Computer-Assisted Instruction in Pronunciation for Chinese Speakers of American English

This article represents a synthesis of concepts from contrastive phonology, speech processing, TESOL, and computer-assisted instruction for the purpose of improving the communication skills of international teaching assistants in U.S. colleges and universities. Although the focus is on speakers of Chinese, most of the concepts are equally applicable to speakers of other East Asian languages. Methods of interpreting and utilizing visual displays of speech patterns are presented throughout, with examples of both segmental and suprasegmental phonology. Recent research in electrical engineering to produce voiceactivated machinery has resulted in the production of many efficient and low-cost machines for analyzing pronunciation. This article presents the results of 4 years of research at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the application of such machines to language education. The research was prompted by the need to improve the communication skills of international teaching assistants. In the face of the large and growing proportion of international students and the limitations on ESL programs, effective teaching of pronunciation is emerging as an important goal for the needs of these students as well as those of academic institutions. Because we still have no widely standardized entrance examination of pronunciation, many high-quality international students with reasonable vocabularies and grammar are admitted to universities, even though their pronunciation of English makes them difficult to understand. Though the focus in this article is on the needs of Chinese students, most of the concepts are equally applicable to speakers of other East Asian languages, especially Japanese and Korean. Mandarin Chinese was chosen as the Li because of its strong