Literature Review

The study titled ‘Internet-based Pronunciation Teaching: An Innovative Route Toward

Rehabilating Turkish EFL Learners’ Articulation Problems’ was carried out in 2010 by Murat
Hismanoglu and Sibel Hismanoglu from European University of Lefke. The study attempted to
find out which English vowels cause articulation problems for Turkish EFL learners and reveal
whether students taught via internet-based pronunciation materials by their teacher are better at
articulating problematic English vowels than those taught via printed pronunciation materials by
their teacher. To achieve this purpose, thirty students’ voices were recorded as they read aloud
thirty words with problematic English vowels. After writing the impressionistic transcriptions of
the words with problematic vowels on the tables and calculating the average number of correctly
articulated or misarticulated words, problematic English vowels for Turkish EFL learners were
identified through concrete evidence. After the determination process, three problematic English
vowels were taught to the students in the experimental group via internet-based pronunciation
lessons. However, students in the control group were not exposed to internet-based
pronunciation lessons but pronunciation instruction in a traditional fashion. Then, the post test
data were analyzed to see whether Turkish EFL learners can solve their articulation problems
with three problematic English vowels and hence improve their L2 pronunciation by being
exposed to internet-based pronunciation lessons. The results of the study showed that /  /, /
 / and /  / were three most problematic English vowels for Turkish EFL learners and that
Turkish EFL learners can solve their articulation problems with three problematic English vowels
by being exposed to internet-based pronunciation lessons.

Andrés Roberto Rengifo had conducted a research titled ‘Improving Pronunciation through the
Use of Karaoke in an Adult English Class’ in 2009. The participants were a group of around 12-
15 adult students in an adult English education institute; their ages ranged from 18 to 60.
Students often have difficulty and experience lots of problems with pronunciation in English. The
research project intended to show how students can improve their pronunciation through the
use of karaoke in their English class. By using karaoke, the teacher designed activities and
involved students to improve their pronunciation. Students’ progress was analyzed in order to
arrive at a conclusion of the effectiveness of the karaoke sessions. It was also shown that the
karaoke classes offer a lot of fun and creativity while students cooperate with each other to
achieve their pronunciation goals. Taking into account the research question proposed for this
project and based on all the information collected, it could be concluded that karaoke activities
promoted learning in a laidback environment. The participants were more eager and motivated
to learn through implementing the teaching strategy. Overall, there was improvement in the
participants’ pronunciation. Karaoke, by itself, could be monotonous and a quick plan to have
fun; but complemented with activities and tasks, karaoke itself could be the leading point to
bring more original activities into the classroom without neglecting communicative, intellectual
and social factors. Therefore, activities could be implemented into a serious and responsible
syllabus.