The design of an instrument to evaluate software for EFL/ESL pronunciation teaching

Abstract

This study aimed at designing an instrument composed of 72 questions that evaluate the extent to which software programs teach pronunciation of English as a Foreign Language and/or Second Language (EFL/ESL) following the principles of the Communicative Approach (Celce-Murcia et al, 2010). The designed instrument was tested for reliability and validity. For this purpose, 46 EFL/ESL teachers used the instrument to analyze an online version of the software program Pronunciation Power 2. The participants' answers to the questions were subjected to reliability and validity tests. The results of these statistical tests suggest the instrument is potentially valid for evaluating EFL/ESL pronunciation teaching software.