Enhancing nonnative speech perception and production through an AI-powered application

Abstract: While research on using AI through various applications to enhance foreign language pronunciation is expanding, it has primarily focused on aspects such as comprehensibility and intelligibility, largely neglecting the improvement of individual speech sounds in both perception and production. This study seeks to address this gap by examining the impact of training with an AI-powered mobile application on nonnative sound perception and production. Participants completed a pretest assessing their ability to discriminate the second language English heed-hid contrast and produce these vowels in sentence contexts. The intervention involved training with the Speakometer mobile application, which incorporated recording tasks featuring the English vowels, along with pronunciation feedback and practice. The posttest mirrored the pretest to measure changes in performance. The results revealed significant improvements in both discrimination accuracy and production of the target contrast following the intervention. However, participants did not achieve native-like competence. These findings highlight the effectiveness of AI-powered applications in facilitating speech acquisition and support their potential use for personalized, interactive pronunciation training beyond the classroom.