Elsaspeak app and pronunciation

Abstract

Technology has motivated students to learn a new language, and has helped with their pronunciation when transmitting a message. Therefore, this Project was conducted with the objective of determining the importance of using ElsaSpeak app to develop the pronunciation of second semester students of the “Pedagogía de los Idiomas Nacionales y Extranjeros” (PINE) program at “Universidad Técnica de Ambato”. To accomplish the objectives, a bibliographic research was used, in order to obtain theoretical support for the variables of the research project. On the other hand, an experimental investigation was applied, where the students took a pre-test using ElsaSpeak app, which evaluated the level of pronunciation of each one of them. After the pre-test, instructions were given on how to use the app to familiarize users with it, and for phoneme recognition, awareness and production. Finally, a post-test was applied using the same app to see if the use of ElsaSpeak app helped the students to improve their pronunciation. The development of this study indicated that using ElsaSpeak app had a positive impact on improving the pronunciation of the research group. After the time of the experimental study, it was noticed that the pronunciation, fluency and accent in the students were reinforced with the help of the mobile application, and there was a significant improvement in the development of oral skills.