Enhancing EFL Learners Pronunciation through Praat Software among Iranian High School Students

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of enhancing EFL learners’ pronunciation through Praat software among Iranian high school students in Ahvaz in relation to teaching techniques used by EFL teachers in classrooms when they teach pronunciation. This research utilized a descriptive and comparison groups design to interpret the phenomena under study. In addition, the descriptive approach taken in the study included a questionnaire survey analysis to find out language learners attitudes and beliefs about pronunciation teaching in an Iranian context. 120 of third grade girls that were selected based on cluster sampling participate at the study. Then, five classes were selected based on this sampling. For the purpose of anonymity and its negative effects on their performance and attitudes Students’ ages range from 13 to 16. Most of the participants spoken Arabic as their mother tongue and had learned Farsi as their second language. Therefore, they were homogeneous in terms of their L1 background .A pronunciation test used to calculate the enhancing EFL learner’s pronunciation and use of praat software. The data collected through the questionnaire were entered into the software of SPSS ,version 21. The data were gathered through the pronunciation tests were analyzed through Praat software and t- test . The results shown that the group who were taught by Praat software performed significantly than the group who were taught by the imitation approach on the pronunciation test.the findings revealed that the EFL students were interested in learning pronunciation; however, the EFL teachers tried to focus on pronunciation. The EFL students were seldom provided with the opportunity to practice pronunciation using different tasks and technology.

Keywords:

Pronunciation , EFL teachers , L2 learners , Cluster Sampling , Praat software