The effect of time in computerized versus classroom instruction on the ability to correctly pronounce English words phonetically transcribed into the International Phonetic Alphabet

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of time in computerized versus classroom instruction on the ability to correctly pronounce English words phonetically transcribed into the International Phonetic Alphabet .; Sixty-three (N = 63) instrumental musicians volunteered as subjects. The study used a pre- and posttest design and subjects' reading performances were audio recorded and graded on the number of words pronounced correctly. The pre- and posttests consisted of two different phonetic transcriptions of English, used by the International Phonetic Association for its standardized proficiency exam.; Following the pretest, subjects were randomly assigned to one of three groups: (1) Class Only, (2) Computer Only , and (3) Class and Computer. Subjects in the Class Only group (n = 21) received three forty-five minute lessons. Subjects in the Computer Only group received phonetic instruction using the software package Sounds Of English (Duanmu and Sergay, 1998). Subjects in the Class and Computer group received three forty-five minute lessons and had access to the Sounds Of English software. After a seven-day period of lessons or computer time subjects performed the posttest.; Results showed no significant differences among groups regarding pretest scores as would be expected. There were significant differences among groups regarding posttest scores. Scores from the Class and Computer group were highest, followed by the Class Only group. There were similar differences among groups regarding pre/posttest difference scores.; Two additional measures consisted of the total instruction time spent for each subject and a self-assessment of test difficulty. While subjects in the Computer Only group were responsible for scheduling their study time, subjects in the other groups attended classes, which totaled one hundred and thirty-five minutes. Post hoc analysis of total time spent in the project revealed significant differences among the three groups. There were also significant differences regarding test difficulty.; Findings for this research suggest that choral conductors can teach the symbols of the IPA efficiently to inexperienced adult singers within a short period of time. Also, there was a direct correlation between the total time subjects spent learning the IPA symbols and their posttest scores.