The Effects of Computer-Assisted Pronunciation Readings on ESL Learners' Use of Pausing, Stress, Intonation, And Overall Comprehensibility (English As a Second Language) (Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) is of interest to language teachers and learners because it can provide individualized instruction and immediate feedback on the correctness of a learner's response to computerized tasks (Nagata, 1993). In computer-aided pronunciation (CAP), technology has increased learners' access to their and others' pronunciation performance through visual displays such as spectrographic analyses of individual phonemes or amplitude waves showing levels of intensity for isolated words or phrases (Anderson-Hsieh, 1992, 1994; Hardison, 2004; Molholt, 1988). While such programs can provide learners with immediate feedback regarding the accuracy of an utterance compared to that of a native speaker (NS), they typically require teacher supervision and interpretation. Pennington (1999) cites another drawback of CAP, stating that nearly all CAP programs focus exclusively on segmentals. This focus implies that intelligibility is primarily impaired by the articulation of individual sounds and ignores the influence of prosody. If intelligibility is prioritized above accuracy, a focus on key words, stress, rhythm, and intonation rather than the articulation of individual sounds, may be needed.