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The Korean Association for the Study of English Language and Linguistics
[ Article ]
Korea Journal of English Language and Linguistics - Vol. 24, No. 0, pp.1300-1317
ISSN: 1598-1398 (Print) 2586-7474 (Online)
Print publication date 31 Jan 2024
Received 15 Oct 2024 Revised 15 Nov 2024 Accepted 23 Nov 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15738/kjell.24..202411.1300

The Effects of Prosody Training with AI Chatbot on the English Pronunciation Improvement of Korean EFL Learners

Sohyun Yoo ; Hyunkee Ahn
(first author) PhD student, Department of English Language Education, College of Education, Seoul National University yoosh111@snu.ac.kr
(corresponding author) Professor, Department of English Language Education, College of Education, Seoul National University ahnhk@snu.ac.kr


© 2024 KASELL All rights reserved
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of prosody training using pitch contour feedback on the English pronunciation of Korean elementary school students. The aim was to evaluate whether this training could lead to significant improvements in pronunciation. The study involved 18 fifth-grade students who participated in a twoweek intensive program using AI PengTalk, a chatbot developed to support Korean elementary school students’ English learning on a national scale. The participants practiced aligning their pitch contours with those of native English speakers using the tool. The effectiveness of the training was evaluated through AI PengTalk’s automated pronunciation scoring and assessments by native English speakers, who rated pronunciation based on nativeness and intelligibility, using a 5-point Likert scale and a ratio scale, respectively. Additionally, the study explored the transferability of the training to unpracticed sentences. Although the automated scoring did not reveal statistically significant differences, assessments by native English speakers indicated notable enhancements in pronunciation regarding both nativeness and intelligibility. Furthermore, the training effect was generalized to novel sentences that were not explicitly practiced during the sessions. These findings suggest that prosody training with pitch contour feedback is a promising approach for improving English pronunciation among young Korean EFL learners.

Keywords:

prosody training, AI chatbot, English pronunciation, Korean elementary school learners, EFL education

Acknowledgments

This paper is based on the first author’s master’s thesis.

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