An aid to study phonetics: Wireframe and Storyboard of a cell phone application as an educational tool for students of the english literature major at the University of Cuenca

Abstract

Future English teachers at the University of Cuenca have demonstrated to have certain difficulties while producing English vowel and consonant sounds that are unfamiliar and different in pronunciation from the ones in their mother tongue. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to design a wireframe and storyboard of a mobile application prototype as an aid to practice and improve English pronunciation. In order to fulfill this goal, the most common pronunciation errors were elicited from fourth semester students coursing Phonetics through a diagnostic pronunciation test, which demonstrated that participants had difficulties while pronouncing certain English vowel and consonant sounds. In addition, two surveys were administered in order to determine the participants’ internet accessibility, their methods for practicing English sounds, and their positive or negative observations on the prototype. Survey results indicate that the vast majority of participants have smartphones with internet access, almost always use the internet to practice their pronunciation on English sounds, and are willing to use the proposed mobile application as an aid to study Phonetics. The most common pronunciation errors listed in this thesis may serve as future reference for EFL teachers to plan their classes precisely and address these problems from the start.