Developing pronunciation by means of call in 9th grade EFL students: an action research approach

Abstract

The purpose of the following action-research project is to develop 9th grade students’ pronunciation by means of technology. The participants of the study were 136 students from 3 different Chilean schools with different cultural and economic backgrounds. Students took part in 9 45-minute sessions in which they worked with the MyET software, a web-based application that uses voice recognition technology to aid in the development of stress, tone, rhythm, and pronunciation. They completed a placement test, a pronunciation self-test within the application, and a total of 3 lessons and tests offered for free by the platform. To finalize the project, and evaluate its effectiveness, students took the first self-test again as well as a perception survey. The results showed that the students who completed every lesson improved in terms of tone, rhythm, stress, and pronunciation. The perception survey results demonstrated that students appreciate the use of CALL, TELL, and AI applications and feel motivated and confident when doing lessons in these settings. The present AR study reiterates the importance of incorporating technology that meets the students’ needs in the classroom.