Solving The Puzzle of Speech Sounds in English Language: AI Prompts for Improvement in Pronunciation

Phonemes and allophones are speech units that help in solving the puzzle of speech sounds in English language. This paper aims to analyze the phonemes and allophones as sound segments. The combination of qualitative and quantitative methods will be used to show that artificial intelligence tools can also help in defining and distinguishing allophones and phonemes. This study investigates the knowledge of phonemes and allophones among second-year English language students at the Faculty of Philology within Goce Delcev University in Stip. The study assesses students' understanding of the segments through recognizing minimal pairs, phonemic differences, and allophonic variants such glottalization and aspiration. Questionnaires and short interviews with 25 participants were conducted in order to check students’ understanding and the current situation of the usage of AI in their studies. The findings indicate that while many students depend more on spelling than phonetic transcription, the majority of students are able to identify important phonetic elements. According to the open-ended comments, students believe that learning these speech characteristics helps them understand the language more, be more fluent and improve their pronunciation. The respondents also point out that to get the most out of Phonetics training, advanced English proficiency is required. The interviews also reveal that students are not dependent on artificial intelligence tools while studying and improving Phonetics and Phonology. All things considered, the study highlights how crucial it is to teach phonetic differences to facilitate efficient communication and language development.

Key words: Phonemes, Allophones, AI, Pronunciation, English language, Speech.