Pham Vi Thi Tuong, Pham Anh Tuan
Foreign Language Department, Can Tho College, Can Tho City, Vietnam.
English Department, FPT University, Can Tho City, Vietnam.
PLoS One. 2025 Jan 9;20(1):e0317378. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0317378. eCollection 2025.
Clear and accurate pronunciation plays an essential role in communicating effectively and significantly affects English learners' proficiency. ELSA Speak has been used in some schools due to its benefits to help learners improve English pronunciation. However, to optimize the application, a better understanding of EFL learners' satisfaction with ELSA Speak is essential. The novelty of this study is assessing how English major students were satisfied with using ELSA Speak to enhance their pronunciation and explore key factors that contributed to positive users' experience. Two hundred and five English major students at a Vietnamese higher education institution were surveyed by a 23-item questionnaire classified into four variables: perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, confirmation, and satisfaction. The findings recorded a high level of satisfaction among participants. Moreover, although both perceived ease of use and confirmation showed a considerable impact on learners' satisfaction, confirmation was reported to be the determining antecedent of satisfaction. Perceived usefulness was directly influenced by perceived ease of use and had a stronger influence on confirmation compared to perceived ease of use. However, perceived usefulness did not have a directly significant correlation with learners' satisfaction. These results can add evidence of learners' satisfaction with using ELSA Speak, explain some elements affecting satisfaction, and suggest employing ELSA Speak in pronunciation courses with careful consideration of the content and teacher support as a facilitator.
清晰准确的发音在有效沟通中起着至关重要的作用，并对英语学习者的熟练程度有重大影响。ELSA Speak因其有助于学习者提高英语发音的益处而在一些学校得到应用。然而，为了优化其应用，更好地了解外语学习者对ELSA Speak的满意度至关重要。本研究的新颖之处在于评估英语专业学生对使用ELSA Speak来提高发音的满意度，并探索促成积极用户体验的关键因素。越南一所高等教育机构的205名英语专业学生通过一份包含23个项目的问卷进行了调查，该问卷分为四个变量：感知有用性、感知易用性、确认和满意度。研究结果显示参与者的满意度较高。此外，虽然感知易用性和确认都对学习者的满意度有相当大的影响，但据报告确认是满意度的决定性前提。感知有用性直接受到感知易用性的影响，并且与感知易用性相比，对确认的影响更强。然而，感知有用性与学习者的满意度没有直接的显著相关性。这些结果可以补充学习者对使用ELSA Speak满意度的证据，解释一些影响满意度的因素，并建议在发音课程中使用ELSA Speak时要仔细考虑内容和教师作为促进者的支持。
