Pronunciation is the most challenging skills of students. Many students spent years trying to be understood when speaking English without much success. The knowledge of how to pronounce English words correctly is the key. By learning the IPA, you can know how to look up words for pronunciations. “English Phonetic pronunciation, practice Listening practice” have a list of common English words and their pronunciation rules.

The students from Computer Science have two English courses. First quarter, it is an introduction English course, with English as a Foreign Language (EFL) content. Second quarter, it is a technical English that we consider as English for Specific Purposes (ESP) content. In both, oral communication is needed.

English teachers tend to be more inclined to written communication, which generates a deficiency in the oral communication of students in this career. This is the reason why many students feel frustrated and not motivated to pursue the study of this much-needed language in their studies.

“As the access to technology, software, and application has been granted, accordingly, more and more educators and researchers have paid attention to technology integration and use” (Fernandes et al. 2020; Russell et al. 2003).

 

The increased use of applications tends to be more attractive to students in general, but these Computer Science students who have constant contact with technology increases the possibility of their interest. This panorama makes our study of integrating the English Phonetic Pronunciation, Listening Practice application as a complement to the classes they take throughout their career more interesting. The biggest challenge for them is oral communication and that is why our project is aimed at working with a self-taught digital tool that will make the student feel ready to express himself orally without fear of making pronunciation errors, which is the greatest fear.

 

This application will be suggested by the teacher without any summative evaluation, only use as a complement, it helps the student feel more confident when speaking or reading aloud in front of the class when required.

The fears of speaking in front of the classroom will be reduced and the student will be able to understand the different sounds that are in the English language facilitating their understanding in the English language.

Knowing the phonemes helps to deepen the knowledge of pronunciation which in effect will help them to recognize sounds just by seeing the symbols in a dictionary or translator. We know that articulation and listening is important that is why within the app lessons, practical and repetition lessons are provided that help to acquire those sounds that were previously unknown, making easier the production of the language within oral communication.

Many of the reasons that students or native speakers do not understand the language is due to the lack of knowledge of the correct pronunciation of a word 

Students from Computing Science at ISAE university will be part of this study knowing their English level is low and intermediate. This is the third quarter of 20 students coursing in the evening schedule. Our study will collect information for this shift taking in consideration 2 hours of the English classes. 

 

Projecting our study bringing a pronunciation app as a complement in the English classes that could help students and teachers during some oral activities make the class environment more comfortable to speak. 

The research is convenient because it will help us to know the benefits that the integration of this application can generate within the English classes in Computer Science. Recognizing the deficiencies in oral communication and how this app can improve it by taking the student to a more active participation in English classes, can be an answer to our problem.

It is well known that the 3rd person singular inflection in English is considered an introductory concept for second/foreign language learners as it is one of the first grammatical rules taught by teachers to L2 learners of English at college level. In addition, according to Krashen (1982), English verbal agreement is commonly described as “easy” and the 3rd person singular – s is one of the most understandable concepts to learn of English grammar. Although both researchers and ESL teachers seem to agree in the fact that the third person singular rule is very simple, there is some variability in its use by learners, and it seems that there are not so many students that apply the rule, even when referring to L2 learners with an advanced level of English (Hironymous, 1993). 

Likewise, it is good to say that the good pronunciation of the English language for a L2 speaker, in this case 3rd person singular inflection, is something that determine the competence of the speaker in the correct use of the language.

 

On the other hand, teachers' technical knowledge of phonetics is crucial in teaching pronunciation. Knowing how to produce sounds to be understood (intelligibility and comprehensibility) is a task that English teachers should manage to provide their learners with meaningful learning activities in the language classroom. Even when non-native speakers teachers of the English language could lack mastering some phonetics aspects of the target language, there are some basic concepts that they need to teach to their learners to push them to use the target language accurately.

 

According to (Atli, 2012) "regardless of the changing trends in or attitudes towards pronunciation teaching, it has always been acknowledged that pronunciation is a fundamental part of one's oral ability in the target language." So teaching pronunciation in the language classroom is not optional. Many authors recommend exposing students to listening and speaking activities to develop their oral communication skills. (Celce-Murcia, 2010) indicates that "teachers of English as a foreign language, who are not native speakers, are expected to serve as the major model and source of input in English for their students." 

 

According to (Griffiths, 2011), teachers have neglected the teaching of pronunciation. They concur that when pronunciation is studied or focused on in the classrooms, it tends to deal with specific pronunciation problems that happen in the precise moment of student performance. For this reason, it is of vital importance for teachers to have well-developed plans to address pronunciation problems in the best possible way.

   Besides, learners will be asked to download the App in their cellphones or computers, and they will be guided by the researchers how to use it, first. Then, they will distinguish the pronunciation of plural nouns endings for a period of four weeks by using the tool. 

 

So, for helping students to achieve clear pronunciation, teachers need to plan activities that go beyond repeat after me, so learners should notice how to pronounce the sounds and understand them when they hear them. 

 

Finally, using technologies provides teachers and learners an approximation of English sounds and features that they need to master when using the idiom. So, we are aware that to come up with a virtual online teaching and learning tool will be beneficial not only for students but also for English teachers facing the same pronunciation difficulties.

English is the most spoken language around the world, and many people worldwide use it as their first or even their second language, and it tends to have an important role in all fields.

Grammar refers to the rules of structure. Concerning the structure, it is the basic knowledge and skills for understanding the language naturally constructed and used.

 The teaching of grammar has always been a central aspect of foreign language teaching because grammatical competence is necessary for communication to take place. Preparing the students for grammar is very important.

A student must know for certain what he writes and speaks correct English or to know whether or not the sentence pattern is correct, he must know the rules of English or its grammar because English grammar is the key to proficiency.

Grammar lays the groundwork for effective communication. When people speak with proper grammar, not only will others be interested in and able to understand what you have to say, but they also will be much more likely to see you as intelligent, logical, and educated. 

Unlike written English, spoken English is usually spontaneous and unplanned and produced in real-time with no opportunity for editing (Cullen and Kuo 2007). This spontaneity produces some distinct features, as speakers deal with and adapt to the pressures of “real-time processing,” resulting in a “step-by-step assembly” of speech (Cullethe, nature and characteristics of conversational English itself lead to several distinct grammatical features of spoken English as speakers try to fulfill the interpersonal and interactive functions of spoken language in real-time). Not learning features of spoken grammar can impede students’ ability to speak English fluently and appropriately (Mumford 2009). 

Grammar is the heart of language: grammar and its role in language learning among Finnish university students. It seems evident that language education can benefit from the knowledge of learner views in specific speech communities (Niedzielski & Preston 2003; Preston 2004, 2006; Wilton & Stegu 2011). “Grammar is learning of the structure of language. The basis for spoken and written language”.

Speechnotes is a wonderful professional speech recognition text editor. It gives accurate speech recognition, right from your browser. Just head to Speechnotes.co; click on the microphone button and start dictating. You can then copy and paste the text into any application you want. It could be Gmail or Word. It is that simple. No registration and no payment.

Simple Present often makes students confused. This is the case of adding the final -es or -s for the singular third person, for example, she goes to campus every day.

This study would identify the common errors made by the students about their use of Simple Present, more specifically the students’ use of third-person singular verb forms in Simple Present Sentences focused on speaking skills. Subsequently, this study will describe the factors of errors either from the perspective of L1 interference or L2 overgeneralization.

This is the case why we are going to see if the use of speechnotes can improve students speaking skills.

 

In learning English as a foreign language or second language, mispronounce may occur since English phonological system is different from the native language. Lanteigne (2006: 3) confirms that difficulties in learning English occur due to the fact that some of English sounds do not exist in the mother tongue of the learners.

 

According Peter Roach, 2000 phonetics is the science of speech sounds, which aims to provide the set of features or properties that can be used to describe and distinguish all the sounds used in human language. Having in consideration this explanation about the meaning of phonetics teachers can provide some activities and online tools can improve student’s pronunciation. This type of methodology will help to guide students and how to have a good pronunciation according the positions of fricative labiodental or others sounds.

 

According to Hamer (2003: 57) Teachers are facilitator and they had to facilitate the students in their English language learning.

teacher must be able to select suitable and appropriate resources to facilitate the students‟ English language learning. 

 

On the other hands, technology has been trending new ways to improve pronunciation and help non-native speaker’s teachers to develop some strategies to avoid the errors that ESL learners make, the teacher needs to realize how important pronunciation is for those students who can not pronounce well and try to implement some strategies to achieve the learner’s goals.

 

Some Panamanian students prefer to speak with one another in Spanish rather than English. Other students believed it was a nuisance if they saw other students using English in the classroom while studying or simply chit-chatting with their pals. It causes them to have no time to utilize English, causing a few students in Panama to fall behind in terms of using English as an international language when compared to students in other nations. However, regardless of the phonological element structure assumed for an English intonation contour, we can distinguish between two general structural aspects of the pit, according to Halliday (1967).

 

Based on the foregoing description of the Intonation difficulties, there is a likelihood that the introduction of technology will have a good impact on freshman BA in English students. This study will look into The Use of Screencast-O-Matic to improve Intonation in freshman BA in English students at Universidad Técnologica Oteima, especially when it comes to using a computer for pedagogical purposes.

 

With this research we are trying to describe the implementation of SOM (Screencast-O-Matic) in the improvement of intonation in the English language.

 

Besides, with the use of SOM (Screencast-O-Matic) learners will be able to listen and reproduce something closer to the right pitch when speaking in English.

 

So, by acquiring the correct intonation and improving their conversational skills students will be able to engage more thoroughly with teachers and help others to improve as well.

 

Finally, using Screencast-O-Matic will not only benefit students learning English as a second language, but it will also help English facilitators provide a closer English Intonation (pitch) to master the Language in an easier way.

According to the authors (Harris and Graham, 2007). Reading comprehension is the process of constructing meaning by coordinating a number of complex processes that include word reading, word and world knowledge, and fluency Readers comprehend a text when they are able to communicate with a text.

In other hands, reading comprehension is interaction between the readers and the text in order to catch the information from written text. Besides, teaching and learning reading, the students are expected to be able to comprehend the reading passages they read well. 

Finally, as facilitators we are conscious with the implementation of a technological tool or strategy, we will help not only our students to improve their pronunciation.
Our first contribution is to provide our knowledge acquired during this master program concerning to the use of different virtual platforms, technological tools, applications and upgraded methodologies for the teaching of English as a second language. In addition, we are going to determine how effective is the use of a technological tool for improving a common pronunciation mistake not only for our 6th graders students at Atalaya Elementary School but also for many English as a second language learners around the world. As a final contribution, our research will inspire to other teachers to continue looking for another technological tools and strategies in order to improve any other teaching-learning problems.

In our research we will use ReadTheory website that which to help us to measure the reading comprehension ability of the students during the uses of the tool before and after of your English course.      

This study will be developed in a pre-experimental design to analyze the effects of the use of Grammarly application to correct spelling and punctuation mistakes in the academic writing at Universidad Tecnologica Oteima. Furthermore, to develop this research and collect the data the research population will be the English student’s department at Universidad de Panama. Besides, Students in the first level of the English Education Study Program at Universidad Tecnologica Oteima will take part in this study. This will be selected randomly as research samples.

Next, Students will compose the academic writing as a pre-test to determine the student’s difficulties, has in spelling and punctuations in academic writing at Universidad Tenologica Oteima, with the collaborative participant pre-testing method will use. I choose this issue of the punctuation errors and spelling mistakes focusing on the composition class because one of the biggest mistakes Spanish speakers makes when writing in English is to assume the Spanish punctuation is the same as in English and ignoring the importance of using punctuation rules in academic writing. It will be beneficial not only to our students and ourselves, but other English teachers and students facing the same punctuation errors in academic writing 

The reason of this topic is identify the problems that the students find at the moment to read and comprehend a text. For that reason, the reading comprehension is a skill that the students need to develop during the English language learning process. For this situation we will to use ReadTheory website to enhance the reading comprehension through of this educational tool. 

Finally, using the ReadTheory website help us to motivate the students to read using this tool as a method to comprehend the text easily and useful way. Beside, the learners will be able to increase their vocabulary, reinforce grammar structure and develop their self-learning solving quizzes, answer question, move to the level difficulty and website feedback.