Dictation programs for second language pronunciation learning: Perceptions of the transcript, strategy use and improvement
Dictation programs for second language pronunciation learning: Perceptions of the transcript, strategy use and improvement

Summary/Abstract: Despite growing evidence that ASR-dictation practice provides benefits for L2 pronunciation learners (Liakin, Cardoso, & Liakina, 2014; McCrocklin, 2019; Mroz, 2018, Wallace, 2016), there is little research into the ways students engage in ASR-dictation practice. This study examines learners’ perceptions of the ASR-generated transcript as feedback and strategy use during practice. Participants (N = 15) dictated 60 sentences to Google Voice Typing in Drive while being audio recorded. Following a mis-transcription, participants thought-aloud, discussing their interpretation of the transcript, utilized strategies and resources, and tried the sentence again with Google. Data analysis included qualitative analysis of think-aloud comments and quantitative analysis of both strategies used and improvement in dictation accuracy for subsequent attempts. Results showed that participants used the transcript to identify individual words with errors, but also hypothesized about segmentals and articulatory features causing errors. The most frequent strategy to improve production was covert rehearsal of target words, followed by listening to dictionary recordings of targets. Possibly novel pronunciation learning strategies were also documented, however. Participants were able to improve the accuracy of the transcript in subsequent attempts, earning a perfect transcription by the third attempt in the majority of cases (91%).

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