Volume 7, Issue 5, May – 2022 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
Computer-assisted Pronunciation Teaching (CAPT)
to overcome Pronunciation Difficulties
among EFL Beginners
Dr. Khadija Anasse
A professor of Higher Education at the
Faculty of Languages, Letters and Arts,
Ibn Tofail University,
Kenitra, Morocco
Abstract:- English language learners immensely struggle
with making correct sounds of English especially in the
beginning levels. It is mainly due to major differences in
the phonological system of their native language and
English. Consistently, learners of English feel frustrated
whenever being misunderstood in authentic situations.
So, it is a matter of priority in every ESL classroom as it
stands in the way of intelligibility and affects the
intrinsic motivation of students. Therefore, the current
paper is a systematic and insightful research with
twofold objectives. First, it would report and categorize
the commonest mistakes of pronunciation frequently
made by beginner learners of English. The rationale
behind this is to enable teachers of English to anticipate
some mistakes and pronunciation shortcomings that
students might come up with so as to cater for them
before they become fossilized. Secondly, the paper will
put forward some practical recommendations that
teachers of English and even syllabus designers take into
consideration since pronunciation is underrepresented
either in classroom instructions or in textbooks. Besides,
the paper suggests two Computer-assisted Pronunciation
Teaching applications that students can autonomously
use to sharpen their pronunciation skills. In the
conduction of this study, we adopted a quantitative
approach to collect and analyze data. We assigned a
focus group of students that we have instructed in a 30-
hour course, a speaking test. Accordingly, based on the
students’ recordings, we could objectively categorize
mistakes and make predictions and generalities about
beginner English language learners.
Key words:- Segmental; suprasegmental; intuitive-imitative;
analytical-linguistic; integrative; EFL, phoneme,
morpheme, minimal-pair.
I. INTRODUCTION
Pronunciation is considered a salient constituent of
instruction in modern English language teaching
programmes. These days English language learners strive to
accentuate English utterances to live up to adequate and
native-like pronunciation. Good mastery of pronunciation is
a determinant factor that prominently contributes in
promoting a strong sense of self-confidence. English
learners with very good pronunciation feel more
comfortable in authentic situations. Thanks to their mastery
of pronunciation, learners are not afraid to get in
IJISRT22MAY088 www.ijisrt.com
Brahim Mrissa
A doctoral student at the Department of English Studies,
Faculty of Languages, Letters and Arts, Ibn Tofail
University(ITU), Kenitra, Morocco and a high school
teacher of ESL.
misunderstandings. Similarly, some teachers of English are
smart enough to recognize the importance of pronunciation
as they give it its due importance in the instruction.
However, teaching pronunciation is not as easy as it
might seem. It is rather a subjective process as it is up to the
teacher to choose which pronunciation style to teach.
Widely, teachers around the world adopt either of the
commonest pronunciation styles, American or the British.
The choice of which style is determined by the teacher’s
interest and the teaching philosophy. In fact, there is not
such a good or bad pronunciation style. It is genuinely a
matter of preference or sometimes where you teach decides
what style to adopt. For instance, Teachers at the American
Language Center are supposed to foster the American
tongue while teachers at the British council are likely to
speak in a British tone. Furthermore, the pronunciation style
aligns in many cases with the teaching materials for the
course such as the textbook. In addition to the pronunciation
style, there are three main and widely used pronunciation
teaching models. To begin with, the intuitive-imitative
approach is the most straightforward and the easiest of all
the three approaches. It is when learners are exposed to
some sounds with the aim of producing a replica of the same
sound. This imitation process drills students explicitly on
recasting sounds of language. The second model of
pronunciation teaching is an analytical-linguistic approach
which explicitly drills pronunciation patterns. It advocates
teaching pronunciation in a systematic way using
pronunciation charts, tables and illustrations (Lee,2008). It
anticipates the mistakes that students might make and caters
for them either in textbooks or in classroom instructions.
The third commonly known approach is called the
integrative approach which fosters suprasegmental elements
of pronunciation such rhythm and stress as opposed to the
previous approach which puts emphasis on minor segmental
elements of language.
The current paper is meant to uncover the issue of
pronunciation in EFL classes to shed light on the problem in
the light of the advancements in modern technology. The
research aims at addressing the following questions.
What are the most common pronunciation mistakes
among beginner English language learners and how
effective is Computer-assisted Language Teaching in
addressing them?
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Volume 7, Issue 5, May – 2022 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
A. Common pronunciation mistakes among beginners
The issue of pronunciation has always intrigued ELT
researchers to probe the causes leading to mispronouncing
English words. This is because pronunciation impacts
greatly on meaning and fluency. The present literature
review sheds light on the most ground-breaking studies that
have been conducted so as to provide practical
recommendations to get over the pronunciation issues in
English classrooms.
To begin with, the influence of L1 is one of the leading
causes contributing to the issue of mispronouncing English
words. El Waheeb (2020) investigated the issue of
pronunciation among Arab ESL learners. His insightful
study explored plenty of reasons that account for
pronunciation problems, but the interference of L1 is
primarily responsible for the pronunciation difficulties
encountered by Arab learners. They tend to employ the same
pronunciation system of Arabic while speaking English
which results in mistakes that on occasions obstruct
intelligibility. The author insisted that the problem is so
because specific sounds may not exist in the mother tongue
of learners. Correspondingly, Al-Rubaat and Alshammari
(2019) approached the problem from a linguistic perspective
mainly phonetics and phonology. They argued that
pronunciation difficulties cannot be attributed to a sole
reason, but rather to many apparently. When classifying
pronunciation mistakes into six types, they concluded that
most pronunciation mistakes are ascribed to three main
factors. Initially, ESL Arab learners mainly from Gulf
countries cannot pronounce some English sounds. It is
common to hear students replacing the sound /p/ instead of
/b/. For instance, they say bark instead of park. Moreover, as
students work their way to learning English, they rely on
their L1 which has nothing in common with the target
language. Thus, this negative transfer accounts for the major
pronunciation mistakes. Finally, the learners’ culture might
stand in the way of proper pronunciation as some learner’s
fear losing their language identity. Therefore, they rely on
the pre-existing system (L1) when pronouncing words of the
target language.
In like manner, many studies suggested that teachers
are the leading force in respect to pronunciation problems. A
case in point is the study of Aydin & Akyum (2017) who
investigated the current approaches in teaching
pronunciation. According to the research, poor
pronunciation affects meaning substantially. They noted that
it is the responsibility of teachers to primarily address
pronunciation issues. They should be trained to have an
excellent level at pronunciation since they are certainly the
first models for the first-time learners (Aydin,
Akyum,2017). Besides taking continuous training courses,
they should be familiar and ready to apply one of the three
pronunciation approaches which are intuitive-imitative,
Analytical-linguistic and the integrated. Equivalently,
Jennifer A. Foote, Amy K. Holtby, and Tracey M. Derwing
(2011) investigated the issue of pronunciation across Canada
through an insightful survey which involved both teachers
and learners. Their study touched upon the factors
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ISSN No:-2456-2165
underpinning the difficulty in pronouncing English words.
The salient objective of the study was to determine the
extent to which pre-service training contributed in fostering
teachers’ abilities to teach pronunciation as well the
effectiveness of the syllabi and the teaching materials. The
researchers contradicted findings of some previous research
which claimed that good command of pronunciation lead to
perfecting the output in a way that a speaker might sound as
a native speaker. However, the ultimate goal behind
accentuated speaking is to increase the chances of
intelligibility. Accordingly, they found out that one
requirement for better pronunciation is to incorporate more
of it within the syllabi. Additionally, a point that has been
fostered in every research about pronunciation is the
teachers’ dominance over the talking time leaving learners
no chance to put their spoken English into practice. (Al-
Rubaat and Alshammari (2019).
B. Computer- Assisted Pronunciation Teaching (CAPT)
On the other hand, some studies put forward some
insightful solutions to get over the problem of pronunciation
in EFL classes recommending the integration of ICT and
digital learning tools. For example, Cristian Tejedor-García,
David Escudero-Mancebo, Enrique Cámara-Arenas, César
González-Ferreras, and Valentín Cardeñoso-Payo, (2020)
provided an inclusive solution to the issue of pronunciation
in ELT classes. They postulated that the only way to help
English students improve pronunciation is through CAPT
tools. Such tools include Text-to-Speech (TTS), Automatic
Speech Recognition (ASR) and google tools which foster
both practice and production of synthetic sounds. To
measure the reliability of those tools, the researchers
conducted an experiment which involved two groups. One
group was instructed traditionally as a teacher drills
students' pronunciation rules while the other group was
instructed in a lab using technological tools. The results of
the pre and the posttest showed that students who used the
CAPT (Computer-Assisted Pronunciation Tools) scored
higher than those who were instructed traditionally. Thus,
the research concluded that Computer-assisted tools help in
improving the pronunciation since they are interactive and
self-paced as learners can access them at their will.
Then as well, Thai Pi-hua (2015) explored the effects
of Mobile-assisted learning on learning pronunciation. He
postulated that computer-assisted pronunciation training
substantially the course of pronunciation mastery. His study
involved uncovering the pedagogical merits of the state-of-
the-art technologies in teaching pronunciation. The findings
of the study revealed two significant takeaways. First, CAPT
tools promote autonomous learning as learners can access
content and materials at their will and study at their own
pace. To illustrate, pronunciation software allows learners
unlimited practice which fosters autonomous learning. In
this regard, the studies conducted revealed a significant
difference when comparing pre and posttests. Learners who
used technological gadgets managed to outperform students
who were instructed traditionally. Accordingly, the CAPT
tools incorporate both levels of pronunciation whether
segmental or suprasegmental. Second, the study put forward
a set of recommendations, some of which include
cooperative learning. It is proved that cooperative learning
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improves pronunciation as peers can provide constructive
feedback. Similarly, Vygotsky advocated interactions
among learners as a way to learn.
In the same way, many researchers outlined some
relevant solutions to the issue of pronunciation among EFL
learners. El Waheeb (2020) examined some sounds of
English made by Arab students to conclude that the solution
to overcome this problem is basically to teach pronunciation
rules. To support this claim, the researcher noted that
teaching pronunciation rules would conclusively help
learners identify the L2 rules and minor features to avoid
using the pre-existing language system. Al-Rubaat and
Alshammari (2019) put forward some recommendations,
some of which include allowing students authentic
pronunciation activities and hiring native speakers.
Significantly, Aydin, Akyum ,(2017) their research resulted
in four salient findings. First, they highlighted the
importance of pronunciation as an integral part of
communication. Second, it is worth mentioning that
improving pronunciation requires classroom instructions.
Third, learners’ age is also a factor in pronunciation
learning. Last, teaching techniques for instructing
pronunciation are crucial. Majority of teachers still adhere to
the traditional methods while pronunciation classes make
better sense for students when modern technologies are used
(Aydin,2013). Thus, it is highly recommended to employ the
most recent teaching approaches instead of classical drills.
In a ground-breaking study, Farhat & Dzakiria (2017)
uncovered some pronunciation berries among English
language learners in Pakistan and the role of Computer-
assisted Pronunciation Teaching (CAPT) to cater for them.
The study was conducted primarily as pronunciation is a
major language component affecting students’ self-esteem
and motivation. The study found out that many reasons
account for the problem. Firstly, pronunciation has been
always neglected in language programs and regarded as
unnecessary. Secondly, some teachers are not well-trained
and lack procedural knowledge connected to sub-speaking
components such as pronunciation. Thirdly, the researchers
attribute the problem to the fact that language programs;
mainly, textbooks do not foster the teaching of
pronunciation. Indeed, the research Farhat & Dzakiria
conducted aligned with many similar studies in terms of
findings. Some of these include studies by Aqel, (2013),
Derwing (2010), Patil (2008) and many others. The research
outlined tangible tips that teachers of English have to keep
in mind so as to improve pronunciation mastery among their
learners. Some takeaways include the following: First,
English language classrooms must work to equally foster
both segmental and suprasegmental pronunciation features.
Second, teachers should frequently test pronunciation so as
to keep track of their progress and to document their pitfalls.
Third, pronunciation instruction must be digitalized in that it
should draw from applications and software to authentically
expose learners to original sounds either in digital
dictionaries or through authentic teaching materials such as
movies and songs. Finally, teachers must continuously
upgrade their knowledge related to teaching pronunciation.
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ISSN No:-2456-2165
Another genuine study about the effectiveness of
Computer-assisted Pronunciation Teaching was conducted
by Khoshsima, Saed and Moradi (2017). In line with many
previous similar studies, the authors observed recurring
pronunciation issues among English language learners in
Iran. Therefore, the research aimed at getting insights into
the perspectives of English language learners regarding the
use of CAPT. Strikingly, the study which involved seven
Iranian students matched findings from the previous studies.
It revealed that learners could improve their pronunciation
after six weeks of instruction. There was significant progress
in the students’ scores from the pre-test and the post-test.
More importantly, students used a software called Clear
Pronunciation 2 which allowed students to access content
outside the classroom. This has also been stated by Thomson
& Derwing, (2014) who postulated that such innovative
programs improve self-esteem and fosters autonomous
learning. Similar to the previous studies, the authors
accounted for the same problems that affect teaching
pronunciation. Some of these include, absence of
pronunciation in coursebooks, little or no time is dedicated
to pronunciation related activities.
In the same way, Liu and Hung (2016) conducted a
study to investigate the effectiveness of Computer-assisted
pronunciations technology in getting learners to improve
their English pronunciation. The conduct of the study came
as a reaction to the low ranking of Taiwanese students
among Asian countries and the low grades of Taiwanese
students reported by ETS as they get low grades in the
standardized exam of TOEFL. According to the authors, the
main pronunciation problem among Taiwanese is twofold.
First, English language teaching is teacher-centered which
allows students little or no chance to practice English sound.
The second reason is because teaching in most Taiwanese
institutions draws from archaic teaching methodologies such
as the Grammar-translation method which fosters the
teaching of Grammar over the other language components.
To account for the problem, an exhaustive study has been
conducted to measure the effectiveness of a software called
MyET, an abbreviation for My English Tutor, 51 students
were trained on a lot of pronunciation rules over a period of
11 weeks. They were subject to three tests in the process of
the experiment: a pre-test, a while-test and a post-test. Liu
and Hung (2016) reported that students could improve their
pronunciation skills thanks to the software. Significantly, the
students’ performance has been considerably improved
which confirmed the hypothesis that computer-assisted
pronunciation helps learners to get their pronunciation skills
to the next level.
It is worth mentioning that the present literature review
accounted for the pronunciation difficulties that EFL
learners, mainly Arab learners, face while learning English.
It also had insights into the causes of the problem that can be
linguistic, cultural and instructional. Additionally, it brought
to light some studies that suggested practical solutions.
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III. METHODOLOGY
This research aims at elucidating the commonest
pronunciation mistakes made by Moroccan and Sub-Saharan
African beginner learners of English. To do so, a thorough
research has been conducted to uncover the issue using a
quantitative design. The research has two main phases.
The first phase involved designing a speaking test
(Appendix 1) which includes seven sections about different
themes that students have covered throughout a course of
instruction. The speaking test is based on content from the
Interchange Intro textbook for beginners fourth edition. As
part of the final exam for beginning 1 level (A1.1), students
were asked to send the teacher a recording of their
presentations.
The study is made up of two groups of participants.
Group 1 included 20 Moroccan students aged between 18-
24 who took a beginning 1 course at Privilege center
(Language Center) during December 2021 to February 2022.
Most of them are University students majoring either in one
of the disciplines Law or Economics at Mohammed V
university Rabat Morocco. Group 2 involved 20 Sub-
Saharan African students from Ivory Coast and Guinea who
were in Morocco for graduate university programs. Students
abided by the instructions of the task and submitted their
presentations on time. Their presentations ranged between 4
and 10 minutes.
Fig. 2: Frequencies of types of Pronunciation mistakes
As the chart above indicates, it is clear that the
majority of pronunciation mistakes were word stress related
33%. It was observed that participants fail to stress words.
They rather pronounce English words as they do for words
of their own L1. Similarly, even those who mind the stress
while speaking failed to place it in the right place. 26% of
participants were reported to misplace stressing on the right
syllable. In the following examples, learners distressed the
first syllables and stressed the second or the third
(Dictionary, February). In similar fashion, a good number of
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Moroccan Sub-Saharan
Males 10 10
Females 10 10
Fig. 1: Participants
The second part of the study involved analyzing and
interpreting the collected data. The research necessitated
listening carefully to the students’ submissions to spot the
errors in pronunciation made by students. Subsequently,
errors were categorized into classification according to their
type as follow: misplaced stress, minimal pairs, vowel
length, word stress, homophones, distinctive sounds
mispronunciation (th/ t/the/sh/ch). To gauge the frequencies,
data was analyzed by the SPSS to generate numerical
figures.
IV. RESULTS
The results of the study delineated remarkable
pronunciation mistakes that are common among beginner
learners of English. It is indeed worth noting that
participants from both groups studied under the same
conditions and had access to the same input. However, after
completing approximately 30 hours of classroom language
instructions, their performance showed that they are still
behind as far as pronunciation is concerned. The chart below
shows frequencies of the type of mistakes made by learners
at early stages of the learning process.
mistakes are connected to the vowel length. 22 % failed to
recognize the fact that some vowels should be well
accentuated in words like (keep, home, bike).
Not only that, the study also reported some other very
common pronunciation mistakes. A case in point are
homophones; words pronounced quite the same, but with
different meanings. Words like (too) and (two) were very
commonly mistaken by learners (6%). Additionally, despite
predicting and catering for those mistakes during classes,
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almost (6%) of learners fail to distinguish the difference
between (th/ and the, ch and sh). This issue brings to light
the notion of competence and performance by Noam
Chomsky as some students know the rules but fail to apply
them.
“Competence is the ability of the idealized
speaker – hearer to associate sounds and
meanings strictly following the rules of his
language and ‘performance’ as the ability to
apply the competence into speaking – hearing
procedures and show personal knowledge
(Chomsky 2006, p. 103). “
Moreover, the results also revealed that up to this level
of language proficiency, learners still confuse words due to
failing to identify minimal pairs such as (sit and set).
In like manner, processing data collected from
students’ presentations revealed that learners make other
types of mistakes that in many situations obstruct
intelligibility or cause confusion and on occasions the
speaker should have repeated the same word twice or even
more. For example, some Sub-Saharan-African learners
replace words which do not belong to some words. To
illustrate, it is very common among African learners to
weaken the sound (r) in that it sounds as (h). For instance,
instead of saying (sir) they say (sih).
V. DISCUSSION
English is widely known as a lingua franca because it
is the most spoken language all over the world. However, as
learners move ahead in the process of learning English, they
meet a number of issues that require immediate intervention.
One of these major issues that often stand in the way of
learning is pronunciation. Despite all that has been said
about pronunciation, communication and interaction is
likely to happen between people. This is because an
interlocutor considers the context of the word to work out
the meaning of some mispronounced words. For instance, it
is very common in early stages of learning to generalize the
sound(t) instead of (th). That is why language teachers
frequently hear words like (tree instead of three). This can
be illustrated by the inability of learners to identify the types
of sounds. Considering the (th) sound, it is very difficult for
beginners to distinguish the variations of (th) as it changes
depending on the type of the sound whether voiced dental
fricative /ð/ as in words like (with, then, there, within) and
the voiceless dental fricative /θ/ as in words like (think,
thing, thirst). Nevertheless, in some cases, pronunciation
issues stand in the way of understanding as the case in long
vowels or minimal pairs where missing the right letter
affects the meaning of the whole word. For instance, (pray
and bray, crab and crap, bad and bed) lead to expressing
entirely different senses.
In fact, teachers are primarily responsible for this
ongoing issue of pronunciation. To begin with, Teachers and
language instructors are considered to be the primary source
of input for their learners in that students imitate the way
they use language. However, instead of working in favor of
improving pronunciation, teachers may contribute to the
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International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
problem as so many of them still struggle when it comes to
pronunciation. To illustrate, when observing some teachers,
especially non-native novice teachers, it is common that
they mispronounce words. This is due to the fact that some
teachers do not bother checking some words while designing
their lessons. It is also salient to note that in some classes
students are not given real chances to speak in the class as
some teachers monopolize the talk. They believe that
students, especially in early stages should only listen to them
speaking. This passivity leads students not only to develop
an inability to pronounce English sounds, but also to feel
demotivated learners. Moreover, it is a common belief
among many teachers that right pronunciation is not a matter
of priority. That is why they don’t bother neither
incorporating pronunciation activities within the syllabus
nor correcting learners’ mistakes as they happen. For
example, many teachers do without listening as some
textbooks come without listening materials.
The current paper confirms many findings from some
previous studies which enunciated some factors of
mispronouncing English words. First and foremost, the
interference of L1 is a very common concern among many
learners. It was noted that participants of this study relied on
their L1 whether it is Arabic or French when learning
English. Their interlanguage made their talks sound below
the standards. On the one hand, the Moroccan learners
during the presentation did not bother employing the
required organs that interfere in the production of speech
despite having similar sounds in their language. For
instance, they don’t bother making the (th) sound as they
simply pronounce it (t) while in Arabic they use the sound
(th) to pronounce some words like (fridge/ then …). On the
other hand, the Sub-Saharan African learners did not stress
words or even dropped some phonemes or replacing some
like in (sir and sih). Furthermore, some textbooks do not
involve pronunciation activities neither the segmental nor
the suprasegmental aspects of pronunciation. This can be
illustrated by the philosophy of teaching those in charge of
curriculum design. They believe that pronunciation is
redundant and not important or some of them believe in the
integrative approach of pronunciation teaching which claims
that pronunciation is better taught when learners are exposed
to authentic teaching materials. In all cases, pronunciation is
not apparent in some textbooks.
Other factors may account for the problem of
mispronouncing English words. Some of these include the
following. It is true that learners these days have unlimited
access to online learning materials. A great deal of language
input comes from YouTube and some learning applications.
However, it is evident that everybody can post learning
materials on YouTube including laymen, people with little
or no training in teaching. Therefore, students learning
English this way might wind up making a great deal of
mistakes. Not only that, some learners cannot afford
language classes. So, they learn on their own using available
textbooks. The problem of pronunciation appears as learners
fail to assimilate the pronunciation rules because
pronunciation itself is not included in the textbooks. Hence,
it remains an issue in EFL learning that should be carefully
dealt with.
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We can conclude, then, that pronunciation is a matter
of priority in ELT classes. So, it should be highlighted that a
due importance should be given to the teaching of
pronunciation. Therefore, we put forward a set of
recommendations that EFL instructors should consider as far
as pronunciation is concerned. Firstly, teachers must
understand the importance of pronunciation in that it is as
important as the other constituents of language. They should
bear in mind that pronunciation contributes to the meaning.
So, they should make sure that their language of instruction
is in alignment with the standards so as to be able to provide
a good module. Not only that, it is also important to point
out the fact that teachers have to allow students the chance
to practice language. Instead of monopolizing the talk,
teachers should allow students to talk so as to remedy their
pronunciation mistakes. Secondly, it is highly influential to
note that no textbook is perfect. That’s why teachers should
look closer at textbooks to adapt the content to meet the
needs of learners. In this regard, if a textbook does not
involve pronunciation activities, teachers should adapt it
looking for something better. As far as pronunciation
teaching is concerned, teachers have to employ different
activities that would promote the learners’ ability to improve
their pronunciation. Some of these activities include
different types of drills to help learners acquire the right
English pronunciation.
A closer observation to the findings of the study
reveals that Moroccan and Sub-Saharan learners reveal that
Moroccan learners are likely to improve English
pronunciation rapidly in comparison to the Sub-Saharan
learners who seem to struggle with pronouncing some
English sounds. Indeed, many factors account for this
problem among both learners to begin with, Moroccan
students already speak at least two languages prior to
English namely French and English. Almost all sounds of
Fig. 3: Say it (Android & IOS learning application)
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the language exist in one of the abovementioned languages.
However, the Sub-Saharan learners either speak their local
languages which is mostly a mixture of their dialect and the
French. That’s why they find it hard to pronounce some
sounds which do not exist in their mother tongues. To
address this issue, Computer-assisted Pronunciation
Teaching can cater for this problem.
English language learning has never been abundant as
it is today thanks to advancements in modern technology. It
makes language learning easy and available anywhere and
anytime. Pronunciation for instance, which has always been
a concern for language teachers and students alike, becomes
easy to deal with these days. Many applications have come
out to facilitate the task of internalizing the correct English
sounds. The following are two interesting and helpful
Mobile applications that significantly contribute in helping
English language learners to improve their pronunciation.
Both applications work to foster both aspects of
pronunciation segmental and suprasegmental.
Say it:- It is one of the most prominent English
pronunciation drilling programs and the easiest to use. It was
developed by Oxford university press in 2016 and it is
meant for English learners with difficulty in pronouncing
English words. Say it offers learners the ability to listen to
English words. Then, they record their own sound to
compare their own answers with the original sound. In
addition to instant sound recording, say it offers other useful
functions. To begin with, the app designers anticipated some
common issues that learners may encounter. So, they
suggest a set of drills that include some sounds so as
learners assimilate them prior. Second, the app offers
learners the chance to assess their progress through tests.
However, the application is not free of charge. English
learners must pay to access all functions.
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MyET:- MyET is another practical application for
improving speaking skills in general and sub-speaking
(pronunciation) in particular. It is an interactive application
that allows students to listen to models of words spoken by a
tutor that they have to repeat. The applications take into
consideration training English learners to pronounce
different aspects of the words including the pitch, the stress
and intonation. It is worth noting that MyET is a
sophisticated programme in the sense that it makes use of
the Automatic Speech Analysis System which quickly
analyzes learners ‘speech and gives immediate feedback. It
is true that such applications make English language
teachers easier as they do not have to drill students
repeatedly. Moreover, learners themselves can learn at their
own pace and assess their progress.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
This paper is an influential contribution to the body of
knowledge regarding pronunciation in ELT. It highlighted
the importance of pronunciation as an important aspect of
language proficiency. It also empirically refuted a set of
claims that underestimate the teaching of English sounds.
The research also had insights into some of the most
common mistakes frequently observed among English
language learners. The mistakes were analyzed and
statistically represented to measure the frequencies of each
type to be able to account for each type. We found out that
many factors involve students mispronouncing English
words. Some of these include the inter language, the
interference of L1, lack of exposure to English sounds, poor
input and wrong drills from instructors. The latter makes
pronunciation a daunting task for learners. To cater for these
problems, we have investigated the approaches of teaching
pronunciation and we concluded that in early stages of
learning, teachers have to adopt the analytical-linguistic
approach to language teaching as it facilitates the acquisition
of given sounds early in the learning process.
The current research is very valuable because it is in
nature a comparative study between Moroccan and Sab-
Saharan learners of English. We concluded that Moroccans
pronounce English sounds efficiently in comparison to
learners from Sub-Saharan African. The statistics showed
that more mistakes were made by the African study group.
We have also illustrated the reasons behind difficulty in
pronouncing English words among African learners. The
study revealed that some sounds are very difficult to be
pronounced despite their existence in the native language of
learners. It was widely observed that they said (mohe)
instead of (more). In a nutshell, we concluded that those
mistakes are not a matter of concern as most of the time they
don’t stand in the way of intelligibility.
We recommend teachers of English to take into
consideration some tips to consider so ad to enhance the
teaching of pronunciation. To begin with, teachers have to
believe that pronunciation is not a redundant element of
language instruction. It should rather be considered as
important as all language components. Moreover, we highly
recommend instructors to scrutinize textbooks prior to
implementing and adopting them. We advise teachers to
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avoid textbooks if they do not involve pronunciation
activities. We also stress the importance of the instructor’s
language because learners trust their teachers and they take
for granted everything they say. So, it is influential for
teachers to teach the right pronunciation. Not only that,
being effective in teaching pronunciation entails the
implementation of authentic teaching materials. This can be
done through exposing learners to well-accentuated
language by native speakers.
To encourage autonomous learning, modern
technology, especially mobile applications offer an authentic
opportunity for learners to improve their pronunciation.
Nowadays, learners have access to English sounds not only
in the class, but also outside of it. There are a number of
mobile applications available for either Android, iOS or
iPad which offer a wide range of interactive activities that
learners may find interesting. Above all, those applications
are available free of charge. The widely used applications
we highly recommend are ELSA Speak - Learn English
Pronunciation, Sounds: The Pronunciation App, Learn
English Sounds Right and Say It: English Pronunciation.
Additionally, it is worth mentioning that most textbooks
these days come with itools applications which are
extensions to the textbook and provide interactive materials
for self- learning. Similarly, google also caters for this
pronunciation problem as it offers pronunciation check
facility in the online dictionary.
REFERENCES
[1.] Abd Elwahab, W. (2020). The Effect of Local Arabic
Dialects on Learning English Language
Pronunciation. Arab World English Journal
(AWEJ), 11(1).
[2.] Al-Rubaat, A. M., & Alshammari, H. A. (2020).
Analysis of Phonetic and Phonological Constraints of
Saudi EFL Learners. English Language
Teaching, 13(1), 63-72.
[3.] Aydin, S., & Akyüz, S. (2017). A Brief Comparison of
the Current Approaches in Teaching
Pronunciation. Online Submission, 8, 12-15.
[4.] Demirezen, M. (2010). The principles and applications
of the audio-lingual pronunciation rehabilitation model
in
[5.] Farhat, P. A., & Dzakiria, H. (2017). Pronunciation
barriers and computer assisted language learning
(CALL): Coping the demands of 21st century in
second language learning classroom in Pakistan.
[6.] Foote, J. A., Holtby, A. K., & Derwing, T. M. (2011).
Survey of the teaching of pronunciation in adult ESL
programs in Canada, 2010. TESL Canada journal, 1-
22.
[7.] foreign language teacher education. Journal of
Language and Linguistic Studies, 6(2), 127-148.
[8.] Gerald, K. (2000). How to teach
pronunciation. Edinburgh, England: Peason Education.
[9.] Glakjani, A, P. (2012). The significance of
pronunciation in English language teaching. English
Language
[10.] Khoshsima, H., Saed, A., & Moradi, S. (2017).
Computer assisted pronunciation teaching (CAPT) and
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ISSN No:-2456-2165
pedagogy: Improving EFL learners’ pronunciation
using Clear pronunciation 2 software. Iranian Journal
of Applied Language Studies, 9(1), 97-126.
[11.] Liu, S. C., & Hung, P. Y. (2016). Teaching
pronunciation with computer assisted pronunciation
instruction in a technological university. Universal
Journal of Educational Research, 4(9), 1939-1943.
[12.] Tejedor-García, C., Escudero-Mancebo, D., Cámara-
Arenas, E., González-Ferreras, C., & Cardeñoso-Payo,
V. (2020). Assessing pronunciation improvement in
students of English using a controlled computer-
assisted pronunciation tool. IEEE Transactions on
Learning Technologies, 13(2), 269-282.
[13.] Tsai, P. H. (2015). Computer-Assisted Pronunciation
Learning in a Collaborative Context: A Case Study in
Taiwan. Turkish Online Journal of Educational
Technology-TOJET, 14(4), 1-13.

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ISSN No:-2456-2165
APPENDICES

Beginning 1:Speaking task

 Part 1: Specific Personal Information
 What's your name? how do you spell it?
 How old are you?
 When were you born?
 What are you? / What is your job?
 What nationality are you?
 Where are you from?
 Where do you live?
 What's your favorite school subject?
 What's your favourite sport?
 What's your hobby?
 What’s your phone number?

 Part 2: General Personal Information

 How many brothers and sisters have you got?
 What are your parents? (Professions)
 What is your house / flat like? (Large, small)
 How many rooms are there in your house / flat?
 What is your bedroom like?
 Have you got a pet? What is it?
 Tell us about your dream house.

 Part 3: Daily Routines

 What time do you wake up in the morning?
 What do you do after you get up?
 Talk about a normal school day.
 What time do you go to bed?
 Tell us about a day in your life.

 Part 4: Free time activities

 On Sundays you don't go to school / work
 Tell us about your activities for Sunday?

 Part 5: Likes & dislikes

 Talk about your likes and dislikes.
 What do you like? What you don’t like?

 Part 6: Descriptions
 Describe someone you love (father, mother, brother, etc.)
 What does he look like? (Physical description)
Tall, short, medium etc
Face (round, oval etc)
eyes (small, big, blue, brown etc)
clothes (baggy, tight, smart, shabby, elegant etc)
 What is s/he like? (Character)
Generous, mean, intelligent, honest, serious, funny etc

 Part 7: Short story

 Talk about one of the following stories:
Sara says No
Alissa
Photo finish

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