Second language acquisition (SLA) in English can be revolutionized by artificial intelligence (AI) because it can provide personalized learning methods for learning English. Although AI has made advancements in this area, the standard SLA systems that are familiar with often fail to provide real-time, personalized feedback that can enhance…

This study aimed to investigate the extent to which computer-assisted pronunciation (CAP) is influential in helping Hijazi students to develop their pronunciation of English vowels within a Saudi English as a foreign language (EFL) context. It also examined whether Saudi Hijazi learners taught English vowel sounds by CAP outperform those taught…

This study reports on a bibliometric mapping analysis of L2 pronunciation research. Analyses on 629 articles published between 1977 and 2020 in 15 prestigious SSCI-indexed applied linguistics journals identified significant research themes and trends, influential authors, documents, and publication sources. The results of the analyses of citation…

For over four decades, International Teaching Assistants (ITAs) have faced criticism by undergraduate students for their linguistic and teaching abilities. One area of research on ITAs' linguistic abilities focused on their pronunciation and generally revealed non-standard patterns of segmental and suprasegmental features (Anderson-Hsieh et al.,…

Perception of second language (L2) speakers and their speech is known to be influenced both by phonetic and by sociolinguistic factors. The existing body of scholarly research on L2 speech perception, however, is overwhelmingly focused on Indo-European languages, raising doubts about the generalizability of existing sociolinguistic, phonetic,…

This mixed-methods study investigated Chinese tertiary-level students' perceptions of different English accents existing in mainland China. Also examined were their perception changes and factors that contributed to their perception changes. An electronic questionnaire survey was employed to investigate the general trend and the possible…

Purpose: This study examines the effectiveness of automatic speech recognition (ASR) for individuals with speech disorders, addressing the gap in performance between read and conversational ASR. We analyze the factors influencing this disparity and the effect of speech mode--specific training on ASR accuracy. Method: Recordings of read and…

Purpose: This study aims at investigating the phonological development of the six guttural consonants of Jordanian Arabic, /[chi]/, /[voiced uvular fricative]/, /[voiceless pharyngeal fricative]/, /[voiced pharyngeal fricative]/, /[glottal stop]/, and /h/. Method: An articulation test is designed to involve two tasks: picture naming and…

Most regular practices of teacher-action research in ELT consist of identifying performance problems and providing specific treatments for the sake of improvement. However, teacher-action research does not dictate a specific methodology. The present teacher-action research is concerned with the implementation of an Advanced Prosody course in the…

The current study investigated the effects of repetition on the learning of second language (L2) spoken word forms. Japanese university students learning L2 English were randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions (one, three, and six exposures) and learned 40 words while hearing them and viewing their corresponding pictures. A…

This study explores how reverse linguistic stereotyping (RLS) affects Thai English learners' evaluations of English speakers and their choices of pronunciation models. Ninety-five first-year Thai English majors were divided into an uninformed group, unaware of speakers' nationalities, and an informed group, knowledgeable of the same. Participants…

The overarching goal of this design-based research was to explore WhatsApp's potential for facilitating and supporting speaking and pronunciation instruction in an EFL large-class speaking course. More specifically, this paper explored the perceived learning outcomes of WhatsApp-supported pedagogy in large English-speaking classes. Ninety-nine…

This study aims to identify the pronunciation issues with English fricatives that undergraduate students encounter as a result of the intricate link between the English letter and sound. The purpose of this study is to gather comprehensive data regarding students' pronunciation difficulties in terms of the degree of difficulty associated with each…

Background: The Beatalk technique is a speech therapy method, based on human beatboxing, involving intense, rapid repetitions of speech-like sounds. The goals of the current feasibility study were to test its effect in enhancing articulation accuracy and voice measures in a small group of adults with intellectual disability (ID), using a wide…

The aim of this paper is to expose the potential difficulties encountered by students learning Arabic as a foreign language (AFL) with a focus on sounds production. The research design was descriptive-analytic. The data was obtained using direct recording and interviews. The sample included 27 AFL students at the Arabic Institutes at IMSIU and…