Can online translators and their speech capabilities help English learners improve their pronunciation?

Abstract

This study investigated whether a translation tool (Microsoft Translator – MT) and its built-in speech features (Text-To-Speech synthesis – TTS – and speech recognition) can promote learners’ acquisition in pronunciation of English regular past tense -ed in a self-directed manner. Following a pretest/posttest design, we compared 29 participants’ performances of past -ed allomorphy (/t/, /d/, and /id/) by assessing their pronunciation in terms of phonological awareness, phonemic discrimination, and oral production. The findings highlight the affordances of MT regarding its pedagogical use for helping English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners improve their pronunciation.