Journal of English for Specific Purposes Praxis

Journal of English for Specific Purposes Praxis

iPods in EFL: Revolutionizing Pronunciation Skills for Iranian Pre-intermediate Learners through Audio Innovation

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Languages, Arak University, Arak, Iran
Abstract
MALL holds high potential for supplementing the instruction of English as a Foreign Language, especially for those skills that are usually neglected, such as pronunciation. This is a quasi-experimental study into the use of iPod audio files for improving word stress and sentence intonation-suprasegmentals of Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners. Conventional methods usually fail to afford sufficient quantities of authentic exposure and repetitive practice for pronunciation in settings such as Iran, where pronunciation often becomes marginalized for reading-based curricula. Through a convenience sampling procedure, two intact classes of 30 female learners aged 13-19 were assigned to an experimental group (n =15) and a control group (n =15). The experimental group used iPod audio files to engage in self-paced listening and mimicry over 12 sessions, whereas the control group received traditional textbook-based instruction. A teacher-developed pre-test and post-test targeting both word stress and intonation were administered after being validated for their content and showing high reliability (r = 0.847 and r = 0.790, respectively). Using SPSS, independent and paired samples t-tests yielded results showing that at the post-test stage, the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group in overall pronunciation proficiency, p = 0.017, with a mean score of 17.83 versus 12.25. Moreover, improvement was greater in intonation than in word stress. These findings confirm the feasibility of iPod-based interventions as an effective tool for autonomous pronunciation learning in resource-poor EFL contexts. However, due to the limitations in this study, such as the small, all-female sample, future research should employ larger, mixed-gender cohorts to allow for better generalizability of the results and further explore the longitudinal effects of such MALL tools.
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