Utility of Solo and Peer Work for Pronunciation Practice

Abstract

Online courses tend to decrease studentsʼ opportunities to speak. This paper suggests two activities to improve pronunciation skills to address this lack. One was introduced in an elective course of English Phonetics for English majors. Students use software to record assignments to practice shadowing and then submit their sound files. The other was conducted in a mandatory course of First-year English for non-English majors. Students give a presentation in a video meeting after practicing with their teacher regularly. Comparing the two courses, features and effects will be discussed based on studentsʼ opinions. Fifty-six students answered a survey about the software and the activity. Ninety students commented upon the speech presentation. These results serve a useful purpose as insights into the learnersʼ viewpoints. Activities such as those given can function to promote autonomy and motivation as well as serve as a tool to improve speaking skills. It is difficult but essential to facilitate good teacher-student and student-student relationships online