A significant barrier to effective communication in a second language is the awareness and accurate reproduction of phonetic sounds absent in the mother tongue. This study investigated whether the automated evaluation of phonetic accuracy using speech recognition technology could improve the pronunciation skills of 105 (88 female, 17 male) Thai undergraduate students studying English in Thailand. A pre-test, post-test design was employed using treatment and control sample groups, reversed over two six-week periods. Treatment group students were given access to an online platform on which they could record and submit their speech for automated evaluation and feedback via SpeechAce, a speech recognition interface designed to evaluate pronunciation and fluency. Independent samples t-test analysis of the results showed statistically significant improvement in pronunciation accuracy of students in the treatment group when compared to those in the control group (t (89) = 2.086, p = .040, 95% CI [.083, 3.423]), (t (89) = -4.692, p < .001, 95% CI [-5.157, -2.089]). Pearson’s correlation analysis indicated a weak to moderate, but statistically significant correlation between frequency of practise and pronunciation test score (r =.508, p < .001), (r = .384, p = .021). The study has limitations as the sample group was predominantly female, and time constraints limited students’ use of the software. Future studies should investigate possible gender differences and experiment with different forms of visual feedback.

In a world without sound, learning to communicate, read, write, and expand one’s vocabulary requires a community of expert communicators in sign language. For many deaf individuals in Thailand who are born into hearing-abled families, access to the expert assistance they need to learn communication skills does not begin until their first years of compulsory education. By that time, academically, they are already many years behind their hearing-abled peers. The present study employed an experimental research design to investigate the influence of computer-assisted language learning technology, DeafReader, on the vocabulary skills of deaf students in Thailand. After a six-week intervention, one-way ANOVA analysis showed no significant difference in pre-test and post-test scores between the treatment and control groups. Additional analysis found a significant difference in performance between male and female students. Age differences in the acquisition of foundation language skills between genders were considered to be an influencing factor in the results of this study. The author concludes that students may have lacked the basic language skills needed for technology intervention to be effective. The author recommends examining the effects on an older age group and exploring the use of DeafReader as a learning tool for fingerspelling, sign language, and mapping text to sign.