Reviews

English Pronunciation [Review]

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Abstract

The widespread use of mobile technology has been changing lives since Apple’s smartphone was introduced about ten years ago. Mobile devices provide unlimited access to online data from almost any location at any time. Thus, mobile devices have saturated many people’s lives and have become a primary platform for information, entertainment, and social interaction. Following this change, the application of mobile technology to language education has been discussed by many researchers. A number of studies have reported that mobile application use is an effective way to learn a second language in that the multimodal features not only enable teachers to apply special instruction for resolving learners’ individual differences in a classroom setting (Chen, Huang, & Wu, 2017), but the technology also creates an “immersive environment for the individual language learners” (Rosell, 2018, p. 871). Furthermore, the core users of mobile applications have high expectations for their mobile application as their only language learning source (Rosell, 2018). We would also suggest that it is important to scrutinize such applications from a linguistic perspective. In this review, we examine a mobile application called English Pronunciation which provides instructions for learning pronunciation in 30 languages and utilizes multimodal features and voice recording functions in order to provide language learners with an accessible environment that facilitates the development of their English pronunciation. We will provide a general overview of the featured segmentals, examine the application’s multimodal characteristics, and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the application.

How to Cite:

Goodale, E. & Yang, J., (2018) “English Pronunciation [Review]”, Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Proceedings 10(1).