Using elsa speak application to improve english pronunciation for the 11th graders at a high school in hanoi

INTRODUCTION

Rationale of The Study

English is now a second language or even the official language in many nations due to the globalization and industrialization that are taking place The fundamental abilities required of talents in today's culture are language skills Language plays a large part in how individuals interact in modern culture For students, improving their capacity to express themselves through language is a key way to improve communication The foundation for students to build positive interpersonal relationships in society is a good command of the language (Liu & Yang, 2017) Additionally, for tools like computers, smartphones, and the Internet, English is the language of instruction in its entirety Being fluent in English is not only useful in these circumstances but also essential, especially for the young labor force around the world To meet the requirement, they must devote a lot of time and energy to learning this language In order to be understood, not only grammar rules and appropriate lexis come into play but, more importantly, pronunciation is of the utmost importance using certain sounds

Learning various facets of English is always tough for students Grammar rules and acceptable lexis are important, but pronunciation and the use of specific sounds are even more crucial for communication (Hussein and Hussein, 2021) One of the hardest abilities to master is English pronunciation, thus students should devote a lot of effort to perfecting it (Martnez-Flor et al., 2006; Pourhosein Gilakjani, 2016) One of the fundamental prerequisites for competency is clear pronunciation, which is also one of the key components of language training While poor pronunciation encourages significant challenges in language learning, good pronunciation facilitates learning (Pourhosein Gilakjani, 2012) Fraser (2000) contends that teachers ought to have access to training programs and resources that would help them enhance their pronunciation lessons She went on to say that research in second language education should focus on the pronunciation training approach rather than the importance of teaching English pronunciation Understanding pronunciation is one of the fundamental goals of pronunciation education, according to Morley (1991)

Learners frequently lose interest and become confused when learning new vocabulary as they fight valiantly to remember new terms and their pronunciation but eventually forget and then fail to use them when they are necessary When learning pronunciation in the traditional ways, such as by recording phonetic transcriptions or imitating teachers, students may get bored and lose their understanding of how to pronounce words rapidly As a result, a more effective strategy is needed, especially one that can capture students’ attention This ambition has led to the creation of various software Vietnamese people are becoming more and more interested in English Language Speech Assistant (ELSA), a technology that improves pronunciation

Even English majors, who seem to struggle with learning English and in particular pronunciation, rarely use the ELSA Speak application The author has conducted research on "Using ELSA Speak application to improve English pronunciation for the 11th graders at a high school in Hanoi" with the goal of introducing students in English Language Teaching to an effective learning method to enhance their pronunciation in detail and creating a habit of using technology in their study in general.

Aims of The Study

The study aimed at investigating the use of the ELSA Speak Application to improve English pronunciation for the 11th graders at a high school in Hanoi.

The Scope of The Study

The study focused on the use of the ELSA Speak application to learn pronunciation The population of the study was limited to thirty 11 th graders at a school in Hanoi.

Research Questions

To achieve the aim of the study, the researcher focused on finding answers to the following questions:

Question 1: To what extent does ELSA Speak application help to improve students’ pronunciation?

Question 2: What are the students’ attitudes toward the implementation of

ELSA in learning English pronunciation?

Significance of The Study

The researcher hoped that the following will benefit from the research's findings:

LEARNERS: The findings will teach the students how to master English pronunciation techniques and provide them with a new viewpoint on technology- based learning in general and learning with smartphone applications in particular The study's conclusions can serve as advice for readers who want to understand English pronunciation better Technology has made it possible for education to be considerably more engaging than it ever was

TEACHERS: The information provided by this study will serve as a resource for teachers looking for fresh ways to mix up their teaching methods as well as those who are interested in using technology to teach English pronunciation skills

FURTHER RESEARCHERS: Researchers that are interested in speech recognition, in general, and how well it works for teaching English pronunciation, in particular, will find the findings of this study useful.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Pronunciation

Pronunciation is crucial for developing our English language abilities It becomes one of the factors in improving communication skills If students lack adequate pronunciation skills, they may struggle to express their ideas and may run into undesirable situations There are numerous ways to define pronunciation

According to Richards & Schmidt (2002, p 429), pronunciation refers to how a particular sound or sounds are created, with an emphasis on how the hearer perceives those sounds Similarly, (Harmer, 2007) defines pronunciation as how we pronounce words affects where the stress is put, how we use pitch and intonation to express our emotions, and what we mean

According to Cook (1996, referenced in Pourhosein Gilakjani, 2016), pronunciation is the act of producing English sounds By repeating sounds and correcting them when they are made incorrectly, pronunciation can be learned When students begin studying pronunciation, they form new habits and get through challenges brought on by the first language Yates (2002, cited in Pourhosein Gilakjani, 2016) defined pronunciation as the act of producing sounds that convey meaning The act of pronouncing is the creation of a sound system that doesn't obstruct communication from the perspective of the speaker or the listener (Paulston

& Burder, 1976) The correct pronunciation of a word is how it is said (Otlowski,

1998) Additionally, "pronunciation" was described by Richard and Schmidt (2002) as the process of making particular sounds

In conclusion, pronunciation can be viewed as the formation of sounds and how we employ pitch and intonation to convey what we mean

Pronunciation consists of two components: segmental and suprasegmental features (Ramelan, 1985, p.22).

Segmental describes sound segments that are set up in a particular arrangement The phonetic symbols stand in for the utterance's sound units (Wahyukti, 2008, p.35) Vowel and consonant segments are segment features Vowels are produced when voiced air passes through various mouth forms; the various mouth shapes are brought about by variations in the positions of the tongue and lips (O'Connor, 1980:79) Vowels come in two varieties: pure vowels and diphthongs (Wahyukti, 2008, p.56)

Pure vowels, which include both long and short vowels, are each represented by a single letter (Wahyukti, 2008, p.56) An indication of a long vowel is a length mark comprised of two dots or a colon (Wahyukti, 2008, p.45) English has five long vowels, listed below:

There are six English short vowels, including:

Consonants are sounds that are not vowels (Ramelan, 1985, p.92)

When two articulators in the mouth cavity block some of the air leaving there, it is when consonants are created (Wahyukti, 2008, p.72) The consonant is significant in words for two reasons, according to O'Connor (1980, p 24) The initial consonant makes more of an impact on how comprehensible English is It is simpler to explain and comprehend the second consonant since it is typically produced by a clear interference of the vocal cord with the air stream

The types of consonants, according to Ramelan (1985, p 102-154), are plosive, fricative, affricative, nasal, lateral, and gliding consonants

The process of making a plosive consonant is primarily characterized by total obstruction of the speech tract, followed by an abrupt release of air that results in an explosive sound (Ramelan, 1985, p.102)

The following sounds are plosive consonants:

When the outgoing air encounters a narrowing in the air route, a fricative consonant is created, and the partial obstruction of the outgoing air is referred to (Ramelan, 1985, p.119) The following sounds are fricative consonant sounds:

An affricative is a type of halt where the air leaving the mouth also completely obstructs the airflow But the obstruction in a stop is abruptly released (Ramelan,

Just two affricatives—sounds /dZ/ and /tS/—are produced simultaneously at the same place of articulation

In terms of how it is made, a nasal consonant is similar to a stop Yet, to allow the outgoing air to freely pass through the nasal cavity when creating a nasal consonant, the velum is lowered (Ramelan, 1985, p.143) The following sounds are nasal consonants:

The tongue's blade resting on the alveolar ridge creates a partial closure The sides of the tongue are permeable to air (Kelly, 2000) According to Ramelan (1985, p.148), lateral consonants are present in practically all languages English does, however, have two different types of lateral consonants, which are known as "clear" and "dark" /l/

A dark /l/ sound is a lateral sound made when the main body of the tongue is raised, as opposed to a clear /l/ sound, which is made when the major body of the tongue is sloping downward The /l/ sound, for instance, is audible more clearly in the word "look" than in the phrase "middle." In the word "look," the /l/ sound is labeled clearly, and in the phrase "middle," it is named dark

Speech sounds that slide between vowels and consonants are referred to as glide consonants Nonetheless, it would be better to group glide sounds with consonants because of the absence of stress and the mild breath force The glide consonant sounds are the /y/ and /w/ sounds (Ramelan, 1985, p.151)

Suprasegmental features resemble the linguistic lexicon or sentence structure Stress, pitch, intonation, and other aspects that always go along with speech production are referred to as suprasegmental features (Wahyukti, 2008, p.35) Three different types of suprasegmental features include syllable, intonation, and stress

A syllable is one beat or a group of sounds in a word You could clap your hand once when you say "May" and three times when you say "December," for instance May is a one-syllable word December is three syllables long (Ramelan, 1985, p.90)

In longer linguistic units, rhythm is created through word stress and unstress patterns According to Wahyukti (2008, p.31), syllables in English can have a close juncture, which means they are tied together very closely without pausing, but they can also have an open juncture, which means that there appears to be pausing in the pronunciation Syllables can be used to break down words For example:

Go-vern-ment: three syllables

E-du-ca-tion: four syllables

The voice's transition between high and low pitch is known as intonation

According to Ramelan (1985, p 31), intonation is the varying pitch throughout various syllables in an utterance A series of opposing pitch levels can be used to create intonation in a statement (Wahyukti, 2008, p.31)

Speech Recognition Technology and Elsa

ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition) is a subfield of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) (Levy, 1997) Because of advancements in speech recognition technology that allows computers to more clearly understand pupils, the CALL system has been very popular in recent years In large part, because it is widely employed in self-study approaches, CALL also provides students with additional studying time and a stress-free learning environment

Automatic speech recognition (ASR) is a cutting-edge technology that enables computers and even portable PDAs to comprehend words that are read aloud or spoken into any sound-recording device (Myers, 2000) The market share of ASR technology for language learning has significantly increased in recent years, and it is now commonly utilized for corporate dictation or accessibility for people with special needs (Aist, 1999)

These systems, often known as CAPT (Computer Assisted Pronunciation Training) systems, incorporate ASR technology The computer's comprehension of the student's words and spontaneous reactions increases the learning process' realism and interest Moreover, CAPT systems can offer feedback on how clearly a pupil is speaking Early CAPT systems used pattern-matching template-based recognition technologies The majority of these apps just compare students' speech sound waves to those of the templates; they do not offer comments Eventually, ASR applications began to use Hidden Markov Model (HMM) algorithms In other words, a speech recognizer using an HMM determines how similar the phonemes in a given input are to a corresponding model based on probability theory Poor pronunciation is indicated by low likelihood, whereas correct pronunciation is indicated by high likelihood (Larocca, Moagan, & Bellinger, 1991, pp 295-310)

Artificial intelligence (AI), which is the newest trend in the Industrial Revolution 4.0, is the approach that today's ASR software uses most recently By employing AI, the AI systems are meant to adapt and evolve on their own, which is the key to resolving each user's individualism Every time the programs are used, they gain knowledge

A tool supporting Education 4.0, according to Samad and Ismail (2020), is the ELSA Speak app English Language Speech Assistant, or ELSA, is an AI-powered application that allows users to practice and improve their pronunciation through a set of lessons and exercises that are rated on the ELSA server After being made available for testing for the first time in 2015, ELSA made its premiere at SXSW (a festival and conference that is a part of the South by Southwest® (SXSW®) family of events) in 2016 The program took first place in the SXSWEdu launch contest The parent business of ELSA has so far released two versions of the program, one for the Apple iOS mobile operating system and the other for the Google Android, a Google LLC-developed mobile operating system (A mobile phone operating system by Apple Inc.) With a variety of activities to correctly pronounce words, phrases, and phrases, it is intended with multiple features to help students with American accents improve their pronunciation Have a microphone symbol so that students can practice speaking as though they can hear themselves talk (Samad and Ismail, 2020) Elsa Speak is a mobile application that may be used with both iOS and Android devices, according to Kusumah (2017) With the help of this program, you may learn English without having to bring a teacher along It is created as an independent-based learning tool According to this software, using the most recent technologies might give consumers a better learning experience

Because it directs learners to topics and skills, levels, reports, and other activities, ELSA's basic interface is straightforward This is consistent with AI's capacity to offer a proactive, approachable, and all-encompassing teaching and learning environment (Ghavifekr and Rosdy, 2015) Users of ELSA can choose a sound to listen to and then independently record It evaluates the recording's accuracy and offers comments (Becker & Edalatishams, 2019) In addition, users of ELSA can establish goals through their accounts, set daily reminders, and view the terms and rules of the app, according to Becker and Edalatishams (2019)

According to Anguera and Van (2016), the English Language Speech Assistant (ELSA) application currently offers three main types of exercises

Pronunciation exercises ask users to say a word or phrase while receiving feedback (highlighted in color) for each vowel as well as phonetic suggestions to correct any errors that may already be present In addition to practicing phrase intonation, rhythm, and communication skills, intonation exercise users also work on syllable stress Users can practice having conversations in real life while receiving immediate feedback on their word choice and pronunciation

The English Speech Assistant (ELSA) offers a free text entry mode that enables users to hear and follow a sample of each word or phrase while also receiving immediate feedback on how it should be pronounced

According to the ELSA Speak Blog, ELSA has 2 million users from more than

100 countries and more than 100 million practices as of 2017 The Forbes magazine identified ELSA Corp as one of the four businesses that are using AI to change the world Both Google Play and the App Store provide a free download of ELSA, the official app store for the iOS operating system Users can access ELSA for the following four main purposes:

+ Skills: This feature includes all of the pronunciation theory classes Twelve lessons, each of which covers a distinct aptitude, are presented to ELSA users As users progress through the course, the difficulty gradually increases from the first to the last lesson

+ Topics: From a list of 21 themes, users can choose the one that best suits their objectives in this section

+ Dictionary: This is ELSA's most well-known function; users can type any word, phrase, or sentence and ELSA will offer a phonetic transcription, an audio recording of the right pronunciation, and then it will let users test their pronunciation by pointing out their specific mistakes Green represents correct pronunciation, yellow suggests somewhat accurate pronunciation, and red indicates incorrect pronunciation Following that, different colors are used to fill in each text

+ Progress: For each speaking skill, ELSA delivers a comprehensive report in this section's Competence Level/ Assessment Test, which also shows the user's competency level

The thorough report includes information on the Schwa sound, TH sounds, ending sounds, short and long /i:/, /r/ sound, consonant cluster, /l/ and /r/ confusion, the /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ sounds, the /s/ and /z/ contrast, the /p/, /t/ and /k/ sounds, /w/ and /v/ and /b/

2.2.3 The use of speech recognition in learning pronunciation

ASR has many benefits for language learners This technology gives teachers a chance to learn about the specific issues that each student is having By learning about each student's strengths and weaknesses, teachers can better understand their students and adapt the curriculum to fit each student's level Students who are hesitant to practice speaking in front of others might also benefit from using ASR to hone their public speaking skills (Neri, A., Cucchiarini, & Strik H (2001, pp 40-48)

Most of the studies which have investigated the effectiveness of ASR programs have showed that this technology can be effective Neri (2008), for example, looked into whether or not a CAPT system may assist students in developing word-level English pronunciation skills at a level that is comparable to that attained through conventional teacher-led training Their findings demonstrated that utilizing an ASR-based technique considerably enhanced the pronunciation quality of isolated words Kim looked into the accuracy of ASR software that teaches English pronunciation 36 students' oral presentations were matched to pronunciation evaluations made by teachers who were native English speakers Although the results indicated that ASR technology is still not as accurate as human analysis, the author concluded that the software may be useful for student practice with certain aspects of pronunciation (Denis Liakin, Walcir Cardoso, Natallia Liakina, 2013)

In conclusion, ASR-based techniques or software cannot yet be completely accurate because the systems have not been able to recognize a variety of factors like intonation, accent, or emotions According to reports, ELSA users improve their pronunciation score by 40% in less than 4 weeks, with an average score of over 90%.

Previous Studies

Pronunciation has been paid attention to by many researchers Following is the researcher’s review of some previous studies on the topic of pronunciation The study of pronunciation has experienced a significant resurgence in recent decades, with specific subfields concentrating on the practice of pronunciation teaching as it is portrayed in textbooks, teachers' thinking, and classroom activities (e.g., Derwing et al., 2012; Foote et al., 2016; Couper, 2017; Nguyen and Newton, 2020) Educators firmly believe that "pronunciation instruction plays a very important or crucial role in the lives of their students across almost all contexts and situations" (Darcy, 2018, p

16) For instance, the teachers in Couper's (2017) research stated that pronunciation is a crucial component of learning English and aids in their students' success in communication This result is consistent with earlier research, which shown that teachers placed a high value on pronunciation when teaching ESL (Zielinski and Yates, 2014) The teachers who took part in Nguyen's study in 2019 indicated that pronunciation was the most crucial language ability

Research on pronunciation has expanded to look at how best to teach pronunciation to students For instance, in a study conducted by Derwing and Rossiter in 2002, 100 adult ESL learners from Canada answered to comments and questions regarding their pronunciation issues and ways to improve communication The results revealed that more than 50% of the students attributed their communication breakdowns to pronunciation issues, particularly with segmentals More than half of the participants said they used paraphrase to correct such errors, followed by self-repetition (28%), and writing/spelling approach (7%) The study also revealed that 90% of students were open to taking lessons on pronunciation In a more recent study, Nguyen (2019), it was discovered that students valued proper pronunciation when learning English and that Vietnamese speakers encounter both segmental and suprasegmental pronunciation issues, including linking, sentence stress, and intonation The study also showed how eager the kids were to learn how to pronounce words clearly According to other research (Kang, 2010; Simon and Taverniers, 2011; Levis, 2015; Pardede, 2018), students thought pronunciation was a crucial component of learning English Overall, these studies indicate that students were well aware of their pronunciation issues and showed a strong desire to improve their pronunciation

However, research reveals that Vietnamese EFL teachers frequently focus their lessons on preparing students for exams that primarily test language knowledge (such as vocabulary and grammar) rather than language skills like oral communication (Dang et al., 2013; Nguyen et al., 2015; Ha and Murray, 2021) Despite spending a lot of time and effort learning English, many students struggle with oral communication as a result of the professors' emphasis on linguistic form in the classroom Therefore, Vietnamese EFL teachers pay little attention to pronunciation as a component of oral communication abilities Given that over 2 million students are currently studying English at tertiary institutions across the country, it is important to examine teachers' and students' stated beliefs about the role of pronunciation teaching in Vietnamese tertiary EFL education (Lane and Brown, 2010; Avery and Ehrlich, 2013) Vietnamese learners of English (VLE) may have pronunciation issues with both segmentals and suprasegmentals

The use of ELSA Speak Application was highly appreciated by researchers Firstly, Samad & Aminullah (2019) came to the conclusion that the students had chosen the best software for instruction and learning To assist users in speaking English clearly, smoothly, and with confidence, this app also features the 7 Best English Study Apps (2019) Secondly, Kholis (2021) discovered that the ELSA Speak application can aid and enhance the students' pronunciation abilities and motivation The children's test results and grades supported this Children are able to hear and mimic sounds in a similar fashion to how they do in their native tongue The method allows for the quick retrieval of student voice recordings so that they can be edited According to Hidayati & Rosyid (2020), the ELSA Speak app helps students get better at pronouncing words in English as part of Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) Students gain from ELSA Speak's features that make lesson plans adaptable, effective, and simple In addition, the ELSA App was used by Kuningan University students as part of their English Education Study Program, and Darsih et al (2020) investigated their attitudes of its use This quantitative study used a questionnaire to gather information on the reliability of EFL students' assessments of the effect of the ELSA Speak app on their speaking abilities, notably in terms of pronunciation This study focused on 94 participants from the English Education study program Most students concluded that ELSA Speak Software is a useful program to improve their speaking ability Samad and Aminullah (2019) wanted to know how the ELSA Speak program was perceived by the students in their pronunciation class The 2018-19 academic year saw the completion of this study by twelve third-semester students from STKIP Muhammadiyah Enrekang's English education department A descriptive quantitative research design was used for this investigation The researchers use a questionnaire to collect data, which is then analyzed using a Likert scale Based on the data analysis and the research's objective, the researchers conclude that the students' perception of the use of the ELSA Speak application in pronouncing class is quite favorable The researchers suggested using this software to work on pronunciation as well.

METHODOLOGY

Research method

The aim of the study was to investigate the use of the ELSA Speak Application to improve English pronunciation for the 11th graders at a high school in Hanoi Specific objectives were set to achieve this aim, including (1) finding out how ELSA Speak application help to improve students’ pronunciation and (2) identifying the students’ attitudes toward the implementation of ELSA in learning English pronunciation Therefore, action research is the suitable research design to help the researcher evaluate the changes of the participants after using ELSA Speak Application

Action research typically incorporates four primary phases in a research cycle, according to major scholars in this field, Kemmis and McTaggart (1988) The initial cycle may develop into an ongoing, or iterative, spiral of cycles that repeat until the action researcher believes they have reached a satisfying conclusion and it is time to cease

In this phase, you identify a challenge or issue and create an action plan to enhance a particular aspect of the study context In this phase, which is forward- looking, you take into account: i) what kind of research is feasible given the circumstances and limitations of your teaching role; ii) what potential improvements that you believe are feasible

The thoroughly thought-out plan entails certain deliberate adjustments to your instructional environment that you implement over a predetermined period of time The interventions are "critically informed" as you reconsider your presumptions regarding the current circumstance and devise fresh, different approaches

During this stage, you must systematically observe the results of the activity and record the situation, what was done, and the viewpoints of participants concerned It is a phase of gathering data where "open-eyed" and "open-minded" techniques are used to gather data on what is occurring

In order to make sense of what has happened and to better comprehend the topic you have researched, you now reflect on, assess, and describe the effects of the activity As part of your ongoing professional development, you can want to conduct additional cycles of action research to make the situation even better or to share the

"story" of your study with others

(Adapted from Kemmis & McTaggart, 1988, p 11-14) The cyclical action research model based on Kemmis & McTaggart (1988) was illustrated in the figure below:

Figure 3.1 The cyclical action research model (Kemmis and McTaggart, 1988)

Data collection instruments

Questionnaires, and tests are considered practical and useful tools for the researchers to utilize in determining the answers to the study questions Tests and survey questionnaires provide the researcher with valuable, reliable results that are qualitative

To increase the reliability of the questionnaires, after finishing writing the questionnaire items, the researcher asked five peer teachers to review the items After consulting their ideas, the researcher edited the items before delivering them to students There were two questionnaire surveys, a pre-survey questionnaire, and a post-survey questionnaire

In order to identify the current situation of learning English pronunciation, the researcher let the students complete the pre-survey questionnaire

The survey was divided into two parts with nine questions In the first part, the students provided their personal information, including their name, gender, the number of years learning English, and whether they have a smartphone or not

In the second part, the students were asked to provide information on their opinions of the importance of learning pronunciation, their interest in learning this skill, methods have you applied to practice pronunciation, the number of hours per week they spend practicing English pronunciation, and the difficulties they have in learning English pronunciation

The pre-survey questionnaire consists of both closed and open-ended questions to provide space for students to provide additional responses if necessary It was estimated that they took no more than fifteen minutes to do this survey

The objective of the post-survey questionnaire was to identify the students’ attitudes toward using ELSA Speak Application The questionnaire consists of twelve statements, with which students specified their levels of agreement based on the Five- point Linkert Scale (1 = Strongly disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Not sure, 4 = Agree, 5 Strongly agree) The first ten questions focused on the benefits of ELSA, and the last two questions investigated the drawbacks of the application It took the students no more than fifteen minutes to complete the survey

The ELSA Speak application automatically records the audio of users' speech during assessment exams and gives immediate feedback and a complete report for each user The tests used in this research included a pre-test, a progress test after each week of studying, and a post-test.

Participants

At a high school in Hanoi, thirty 11th graders will be chosen to participate in the study There were sixteen female and fourteen male students Most of these students had been studying English for at least ten years Their level of English proficiency is believed to be intermediate.

Data collection procedures

In order to have a suitable and specific plan, the researcher would like to investigate the current situation of learning English pronunciation and the students’ current pronunciation abilities Therefore, before the intervention process, the researcher let the participants complete a pre-questionnaire survey and a pretest

After analyzing the data collected to identify problems, the researcher created an action plan as shown in table 3.1 below:

Table 3.1 The action plan of using ELSA to learn pronunciation

2 24/02/2023 How to use basic features of ELSA

1 28/02/2023 Introduction to the implementation of ELSA

2 03/03/2023 Tips & Tricks in learning pronunciation

Lesson 7: /eɪ/, /aɪ/ and /ɔɪ/

Lesson 9: /ɪə/, /ʊə/ and /eə/

Q & A session Post-ELSA Assessment Test

In the first two weeks, students got in-class instructions on how to use the basic features of ELSA, the implementation of ELSA, and tips for learning pronunciation There was also a Questions and Answers (Q & A) session to ensure that students understand what to do before learning pronunciation via ELSA

The participants practiced their English pronunciation using the ELSA Speak Application for about an hour every Tuesday and Friday for the next four weeks, as directed by the researcher A practice sheet with two sections—single words and phrases—followed each lesson The score suggested by ELSA was at least 80% Every two weeks, there was a Q&A session where the researcher read about the difficulties that participants encountered when using the ELSA Speak application and responded to any questions students had when using ELSA to learn pronunciation The students were asked to capture their screen and send it to the researcher after each lesson as evidence

After completing each session, students had to capture the screen as evidence and send it to the researcher Then, the researcher made a weekly report to identify the problems that students encountered

The phonological control by the Co.E (2001, p 117) was used as the assessment tool by the researcher to assess students' pronunciation abilities These results were compared with those of ELSA Speak to evaluate students’ improvement in pronunciation skills after each week To make it easier to compare the assessment results, the researcher gave scores for each descriptor as follows:

Table 3.2 The phonological control by the Co.E

9-10 Can vary intonation and place sentence stress correctly in order to express finer shades of meaning

7-8 Has acquired a clear, natural, pronunciation and intonation

5-6 Pronunciation is clearly intelligible even if a foreign accent is sometimes evident and occasional mispronunciations occur

3-4 Pronunciation is generally clear enough to be understood despite a noticeable foreign accent, but conversational partners will need to ask for repetition from time to time

1-2 Pronunciation of a very limited repertoire of learnt words and phrases can be understood with some effort by native speakers used to dealing with speakers of his/her language group

Based on the observation, the researcher gave feedback to the students after each on-campus lesson to help students identify their strengths and weaknesses to improve their skills.

Data analysis description

Data from the questionnaires and tests were collected and processed into

Excel The statistics from both the questionnaires and tests were analyzed to evaluate the use of ELSA Speak Application in improving students’ pronunciation skills.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

Findings from the questionnaires

Table 4.1 below summarizes the students’ information:

Table 4.1 Students’ information Information Number (Students) Percentage Gender

As seen in Table 4.1, there were 30 students participating in the survey fourteen males (accounting for 46,7%) and 16 females (equivalent to 53.3%) All of the students had their own smartphones The majority of them (90%) had more than ten years of studying English, while only one-tenth of them studied English for less than ten years

4.1.1.2 Students’ opinions on the importance of English pronunciation

The students’ opinions on the importance of English pronunciation were summarized in Figure 4.1 below:

Figure 4.1 Students’ opinions on the importance of English pronunciation

It is clear that the students fully recognized the importance of English pronunciation; 86.7% of them believed that it was very important to learn good pronunciation when learning English, while 13.3% thought it was important

4.1.1.3 Students’ interests in learning English pronunciation

How the students were interested in learning English pronunciation was presented in the following figure:

Figure 4.2 Students’ interests in learning English pronunciation

Students’ opinions on the importance of English pronunciation

Students’ interests in learninglearning English pronunciation

Slightly Interested Interested Very interested

As shown in Figure 4.2, all of the students were interested in learning pronunciation despite the difference in their levels of interest 27% claimed to be very interested in learning pronunciation 70% felt interested, and a minority of 3% were slightly interested in the aspect

4.1.1.4 Methods that students use to learn pronunciation

Table 4.2 below lists the methods that students often use to learn pronunciation

Table 4.2 Students’ methods to learn pronunciation Methods Number (Students) Percentage

As shown in Table 4.2, the most common method of learning English pronunciation was watching English movies/ videos, selected by 27 students, accounting for 90% The second most common method was listening to English songs with 18 votes, taking up 60% Besides, 9 students selected “reading pronunciation books” Among the listed methods, the two least popular methods included talking to native speakers (20%) and using English pronunciation apps (6.7%) Students also provided other methods, which are practicing with friends (1 vote) and dubbing English videos (1 vote)

4.1.1.5 The number of hours per week that students spent practicing English pronunciation

Figure 4.3 The number of hours per week that students spent practicing pronunciation

20% of the students spent less than two hours a week practicing pronunciation The majority of students spent between 2 and 4 hours per week, while 30% spent between 4 and 7 hours, and 10% spent more than 10 hours per week studying it The results showed that the time spent on pronunciation varied among students However, most students did not spend enough time practicing pronunciation

4.1.1.6 Students’ difficulties in learning English pronunciation

Figure 4.4 Students’ difficulties in learning English pronunciation

The number of hours per week that students spent on practicing pronunciation

Less than 2 hours 2 – 4 hours 4 – 7 hours More than 7 hours

Student’s difficulties in learning English pronunciation skills

Figure 4.4 shows that the two biggest difficulties, which students often had in learning English pronunciation skills are Accents and Vowels, with nearly 75% of the students confirming this problem The next difficulty students faced was Intonation, with around 65% of students reporting this The third difficulty is pronouncing Consonant, with almost 60% of the students claiming this a Students’ difficulties in pronouncing English consonants

Figure 4.5 Students’ difficulties in pronouncing English consonants

In terms of consonant pronunciation, pronouncing Fricative and Affricative consonants presented the most challenge to students with 73.3% and 66.7% of students respectively having confirmed this 43% of students thought that pronouncing Lateral consonants brings many difficulties for them Meanwhile pronouncing Approximant consonants was confirmed by 26.7% of students as having difficulty pronouncing them And 20% of students said that they had difficulty pronouncing Stop (Plosive) consonants Only 6.7% of students have difficulty pronouncing Nasal consonants

Students’ difficulties in pronouncing English consonants b Students’ difficulties in pronouncing English vowels

Figure 4.6 Students’ difficulties in pronouncing English vowels

In terms of vowel pronunciation, nearly 75% of students confirmed that they had difficulty pronouncing short vowels Pronouncing long vowels also caused difficulty for nearly 70% of students Meanwhile, Triphthongs and Diphthongs brought pronunciation difficulties to nearly 50% of students

After six weeks learning pronunciation through ELSA, students were let to do the post-survey questionnaires The following table summarizes the results of the post-survey questionnaire

Table 4.3 Post-survey questionnaire results

Level of Agreement (Unit: People)

1 It is helpful to learn pronunciation via ELSA 0 0 3 6 21

2 Learning pronunciation with ELSA is more interesting than traditional methods 0 0 0 12 18

3 ELSA helps me evaluate my pronunciation 0 0 0 6 24

4 ELSA makes my self-study skills improve 0 0 0 2 28

5 I practice pronunciation more frequently with ELSA 0 0 0 7 23

Students’ difficulties in pronouncing English vowels

Level of Agreement (Unit: People)

6 I am more confident in my pronunciation 0 1 2 17 10

7 My pronunciation is better in terms of:

 Diphthongs (ɪə, eə, ʊə, eɪ, aɪ, ɔɪ, əʊ, aʊ)

 Triphthongs (eɪə, aɪə, ɔɪə, əuə, auə)

8 ELSA allows me to practice pronunciation wherever and whenever I want 3 3 6 6 12

9 I like learning English pronunciation with ELSA 0 1 3 17 9

10 In the future, I will continue to learn English pronunciation with ELSA 0 0 3 18 9

11 ELSA was disabled when there is no Internet connection

12 ELSA’s speech recognition is sometimes not correct

After the above time, twenty-one people strongly agreed that learning pronunciation through ELSA software was useful for them Six people agreed with this view Three people gave a neutral opinion And there was no one who did not find this software helpful

As shown in the table above, students had positive attitudes towards using ELSA Speak to improve their pronunciation In the first place, the respondents highly recognized ELSA in terms of interestingness, self-evaluation, self-study skills, and regular practice Specifically, all students agreed or strongly agreed that learning by ELSA was more interesting than traditional methods All of them also claimed that the application helped them evaluate their pronunciation, improve their self-study skills, and practice more frequently

In addition, 27 out of 30 students affirmed that learning pronunciation via ELSA was helpful The same number stated that they were more confident with their pronunciation Besides, ELSA was also appreciated by 18 students because of its convenience

With its benefits, 26 students claimed that they liked learning English pronunciation with ELSA Only one student disagreed with the statement Furthermore, a majority of them (27 students) declared to continue learning English pronunciation with ELSA in the future

Students also recognized their improvement in specific aspects of pronunciation In terms of Stop consonants, sixteen people agreed and fourteen people strongly agreed that the pronunciation of these consonants has improved With Fricative consonants, there were still three strongly disagreed and four disagreed that their pronunciation of these consonants had improved, four people gave a neutral opinion; on the contrary, eleven people agreed and eight strongly agreed that their pronunciation of these consonants improved Regarding Affricate, there were still two strongly disagreed and two disagreed that their pronunciation of these consonants has improved, three people gave a neutral opinion; however, thirteen people agreed and ten strongly agreed that their pronunciation of these consonants improved Relating to Nasal and Lateral consonants, no one denied their improvements on theses aspects Moreover, ten people agreed and twenty people strongly agreed that they made progress in pronouncing these sounds With Approximant consonants, although fifteen people agreed and seven people strongly agreed that their pronunciation of these consonants had improved, there were still two people disagreeing with this view, and four people gave a neutral opinion Regarding Short vowels pronunciation, while twelve people agreed and eleven strongly agreed that their pronunciation of these vowels had been improved, one person strongly disagreed, three people disagreed and three people gave a neutral opinion on this view Statistics are also similar to long vowels pronunciation, when fourteen people agreed and eleven strongly agreed that their pronunciation of these vowels had improved, one person strongly disagreed, one disagreed and three gave a neutral opinion on this view With the pronunciation of Diphthongs, three people still disagreed and four people were neutral about using ELSA software helped them improve the pronunciation of these sounds, but twelve people agreed and ten people strongly agreed with this point of view Similar to the pronunciation of Triphthongs, one strongly disagreed, two people still disagreed and three people were neutral about using ELSA software helped them improve the pronunciation of these sounds; meanwhile, fifteen people agreed and nine strongly agreed that using the software helped them improve their pronunciation of these vowels In addition, twenty-four people agreed that their Intonation/ Stress had improved, two were neutral, two disagreed and two strongly disagreed with the idea that their Intonation/ Stress has improved Similarly, twenty-six people agreed that their Accent had improved, two people had a neutral opinion, two people disagreed with the view that their Accent improved after using ELSA software

However, there were also some disadvantages of the application All those participated in the survey agreed that ELSA is disabled when there is no internet connection Regarding the speech recognition ability of ELSA software, ten people strongly agreed, seven people agreed that sometimes this feature did not work correctly, and five people gave a neutral opinion Meanwhile, eight people disagree with this view.

The use of Elsa to learn English pronunciation

As presented in the previous chapter, the action plan lasted six weeks (from 28/02 - 31/3/2023) During this time, the researcher observed the students’ learning process Their performance was assessed by both ELSA and by the researcher based on Co.E’s phonological control descriptors In addition, teachers took notes of students’ problems and common mistakes to give feedback and assist them timely

In the first week, the students took the pre-test designed by ELSA The table below compares the pre-test scores assessed by ELSA (scale from 0-100) and Co.E rating scale (0-10)

Table 4.4 Students’ Pre-test scores assessed by ELSA and Co.E rating scale

As could be seen in Table 4.4, the scores given by both ELSA and Co.E are similar, which can be the base for the reliability of ELSA’s speech recognition features In the first meeting for the Q&A session, both students’ questions and the notes of students’ common mistakes and problems were discussed to ensure students knew what to do the following week

In the second week, the researcher introduced the students to the implementation of ELSA and provided them with Tips & Tricks for learning pronunciation The researcher also spent time answering students’ questions regarding the use of ELSA This was to ensure that students understood enough to use the application to learn in the following four weeks

As the first lesson had not started yet, there was no assessment in the second week However, the researcher did some reviews of English International Phonetic Alphabet for students so they were better prepared for the first lesson

The students took their first lesson in the third week, which focused on vowels As the students reviewed English International Phonetic Alphabet in the second week, just a few of them were confused with the symbols of the sounds However, it seemed that students struggled a lot when dealing with the length of the sound, especially with the sounds /I/ and /i:/ Students also complained that it was challenging for them to produce the sounds /V/ and /&/ The researcher then explained more about lip position, tongue position, and tongue height to enable students to produce more correct sounds Although there were stills and confusions, according to students’ feedback and the researcher’s observation, there were small improvements in students’ pronunciation Also, students became more interested in learning pronunciation as they saw their progress The observation results, evaluated by Co.E, were summarized in the table below:

Table 4.5 Observation results of the third week, based on the Co.E rating scale

The average score of Week 3 (7.3) was slightly higher than that of the first week (7.1), illustrating that minor progress was made by the students

The students learned about the vowels /ə/ and /ɜː/, diphthongs, and the consonants /əʊ/ and /aʊ/ in the fourth week This week, students seemed to be more confident in using the application because few questions were raised relating to how to use it In addition, there were also fewer complaints of the difficulties of pronouncing a sound Some common difficulties stated by students were that they mispronounced /p/ and they often added /ə/ after /b/ in a consonant cluster (for example, in “black”) The teacher then gave them some tips to articulate /p/ and combined /b/ with other consonants correctly The observation results (Co.E scale) of this week showed that more students made progress compared to the previous week The following table summarized the observation results

Table 4.6 Observation results of the fourth week, based on the Co.E rating scale

The increase in the student's average score in the fourth week compared to the first and the third one demonstrated that the students’ pronunciation gradually improved

This week’s lessons instructed students on how to pronounce /d/ and /t/; /g/ and /k/; /l/ and /r/; /tʃ/ and /dʒ/; and /f/ and /v/ In general, students clearly understood how to use the application to practice pronunciation Besides, they also knew how to move or control their vocal apparatus to produce more accurate sounds However, students still found it hard to produce the sound /dʒ/ and admitted that they often forgot the ending sounds After being guided on the way of pronouncing the sound /dʒ/ and encouraged by the teacher, students better understood and kept motivated to join the following week’s lessons

In terms of observation results, the average score continued to increase, which signaled the positive results of using ELSA Speak to improve students’ pronunciation

Table 4.7 below presents the students’ results in the fifth week

Table 4.7 Observation results of the fifth week, based on the Co.E rating scale

Students learned how to pronounce the sounds /ð/ and /θ/; /s/ and /z/; /ʃ/ and /ʒ/; /m/, /n/, and /ɳ/; and /h/, /j/ and /w/ in the final week Students did not have any difficulties pronouncing the nasal sounds However, it was challenging for students to pronounce /ð/ and /θ/ Although until this week they could use their vocal apparatus quite flexibly, it was still hard for them to combine those sounds with other ones (for example, “thanks”, “through”, “breathe”, or “southern”) The students also claimed that they had obstacles distinguishing /z/, /ʒ/, /j/, and /dʒ/ Then, the teacher let them practice pronouncing with mirrors so they could see how different their lips width, tongue height, tongue position, etc were

It took the students some time to recognize the difference; however, with the teacher’s guidance and their classmates’ sharing, they could understand and become more motivated to practice those sounds more

Students also took the Post-ELSA Assessment Test The student's performance was then re-evaluated by Co.E These results were presented in the following table:

Table 4.8 Students’ Post-test scores assessed by ELSA and Co.E rating scale

As could be seen, the scores given by ELSA (100-point scale) were in line with the ones by Co.E (10-point scale), which reinforces the precision of students’ results The following table compares students’ results scored by ELSA between the first week and the final week

Table 4.9 Students’ Pre-test and Post-test scores assessed by ELSA

Pre-test Post-test Difference

In general, through the process of learning with ELSA software, the results of the Post-test have increased significantly compared to the Pre-test Specifically, the average score of the Pre-test was only 71.6, after a period of studying with this software, the result of Post-test has increased to 84.6, with a difference of 13.1

The Minimum score increased from 60 to 73 This is a good result because after studying with ELSA software, the minimum scores that students achieve are all at a fair score or higher

The Maximum score increased with a difference of 11, from 83 to 94 This is also a good result because after studying with ELSA software, the maximum score achieved by the students was at the excellent level.

Discussion

4.3.1 Research question 1: To what extent does ELSA Speak application help to improve students’ pronunciation?

In terms of students’ pronunciation difficulties before using the ELSA Speak application, the two major ones were accents and vowels When using the application, students also shared that they found it challenging to produce some sounds, such as /V/, /&/, /ð/, /θ/, etc It was also hard for the students to distinguish /z/, /ʒ/, /j/, and /dʒ/, as well as deal with the length of vowels, i.e., /I/ and /i:/ The problems resulted from the fact that those sounds were absent in the Vietnamese language, and the students often tried to assimilate English sounds into Vietnamese sounds The findings were in line with some previous research For example, Cahyono and Nugroho (2011) investigated the error in the pronunciation of consonants made by EFL and found that students were challenged pronouncing p], [b], [t], [d], [k], [g], final sibilants [s], [z], [iz] initial and final affricates [ʒ], [ʃ] and interdentals [θ] or [ð] These scholars also stated that students often relate their native language to pronouncing English sounds, such as when producing the word "three" the students commonly pronounced [tri:] Similarly, Tiono & Yostanto (2008) also find that [V], [θ], [ð], [ʒ], [dʒ], and [t∫] were obstacles to students because they do not exist in the native language Rustipa (2014) also claims that it was challenging for students to pronounce Fricative consonants Vietnamese speakers have a variety of challenges while trying to acquire English pronunciation It might be challenging to understand English's complicated vowel system, notably the contrast between tense and lax vowels Additionally, the variations in consonant positions, consonant clusters, words, and tones present numerous challenges for Vietnamese English learners

However, after using ELSA Speak, students’ pronunciation was much improved The improvement was demonstrated through the test results The results of the Post-test were much higher than the Pre-test Specifically, it was 13.1 higher in terms of average score Both the minimum score and maximum score of the Post-test were greater, with an increase of 13 and 11, respectively Besides, the observation results, evaluated by the researcher based on the Co.E rating scale also provided the same results Students gradually made progress after each week They could pronounce more accurate sounds, and especially, they could flexibly control their vocal apparatus to produce the sounds without assimilating them into Vietnamese sounds

After using ELSA speak, all students claimed their pronunciation of stop, nasal, and lateral consonants A majority of students agreed or strongly agreed that their pronunciation improved in terms of other aspects, such as diphthongs or accents There were a few students who did not find themselves better at pronouncing fricative, affricate, approximant, vowels, triphthongs, and intonation/ stress, but the number was extremely small compared with those who found that they made better progress

The findings of the current study on the effectiveness of using ELSA Speak to improve students’ pronunciation are in line with Muamar (2022) The study found that ELSA helped eleventh-grade students in SMAN 9 Makassar enhance their pronunciation in general and pronounce diphthongs better in particular The student's pronunciation in the post-test was higher than in the pre-test, as evidenced by the mean scores of the pre andpost-tests In addition, the findings of Anh (2018), based on tests and observations, proved that ELSA implementation was successful in enhancing students' speaking fluency as well as their confidence and pronunciation abilities

Students acknowledged specific pronunciation-related improvements as well Sixteen respondents said that the pronunciation of stop consonants has improved With regard to fricative consonants, thirteen people agreed, and ten strongly agreed that their pronunciation of these consonants improved The same number of students claimed to be improved in terms of affricatives All students found themselves better at pronouncing Nasal and Lateral consonants Twenty-two participants said that their pronunciation of approximate consonants had improved Twenty-three students thought that their pronunciation of vowels had improved Similar statistics may be found for the pronunciation of long vowels, where fourteen participants agreed, and eleven strongly agreed that their pronouncing these vowels had improved, one participant disagreed, one participant strongly disagreed, and three participants provided a neutral opinion When it came to how ELSA software helped them enhance their pronunciation of diphthongs, 22 of them agreed with this statement It was similar to the case of pronouncing triphthongs Twenty-four respondents agreed that their intonation and stress had improved Additionally, 26 people reported an improvement in their accent after using ELSA software

The results are similar to those of Samad and Aminullah (2019) The respondents found that the application also makes good use of vowel sounds, diphthongs, consonant sounds, syllabic components, prominence, word/sentence stress, related speech phenomena, and intonation Kholis (2021) also stated that the ELSA Speak Application can help enhance student motivation and pronunciation abilities, as demonstrated by the performance of the students and the results The students can mimic and hear sounds much like they do in their own tongue

The system may automatically receive the student's voice recording and correct it to make it sound good Indeed, students can expand their vocabulary in English With the help of this software, students can successfully become involved in language learning In fact, by using the ELSA Speak Application in pronunciation class, students were more motivated to study and could successfully engage in the learning process

With the help of the tools offered by the ELSA Speak app, students can simply and independently discover a wide range of native-English vocabulary and phrases Additionally, it included other amenities including tools for creating communication, learning tasks for oneself, and speech correction The students learned more about

English grammatical structures and even input on English pronunciation They immediately revised after realizing their errors The student's pronunciation skills were also demonstrated to be improved by using the Elsa Speak Application by Rismawati et al (2021)

In general, ELSA Speak was highly appreciated in terms of improving students’ pronunciation skills

4.3.2 Research question 2: What are the students’ attitudes toward the implementation of ELSA in learning English pronunciation?

The students' opinions toward using ELSA Speak to enhance their pronunciation were favorable In terms of interest, self-evaluation, self-study abilities, and frequent practice, the respondents highly rated ELSA The positive attitudes of students were also concluded by other researchers (Samad & Aminullah, 2019; Hidayati & Rosyid, 2020; Darsih et al., 2020; Rismawati et al., 2021)

All students specifically agreed or strongly agreed that ELSA learning was more engaging than conventional approaches Additionally, they all stated that the software has given them the tools to assess their pronunciation, enhance their ability to learn on their own and practice more frequently In order to provide extensive and immediate feedback on Pronunciation, Fluency, Intonation, Listening, Word Stress, and even Grammar and Vocab, the ELSA application collected and analyzed audio data It also estimated equivalent speaking scores of standardized tests like IELTS/TOEFL, etc ELSA also has a tool called Speech Analyzer that can record real-time audio, transcribe it, and analyze it to provide immediate feedback on grammar, vocabulary, intonation, and pronunciation as well as forecast IELTS/TOEFL speaking test scores Additionally, almost all students said that ELSA was useful for learning pronunciation The same number of people claimed to have improved their pronunciation Aside from that, ELSA was also praised for its practicality It is comprehensible as students could use ELSA to practice anywhere at any time provided that they have an internet connection The widespread use of smartphones facilitates students to practice frequently as they can use the application whenever they have free time Most of them said they would keep studying English pronunciation with ELSA in the future

According to Samad and Aminullah (2019), students believe that the ELSA Speak software's content design is excellent and that the program effectively covers the subject in accordance with the suggested objective and competency level Hidayati and Rosyid (2020) conducted a qualitative study with 30 students from the English Education Study Program The information was acquired using questionnaires, focused group discussions, and observation The results also demonstrate that students improve their English pronunciation skills using the ELSA Speak program The students also believe the ELSA Speak software's assessment/ flexibility design is excellent The students unanimously concur that the activities' feedback provides clear explanations Additionally, students can select their activity's level of difficulty and can view the outcome In both the experimental class and the control class, Rismawati et al (2021) discovered that the majority of the students tended to have more positive indicators than negative indicators during the lesson, including aspects of cognition, affect, and conduct This demonstrated that the majority of the students behaved well in class throughout the course The outcome, however, also revealed a contrast between the attitudes of the students in the experimental class and the control class The experimental class had a better attitude than the control class The findings demonstrated that there were more students overall in the experimental class than in the control class Thus, it can be said that the Elsa app is efficient for both teaching pronunciation and keeping students interested in learning English pronunciation They explained that the ELSA application may also make it simpler for the students to practice specific words and phrases With this software, learning the content was easier and more enjoyable Because they were expected to participate in the class, the students couldn't be stuffy, boring, tired, or similar, as this would prevent them from paying attention to the information being presented without taking any other unfavorable actions and would reduce pronunciation errors

However, students also listed a few drawbacks of the application All of the respondents concurred that ELSA was disabled in the absence of an internet connection Ten respondents strongly agreed that the ELSA software's voice recognition capability might be improved, but seven said it occasionally did not function well Hidayati and Rosyid (2020) also claimed that the difficulties with signal and network in the learning process were the main traps According to Darsih et al (2020), some levels were still locked and needed to be charged, which caused issues for some students Users must speak again since the ELSA Speak app's audio response is still insufficient to block out background noise

Overall, students had a very positive attitude toward the ELSA Speak application However, they also listed some limitations of the app.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Conclusions

The study aimed at investigating the use of the ELSA Speak Application to improve English pronunciation for the 11th graders at a high school in Hanoi To attain this aim, specific objectives were established, including:

- to find out how ELSA Speak application help to improve students’ pronunciation

- to identify the students’ attitudes toward the implementation of ELSA in learning English pronunciation

The study was conducted with 30 participants, who are 11 th graders at a school in Hanoi The research design chosen was action research to help the researcher answer the following research questions:

Question 1: To what extent does ELSA Speak application help to improve students’ pronunciation?

Question 2: What are the students’ attitudes toward the implementation of ELSA in learning English pronunciation?

The information was collected from the ELSA Speak application built-in tests in six weeks to know how ELSA Speak applications help to improve students’ pronunciation The questionnaire survey was used to determine the students’ attitudes toward the implementation of ELSA in learning English pronunciation The conclusion of the research on the use of the ELSA Speak Application to improve English pronunciation for the 11th graders at a high school in Hanoi was as follow:

(1) The student's pronunciation significantly improved after utilizing ELSA Speak The test results proved the improvement Results from the Post-test outperformed those from the Pre-test by a wide margin In terms of average score, it was 13.1 higher The Post-test had higher minimum and maximum scores, increasing by 13 and 11, respectively Additionally, the researcher's evaluation of the observational data using the Co.E rating scale produced the same outcomes After each week, the students made incremental progress They could pronounce sounds more precisely, and more importantly, they had better control over their vocal equipment, allowing them to generate the sounds without absorbing them into Vietnamese noises All students said they could pronounce stop, nasal, and lateral consonants after using ELSA Speak The majority of students agreed or strongly agreed that other parts of their pronunciation, including diphthongs or accents, had improved There were a tiny number of students who did not notice improvements in their ability to pronounce fricative, affricate, approximant, vowels, triphthongs, and intonation/stress, but their numbers pale in comparison to those who did

(2) The students had favourable attitudes toward the use of ELSA Speak to improve their pronunciation The fact that ELSA learning was more interesting than traditional methods was particularly acknowledged or highly supported by every student They all added that the program has provided them with the resources to evaluate their pronunciation, improve their capacity for independent learning, and engage in more regular practice The ELSA application gathered and analyzed audio data in order to provide thorough and rapid feedback on Pronunciation, Fluency, Intonation, Listening, Word Stress, and even Grammar and Vocab It also calculated the speaking scores that would have been obtained on tests like the IELTS, TOEFL, etc Another tool offered by ELSA is called Speech Analyzer, which can record real- time audio, transcribe, and analyze it to offer rapid feedback on grammar, vocabulary, intonation, and pronunciation as well as predict IELTS/TOEFL speaking test scores Additionally, practically all of the students mentioned how helpful ELSA was for learning pronunciation The same amount of people said their pronunciation had gotten better In addition, the usefulness of ELSA received recognition It makes sense because students could use ELSA to practice whenever they wanted, anywhere they had an internet connection Students can practice more often because of the widespread use of smartphones because they can access the program whenever they have free time The vast majority of them declared that they will continue learning English pronunciation with ELSA in the future.

Limitations

Firstly, due to the limitation of resources, the study was conducted with only thirty participants The research, if conducted on a larger scale, can probably be more persuasive and objectives There may also be more possibilities found

Secondly, because of the time restrictions, the action plan lasted only six weeks The students’ improvements may be more improved and more clearly to be seen if they were allowed to use ELSA Speak for a longer period of time

Finally, also resulting from the lack of time and resources, the study only focused on the use of the ELSA Speak application to learn pronunciation, whereas ELSA Speak also provided other features that could help students improve Grammar, Vocabulary, or Speaking It would be worthwhile to invest more effort in studying more aspects to help students improve their English.

Recommendations

The study has collected information relating to students’ process of learning pronunciation, including students’ opinions on the importance of English pronunciation, their interests in learning English pronunciation, the methods that they use to learn pronunciation, the time they are willing to spend on practicing English pronunciation, their difficulties in learning English pronunciation, their improvement after using ELSA Speak Application, and their attitudes towards using ELSA Speak Application, the following recommendations were proposed:

Firstly, ELSA Speak proved to be a good tool for teaching and learning pronunciation; therefore, it is recommended that English teachers use this application to help students improve their pronunciation Students had a lot of difficulties pronouncing some sounds that did not exist in their mother tongue, so the application could help them recognize the differences and imitate the correct sounds

Secondly, although ELSA Speak can help students practice pronunciation in the right way, teachers still need to monitor and encourage students to make sure students practice regularly and properly Although this is a user-friendly application, some students may find it difficult to use the application for the first few days, Teachers should have specific guidelines to help students be well-prepared before learning with the application

In addition, technology in general and the ELSA Speak application in particular are just supplementary to the teaching process Teachers should understand their significant role and pay close attention to students’ learning process They ought to check the correct pronunciation for new vocabulary carefully before lessons, and during lessons, teachers should have various activities to drill and help students correct their mistakes

Finally, the two favorite learning methods of students consist of watching English movies/ videos and listening to English songs Thus, it is advisable for teachers to include them in teaching pronunciation to motivate students Students in other classes may not have the same learning methods; therefore, teachers should understand their student's wants and needs to make effective teaching plans

As pronunciation is a very important aspect of learning a language, students should have specific timetables to practice pronunciation Students should also consult their teachers to have appropriate learning routines If using ELSA Speak, they should also find out about the features of the application to make the most use of the application

Firstly, educational institutions should have clear and specific plans for pronunciation in the curriculum to ensure the pronunciation learning and teaching process is implemented synchronously

Secondly, it is recommended to equip teachers and students with the necessary technology (i.e internet connection, speakers, pronunciation applications, etc.) to improve the quality of teaching and learning pronunciation

To ELSA Speak application developers:

As ELSA is disabled when there is no internet connection, it is also suggested to have an offline version so that learners can practice anywhere, at any time Besides, some learners complained that the speech recognition does not function properly sometimes so hopefully, this limitation can be fixed in the latest version

There is still more room in the field of mobile-assisted language learning Further researchers can investigate deeper into the use of ELSA Speak in improving other aspects of English learning They can also study the use of other applications or methods to help students better at English pronunciation

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I am conducting research named “Using ELSA Speak Application to Improve English Pronunciation for the 11 th Graders at a High School in Hanoi” Your assistance in completing the survey is highly appreciated I commit that the data collected are only for the study purpose

3 How long have you been learning English? _ year(s)

4 Do you own a smartphone? 1- Yes 2- No

II The current situation of learning English pronunciation:

5 From 1-4, please specify your opinion on the importance of English pronunciation:

6 From 1-4, please specify your opinion on your interest in learning English pronunciation:

7 What methods have you applied to learn pronunciation? (You can select more than 1 option)

8 How many hours per week do you spend practicing English pronunciation?

9 What are the difficulties you have in learning English pronunciation? (You can select more than 1 option)

 Diphthongs (ɪə, eə, ʊə, eɪ, aɪ, ɔɪ, əʊ, aʊ)

 Triphthongs (eɪə, aɪə, ɔɪə, əuə, auə)

After six weeks of using ELSA Speak Application, I would like to identify your attitudes toward the use of this application in learning pronunciation Your assistance in completing the survey is highly appreciated I commit that the data collected are only for the study purpose

Please specify your level of agreement with the following statements based on the scale below:

Level of Agreement (Unit: People)

1 It is helpful to learn pronunciation via ELSA

2 Learning pronunciation with ELSA is more interesting than traditional methods

3 ELSA helps me evaluate my pronunciation

4 ELSA makes my self-study skills improve

5 I practice pronunciation more frequently with ELSA

6 I am more confident in my pronunciation

7 My pronunciation is better in terms of: