The design of an instrument to evaluate sotware for EFL/ESL pronunciation teaching

Abstract

Abstracthis study aimed at designing an instrument composed of 72 questions that evaluate the extent to which sotware programs teach pronunciation of English as a Foreign Language and/or Second Language (EFL/ESL) following the principles of the Communicative Approach (Celce-Murcia et al, 2010). he designed instrument was tested for reliability and validity. For this purpose, 46 EFL/ESL teachers used the instrument to analyze an online version of the sotware program Pronunciation Power 2. he participants' answers to the questions were subjected to reliability and validity tests. he results of these statistical tests suggest the instrument is potentially valid for evaluating EFL/ESL pronunciation teaching sotware. IntroductionWith the advent of globalization, there is a growing need to communicate with people of diferent nationalities. his communication includes the use of oral language, and helps explain the increasing difusion of English teaching and learning throughout the world. According to the British Council (2012), a non-ministerial department of the UK government responsible for education, one out of four of the world's population speaks English with some level of competence. English is the primary language used for international contacts and business transactions. hus, English has become an international language Esta obra tem licença Creative Commons 142 Cristiana G. de F. M. Martins, John M. Levis e Vládia M. C. Borges, he design of an instrument... Given these facts, sotware programs for developing English pronunciation have increasingly been launched in the market. Publishers have promoted these programs stating they are efective and of good quality. However, when it comes to the advertising discourse of English language teaching publishers, promotion is not always factual, as investigated by Carvalho (2011). Teachers and learners should not be seduced by the strong appeal of the marketing done by publishers. Instead, it is necessary to analyze English as a Foreign Language and/or Second Language (EFL/ESL) pronunciation teaching sotware programs as to their potential for developing English pronunciation. here is an unquestionable need to analyze these programs from a critical perspective using pedagogically coherent and technically elaborated criteria (Navarro, 1999).While several studies sought to establish criteria and evaluation instruments for analyzing educational sotware programs in general, others investigated criteria and evaluation instruments for analyzing language learning sotware programs. Table 1 provides an overview of some of the studies done to establish criteria and evaluation instruments for analyzing educational sotware programs. as described by Jenkins (2000) and Walker (2010), among others. Indeed, studying English has become a basic need for acceptance and qualiication in almost all professions. Aware of the growing number of people interested in learning this language worldwide, the publishing industry has released thousands of books, CDs, DVDs and sotware programs claiming to...

Using ELSA App in Speaking Classes: Students’ Voices

“…Purposive sampling helps the researcher select respondent with particular characteristics to best understand the research problem and answer the research questions [21]. 94 students from English education study program filled the questionnaires adopted from Martins, Levis and Borges [22] The total questions on a questionnaire are 25 items while there are 5 question for each aspect aims to find out the EFL learners' perspective on using ELSA Speak app in their pronunciation ability.…”

Applying ELSA Speak Software in the Pronunciation Class: Students’ Perception

“…This research used questionnaire to collect the data. The questionnaire was based on the EFL/ESL pronunciation teaching software evaluation instrument which is designed by Martins, Levis and Borges (2016). The number of the questionnaire is 72 items.…”

A Discussion of the Ins and Outs of L2 Pronunciation Instruction: A Clash of Methodologies

“…As debates continued, a balanced view of segmentals and suprasegmentals have come to the fore (e.g., Derwing, Munro & Wiebe, 1998;Jenkins, 1998;Luchini, 2005;Pennington & Richards, 1986;Celce-Murcia et al, 2010;Levis & Levelle, 2009 as cited in Martins, Borges & Levis, 2016;Suzuki, 2017;Thomson & Derwing, 2015;Tsai, 2015). Pennington and Richards (1986) state that "micro-perspective on phonology needs to be complemented by a macrofocus on voice-setting and prosodic features" (p. 209).…”