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My project is finally completed and I am working on recording the data on a day to day basis in my classroom. As a French teacher, I found it quite frustrating when my students had twenty different pronunciations of the same word, and none of them were close to the actual pronunciation! Considering that pronunciation plays a large part in their oral mark, I knew I had to find a way for them to practice pronunciation on their own time, away from their peers. Working as an "online teacher" for the past three years, I have been given many ideas on how to deliver my course material online and make it interactive for my students. I took these ideas one step further and created audio PowerPoint presentations for my grade nines to download and practice at home.

In the PowerPoint, each slide represents a different part of the word they are learning to pronounce. As the different parts of the word are highlighted, an audio file automatically plays so that the student can hear the sound while they look at it. The word is reviewed again, at the end, and there is time for the student to repeat it. I did an online survey of students to see if this was something they would use (before I took the time to create it) and the answer was an overwhelming, YES!

I then focused on tracking the results of four particular students from my class. These four students did a preliminary oral test in which they read thirteen sentences they had not seen before, but which consisted of the words I used in my PowerPoint. I highlighted the words they mispronounced. I also kept a record of each time these particular students needed to be corrected for pronunciation during regular lessons. As well, I kept track of their classroom oral presentation marks. I will do a final assessment with these students, using the same thirteen sentences, in June before they write their final exam.

Comparing the two pages of sentences, and the words they pronounce incorrectly, will be the proof I need to tell me if audio files really can help in student pronunciation. So far, the data I have collected in class indicates that it does! My students seem a lot more confident in their oral abilities as well. I consider this project, time well spent!