THE USE OF GOOGLE TRANSLATE SPEAKER FOR STUDENTS' ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION AT SMA PGRI 1 PALEMBANG
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31851/za66sf18Keywords:
EFL Students, English Pronunciation, Google Translate Speaker, Pronunciation Practice, Text-to-SpeechAbstract
This study investigates how eleventh-grade students at SMA PGRI 1 Palembang use the Google Translate Speaker feature to improve their English pronunciation and explores the benefits and challenges they encounter. Adopting a descriptive qualitative approach, data were collected through three classroom observations, a Likert-scale questionnaire completed by 27 students, and semi-structured interviews with nine purposively selected participants. Data were analyzed using Miles and Huberman's interactive model. The findings indicate that students used the feature by typing words, listening to the audio model, imitating the pronunciation, replaying the recording, and comparing it with their own speech. The tool provided accessible pronunciation models, promoted independent learning, increased motivation, and enhanced students' confidence in speaking English. However, participants also reported several challenges, including the absence of immediate corrective feedback, technical issues, inconsistent audio quality, and confusion over different English accents. The findings highlight the pedagogical value of Google Translate Speaker as a supplementary pronunciation tool for EFL learning while emphasizing the importance of teacher guidance and complementary instructional strategies. By documenting students' authentic experiences in a natural classroom setting, this study contributes to research on technology-assisted pronunciation learning and offers practical implications for digital language instruction and classroom speaking practice.
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