Interplay Between Pronunciation-focused Corrective Feedback and Online Educational Synchronic Software in an ESP Course

The affordances of technological devices for L2 teaching and computer-mediated communication (CMC) effect for all corrective feedback types in itself has drawn attention in the literature. However, there is a paucity of research to address the interplay between pronunciation, word stress, rhythm and intonation generated corrective feedback and educational synchronic software involved in ESP courses. In order to bridge the gap in this investigation, framed in a quasi-experimental design, the researchers selected 60 participants registered in guidance and counseling course in Islamic Azad University in a northern branch through convenience sampling design. They were randomly assigned into experimental/intervention & control group (n=30) in each group. In the control group, however, the lecturer corrected the students’ mistakes in respect to segmental and suprasegmental pronunciation traits. In the experimental group, the software (App) detected the students’ segmental and suprasegmental mistake and it gave them a chance to correct themselves. The software was designed in such way that the participants had to pronounce the given content and they pronounced a word or a sentence several times in order to pronounce it accurately.  The MANCOVA was utilized to analyze the data. Findings showed that providing online generated feedback by online educational synchronic Application in the experimental group could develop the ESP learners’ suprasegmental instructional targets (especially 'Word stress' (p = .01), 'Intonation' (p = .000), and segmental instructional target i.e., ‘pronunciation ' (p = .004), but not ‘Rhythm' (p = .14, p > .05) significantly. The present study has some ramification for ESP instructors to find innovative ways i.e.  the use of online educational synchronic to develop students’ pronunciation skill, especially suprasegmental.