Most regular practices of teacher-action research in ELT consist of identifying performance problems and providing specific treatments for the sake of improvement. However, teacher-action research does not dictate a specific methodology. The present teacher-action research is concerned with the implementation of an Advanced Prosody course in the Tunisian higher education context. The course aims to raise students’ awareness of the interplay between experimental phonetics and speech technology in the development of computer-assisted pronunciation training (CAPT) systems and AI-powered pronunciation apps. Students’ engagement with the course as well as their beliefs and attitudes toward the utilization of AI-powered apps to learn English pronunciation were measured through an online survey. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of their responses revealed a high engagement with the course content. Although the participants expressed positive attitudes toward the use of these apps, their responses revealed a dual awareness. They acknowledged the distinct value of the teacher-student connection. They also acknowledged the necessity for teachers to embrace technology and become proficient in its efficient utilization. The findings are discussed within the ongoing debate about the integration of AI in the educational sphere.
Keywords: AI-powered pronunciation apps; CAPT systems; acoustic phonetics; prosody