Investigating the Effect of Individualized Instruction on Taiwanese Engineering Students’ Pronunciation Performance

• Main Authors: BETH WAN, 萬蓓思
• Other Authors: Mei-Ling Lee
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2019
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/d99y3w

碩士 === 國立高雄科技大學 === 應用英語系 === 107 === It is essential for engineering students in Taiwan to speak clear English for their future work. They therefore need to be aware of their own pronunciation errors and improve accordingly. Many scholars have proven that individualized instruction is an effective method to learn English, but not specifically in learning pronunciation. Hence, the purpose of the present study aims to investigate the participating engineering students’ common pronunciation errors, their improvement in pronunciation, and their perceptions of learning through individualized pronunciation instruction. A total of 8 engineering students from a technological university in southern Taiwan were recruited to participate in the study. The participants learned pronunciation through individualized instruction during a six-week training program designed by the researcher. A pre-test and post-test were administered in order to examine the participants’ common pronunciation errors and their improvement in pronunciation. In addition, an interview was conducted to investigate their opinions about individualized pronunciation instruction and multiple activities. There were three major findings in the present study. First, the Top 5 most difficult pronunciations for the engineering students were identified. They included /uː/, /ʊ/, and /ɔː/ and /ɑː/ for au words (Top 1); /dw/ and /uː/ for u-e words (Top 2); /iː/, /eɪ/ and /juː/ (Top 3); /ʃr/ (Top 4); /ɜː/, /ɔː/ and /ɑː/ for aw words, and /aʊ/ (Top 5). Second, the statistical results showed that students significantly improved their performance in English pronunciation through individualized pronunciation instruction within 6 weeks. Third, most of the students had positive attitude toward learning through individualized pronunciation instruction. The interview analysis indicated that they found the individualized instruction to be an effective method and that the multiple activities were helpful and fun in improving their pronunciations.