Impact of Explicit Phonetic Instruction on Students’ Production of English Speech Sounds

Abstract

Explicit Phonetic Instruction refers to the systematic and direct approach to
pronunciation teaching that embodies instructional methods as well as delivery
procedures. Its significance cannot be overlooked in the EFL/ESL context. It enables
the language learners to learn better through simplified input and corrective feedback.
The present study examines the impact of Explicit Phonetic Instruction on the
students’ production of English Speech Sounds. The participants of the study were
eighty students divided into two groups; the Experimental Group, and the Control
Group. A pre-test was conducted for both groups to measure their performances before
Explicit Phonetic Instruction. After it, the Experimental Group was given Explicit
Phonetic Instruction for four weeks by the researcher while the Control Group was not
given any instruction regarding phonetics. A voice recorder was used to collect the data
for the present study. After a month, a post-test was also conducted for both the groups.
The data of the present study were analyzed statistically using SPSS software. The
results of the present study showed a significant difference (α ≤ 0.05) between the
performance of the participants of the Experimental Group in post-test.