Reviews

Reading AssistantTM [Review]

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Abstract

It is not always the case of medical science where the side effect of a product becomes a new innovation with an effect that was not intended to be developed. The online English learning program Reading AssistantTM, developed by Scientific Learning Corporation, is advertised to help native speakers of English learners to acquire phonics skills, which help to learn correspondence between sounds and the spelling patterns, and eventually to improve oral reading ability (Beattie & Chevalier, 2012). However, the product is also reported to be used in an English as a foreign language (EFL) context to help non-native speakers of English learners to acquire pronunciation of English words and to improve English pronunciation and speaking (Jeong, 2010). Those EFL learners use phonics method not only for oral reading ability improvement, but also for pronunciation practice (Kim, 2005; Kuo, 2011). Even though Reading AssistantTM is not specifically developed for non-native speakers of English learners, it is reported that there are increasing numbers of English learners who use the product to improve their oral language skills (Neuro Science Learning, 2015).

How to Cite:

Won, Y., (2015) “Reading AssistantTM [Review]”, Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Proceedings 7(1).