The Effect of Computerized versus Classroom Instruction on the Phonetic Pronunciation of English

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of computerized versus classroom instruction on musicians' ability to correctly pronounce English words phonetically transcribed into the International Phonetic Alphabet. Sixty-three (N = 63) instrumentalists volunteered as subjects. The study used a pretest/posttest design. The tests consisted of two different phonetic transcriptions of English used by the International Phonetic Association for its standardized proficiency exam. Following the pretest, subjects were randomly assigned to one of three groups: (1) Class (n = 21) received three 45-minute lessons, (2) Computer-Assisted (n = 21) used the software package Sounds of English, and (3) Class and Computer-Assisted (n = 21) used a combination of the two previous instruction types. Results showed no significant differences among groups regarding pretest scores, but significant differences regarding posttest and pre/posttest difference scores. Post hoc analyses of total time revealed significant differences among the groups.