1. Computer Aided pronunciation
Pedagogy : Promise , Limitations , Directions
Martha C. Pennington
The Spires Research Centre, University of
Luton

2. 1) The need for CAP
•
Why pronunciation is important ?
•
•
Pronunciation indicates self-image.
The better the pronunciation , the better the
communication .
•
The effect of puberty on pronunciation : “
fossilization” or “diminishing returns”.
CAP can be a medium for increasing user’s
access to his pronunciation . ( esp. adults )
•

3. 2) Technology for CAP
• Standard personal computer.
• Microphone or recorded speech.

4. 3) Advantages for CAP
• A) It is much faster than human being in
performing an analysis & giving feedback to the
user’s speech .
• B) The analysis of user’s speech is infinitely
repeatable.
• C) It is precise & reliable.
• D) Superior to human being ( Has no limitation of

5. Advantages of CAP
E) More authoritative & salient than human
being .
F) Computer can individualize the instruction
for each person.
G) Available any where & any time .
It depends on the situation ___can be used
individually or in groups.
CAP can help students to build up their
confidence while developing skills in the
pronunciation.

6. To sum up :
CAP is :
Quick , repeatable , precise , reliable ,
authoritative , available & can be used
individually or in groups .

7. Limitations of CAP
A) Certain aspects of the speech analysis e.g.
simplified or modified waveforms can not
be trained by presentation.

8. A) Speech analysis softwares are mainly
designed for individual use & may be
impractical for whole-class instruction.
B) These softwares are not sensitive to every
new voice & can not restrict the instruction
for every individual.

9. Limitation of CAP
C) CAP is not exactly aware of standard
pronunciation of the target language since it
only contains one kind of sample voices
which are recorded as a model for imitation.
So CAP has no base line for allowable
deviations from correct pronunciation
D) Overwhelming emphasis in computerbased work on pronunciation has been
toward decontextualized mechanics of
articulation.

10. 5) Directions for CAP
The writer of the article Ms. Martha C.
Pennington proposed some principles for
improving the limitation of CAI.
1) Start from theoretical position. Teaching the
prosodic aspects of phonology __
intonation ,rhythm , rules of lining words will
have a far greater pay off than individual
sounds since these sounds are greatly
different in the context.

11. Directions for CAP
• 2) Establish a baseline for pronunciation. A
range of accents should be provided, as a
way to aid the learner to develop an
awareness of variation that exist among the
target language.
• 3) Set an overall goal for performance.
According to the learner’s characteristics &
language level of proficiency , the software
must provide particular pronunciation
instruction e.g. asking different types of
questions in different situations.

12. Directions for CAP
4) Build in specific targets for performance.
Developers must consider what items
,structures , skills or tasks will be good
indicators of learner’s progress or
achievement.
5) Build skills in stages e.g. move from easier
to more challenging tasks. In fact , much of
instruction CAP is essence a form of
decontextualized articulation practice
,without any attempt to link from one
learning stage to another.

13. Direction for CAP
• 6) Link pronunciation to other learning
• & communicative goals such as vocabulary ,
grammar , discourse & pragmatic .
• 7) Design on a principled curriculum . It means
that computer itself can’t design a full-fledged
curriculum for learning , so a professional
instructor must design a suitable curriculum.

14. Directions for CAP
• 8) Design based on creative use of properties of
computer medium. CAP should be based on
communicative or task-based syllabus.
• 9) CAP should raise learner’s awareness of the
contrast of the L1 & L2. Awareness of contrast can
be built by showing computer analyses side by
side for parallel features in two languages or in
different dialects of the target language.

15. Directions for CAP
• 10) Providing opportunities for exploration of
video or audio data base by CAP. It means
that according to the learner’s needs &
subject matter of the training , the software
must be able to browse the contextualized
usage of it in different videos or audio.

16. 6) A prototype for CAP
• Rochet’s ( 1990) software for teaching French
vowels to native speaker’s of English.

17. I hope you found the
presentation useful …
The End !