Enhancing English Pronunciation for Novice Learners: An Investigation into the Effectiveness of Computer-Assisted Pronunciation Teaching

Beginner English language learners often face a great challenge in accurately producing sounds of the English language. This is particularly due to the significant differences between the phonetic systems of their native language and English. Consequently, learners often feel frustrated when their communication is misunderstood in real-life situations. Improving pronunciation is therefore a crucial priority in every ESL classroom, as it impedes intelligibility and affects students' motivation. This paper aims to achieve two goals: firstly, to identify and classify the most common pronunciation mistakes made by beginner learners of English, with the aim of helping teachers anticipate and address these errors before they become ingrained. Secondly, the paper proposes practical recommendations for teachers and syllabus designers to improve pronunciation teaching, as it is often neglected in classroom instruction and textbooks. The paper also recommends two computer-assisted pronunciation teaching applications that students can use on their own to improve their pronunciation skills. To collect data, we used a quantitative approach and conducted a speaking test with a focus group of students who completed a 30-hour English course. Based on their recordings, we were able to objectively categorize their pronunciation errors and make generalizations about common mistakes of pronunciation among beginner English language learners.