Abstract
This study investigated the effects of explicit pronunciation instruction and instant feedback using automatic speech recognition (ASR) software on Japanese adult English learners. The participants were 26 Japanese speakers of English aged 22–77 years. The training intervention was a 90-minute workshop that included three minimal pairs of consonant instruction. The study concluded that explicit pronunciation instruction and pronunciation practice using ASR were effective for Japanese adult English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. The raters’ assessments showed that the participants’ pronunciation improved after they practiced using ASR, and the SPSS analysis revealed a moderate effect. The act of checking their pronunciation transcriptions on the ASR software increased the participants’ metacognition and awareness of their pronunciation. There was a positive correlation between human assessments and ASR. The completed ASR count scores correlated significantly with both pre- and post-intervention recordings.
https://ror.org/00m007a06 
