Improving EFL Students' Intonation In-Text Using Shadowing Technique with the Implementation of Google Text-to-Speech
Keywords:
Intonation in text, default tone, Google Text-to-Speech, shadowing techniquesAbstract
Intonation, a feature of pronunciation that embarks on how an utterance is produced with respect to the notion of accent, stress and the rising/falling pitch, has always been considered troublesome to second language learners due to its connection to personal emotion. Recently, greater attention has been drawn from academia to the investigation of the potential solution. In contribution to the existing research, this paper is to shed light on the impact of shadowing technique with the aid of spoken text features by Google Text-to-Speech on removing learner's flat tone as well as achieving basic English intonation in text, provided that the tool is adopted intensively throughout a pre-designed training course. In the study, a pretest-posttest method is employed in one same sample, with the pre-scheduled experimental period being the control group and post-training being the treatment group. After ten weeks of intensive training program following a detailed syllabus, the posttest results, which are computerized using Speech Analyzer, indicates that the participants benefit from the training in terms of intonation in the text as there is a positive difference in scores achieved by the treatment group, benchmarked against the control group. However, due to the rather small size of the population, the study failed to generalize its findings. The implementation of spoken texts in Google Text-to-Speech tool and Speech Analyzer software will be further discussed in this study.
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