directed computer-aided pronunciation treatments.
Reaction
This research interest me as the supra-segmental features of language are among the things that second language learners often overlook. It is an eye-opening for me as before this, I thought that English is spoken just simply by uttering the English words. Me, myself often pay less attention to the stress and intonation in my speech. This study shows that with some aids and exposure to the language, learners will pick up the features even for limited time only. English is considered as a stressed language unlike other languages that considered as syllabic language. In English, we gives stress to certain words, while other words are quickly spoken. Unlike the syllabic language, English spends more time on the stressed words while quickly gliding other unimportant words. Over time ESL learners could understand better and communicate more once he or she mastered the stress and intonation pattern of English as stressed language. Therefore, with the aid from computer-aided pronunciation, ESL learners would pick up the stress and intonation pattern easily. Besides that, it also need to be noted that the participants in the treatment group did not received any aid from the teachers or facilitator or even the researchers themselves. It is solely based on their own effort.
Apart from that, the other implication is, this research is important for teachers who are not comfortable teaching pronunciation or for those who cannot fit the curriculum. Computer-aided pronunciation is the answer to the dilemma faced these teachers or instructors. Besides that the learners themselves will become interested in exploring the language when they were given the chance to explore it themselves. They can monitor their own progress and would eventually improves themselves over times. However, learners might refuse to do the computer-aided pronunciation practice alone as their limitations in computers might demotivate them if they happen to encounter problems in handling the software or programs. Therefore, the aid from computer assistant is always very much in need.
In my opinion, this research is well conducted as it covers the supra-segmental features of language namely pause, stress and intonation. The tasks prepared for participants manage to covers all of the features tested. However, as mentioned by the researchers themselves, perhaps longer length of studies would produced better results and findings.
Language Learning and Technology (October 2009, Volume 13, No. 3, pp. 51-62)
Mark W. Tanner & Melissa M. Landon, Brigham Young University.
Melissa Landon holds an MA in TESOL from Brigham Young University. She is currently a full-time mother and part-time researcher. Her research interests include assessment and pronunciation instruction.
E-mail: melisma37@yahoo.com
Mark Tanner is an Assistant Professor in the Linguistics and English Language Department at Brigham Young University. His research interests include pronunciation pedagogy and comprehensibility research, self-directed learning, and second language teacher education.
E-mail: mark_tanner@byu.edu
Link: http://llt.msu.edu/vol13num3/tannerlandon.pdf
Summary of the Article
The aim of this research is to find out the effect of computer-assisted pronunciation reading on ESL learner's use of pausing, stress, intonation, and overall comprehensibility. Over time, teachers had experimented different strategies to help ESL students to achieve at least nearly-native like pronunciation. Computer-aided pronunciation had offer many opportunity for students to measure their own progress in pronunciation as it is self-directed and provides immediate feedback on the correctness of their response to the task. The researcher wants to find out the the learners' perception on the use of pausing, stress, sentence-final intonation. Apart from that, the researcher also wants to find out to what extend do cued pronunciation reading practiced affect the use of pausing, stress and sentence-final intonation in controlled production, besides on to what extend it affect the learners' overall comprehensibility of the spontaneous speech tasks.
Tanner and Landon (2009) had conducted a 13-week experimental study in which 75 sample of ESL learners were used. They were divided into two groups, namely the control group and the treatment group. The treatment group were all of intermediate-level proficiency with the range of age from 17 to 54. All of the participants had at least studied English for two months to 17 years with the min of four months. The participants were categorized into three categories, namely Asian language speakers, Romance language speakers and others. The treatment group was exposed to 11-week of self-directed computer-assisted practice by using Cued Pronunciation Readings (CPRs). Speech production and production samples were collected at Time 1(the first week of the study and Time 2 (week 13). A group of ten Native Speaking (NS) Informants were also been invited to help with the study. They were 5 males and 5 females enrolled in a graduate TESOL programs. All of them were from western United States and had sufficient knowledge in linguistics and able to speak the Standard American English fluently and accurately. They had to do the same task as the treatment group.
The participants had to sit for seven computerized tasks; five spontaneous elicitation tasks, one perception task, and one controlled production task, in that order. In the spontaneous task, they had to tell story based on sequence pictures, suggested solutions to the problems, discussed the advantages and disadvantages of an issue, expressed their opinion on some topics and explained changes made in a schedule events. for the perception task, participants had to mark pauses, stressed words and sentence-final intonation based on the recorded passage that they hear. the controlled production task required participants to read a passage aloud. They were given only one minute to read the passage silently before reading it aloud. The data were collected in two time interval namely Time 1 and Time 2. Both of the tests are of the similar type with the different pictures, topics and etc.
Results from the study shows that the treatment, that is by using computer-aided pronunciation, had significant effects on the learners' perception of pausing and words stress. Even with the limited time spent using CPRs in a self-directed environment, learners had shows improvements in their supra-segmental features of their pronunciation. After the treatment, participants had showed that the missing pause marks had decreased indicating that their awareness of appropriate pausing had increased. The same results for the stress marks showing that their level of awareness on stress marks had increased. Overall, it had been found out that participants showed improvements after undergoes self-directed computer-aided pronunciation treatments.
Reaction
This research interest me as the supra-segmental features of language are among the things that second language learners often overlook. It is an eye-opening for me as before this, I thought that English is spoken just simply by uttering the English words. Me, myself often pay less attention to the stress and intonation in my speech. This study shows that with some aids and exposure to the language, learners will pick up the features even for limited time only. English is considered as a stressed language unlike other languages that considered as syllabic language. In English, we gives stress to certain words, while other words are quickly spoken. Unlike the syllabic language, English spends more time on the stressed words while quickly gliding other unimportant words. Over time ESL learners could understand better and communicate more once he or she mastered the stress and intonation pattern of English as stressed language. Therefore, with the aid from computer-aided pronunciation, ESL learners would pick up the stress and intonation pattern easily. Besides that, it also need to be noted that the participants in the treatment group did not received any aid from the teachers or facilitator or even the researchers themselves. It is solely based on their own effort.
Apart from that, the other implication is, this research is important for teachers who are not comfortable teaching pronunciation or for those who cannot fit the curriculum. Computer-aided pronunciation is the answer to the dilemma faced these teachers or instructors. Besides that the learners themselves will become interested in exploring the language when they were given the chance to explore it themselves. They can monitor their own progress and would eventually improves themselves over times. However, learners might refuse to do the computer-aided pronunciation practice alone as their limitations in computers might demotivate them if they happen to encounter problems in handling the software or programs. Therefore, the aid from computer assistant is always very much in need.
In my opinion, this research is well conducted as it covers the supra-segmental features of language namely pause, stress and intonation. The tasks prepared for participants manage to covers all of the features tested. However, as mentioned by the researchers themselves, perhaps longer length of studies would produced better results and findings.
2 comments:
Ok, 7/10
Thank you, sir :D
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