Examining the Effects of Self-Evaluation in an EFL Pronunciation Class

The study investigated the effects of self-evaluation of pronunciation on three aspects: Self-evaluation skills, perception and production. Fifty EFL learners enrolled in a pronunciation course participated in the study. They all made in-class recordings of selected features every week, and only the experimental group carried out self-evaluations by identifying appropriate and inappropriate forms in comparison with the recorded native speaker's pronunciation throughout the semester. In order to examine the treatment effect, three measures (test of self-evaluation, speech perception test, oral test of pronunciation) were used. The data were collected during the first and fifteenth week for pre-post analyses. According to the results of independent t-test analyses, there was a statistically significant difference between two groups in self-evaluation skills and perceptual ability, but not in production although the experimental group showed progress in production compared with the pre-test. The findings suggest that through practice of self-evaluation, learners improve the ability to assess their own pronunciation and that the activity can function as self-directed perception training.