The Effect of Using Online Dictionaries on theCorrectness of Learners’ Pronunciation: A Case of۱۰th Grade High School Class

Teaching and learning pronunciation in English classes has always been a problematic issue.Teachers doubt about how to approach and convey it to their students on one hand, andlearners frequently complain about the elusiveness and hardship of dealing with and masteringthe skill on the other. This also is more of a concern during the Covid-۱۹ pandemic whenalmost all in-person classes cancelled and teaching-learning process had to continue via onlineand virtual classes, therefore no face-to-face interaction or feedback was possible. Toaddress this long-rooted problem especially during the Covid-۱۹ situation, this action researchseeks to propose and investigate the effectiveness of using ‗Google Translate‘ by students inthe improvement of their pronunciation. This study applies the intelligibility principles in itsassessment of pronunciation correctness of reading aloud a conversation from Student Book(Vision ۱) of ۱۰th grade high school village in Khorasan Razavi province, where the studentshad not proper pronunciation instruction in their previous years at school. The study indicatesa mixed result due to this treatment and that the learners showed relatively an improvement intheir pronunciation without any other explicit instruction at the class, regarding how topronounce a word.

Keywords:

Teaching-Learning , Nativeness principle , Intelligibility principle , Functional load , Sentence stress