The Development of a Curriculum to Enhance English Pronunciation Based on Phonological Principles for Pre-service English Teachers

Abstract

The objectives of this research were twofold: (1) to develop and validate the quality of an English pronunciation enhancement curriculum based on phonetic principles specifically designed for pre-service English teachers; and (2) to investigate the effectiveness of implementing this curriculum with the target student group. This study was conducted using a pre-experimental research design, specifically the one-group pretest-posttest model, to measure the development of pronunciation skills. The research sample consisted of 22 second-year English education students from the Faculty of Education at Lampang Rajabhat University during the 2025 academic year, obtained through simple random sampling techniques. The research instruments utilized in this study were carefully constructed and included the newly developed curriculum, a comprehensive curriculum implementation manual, and a standardized English pronunciation test. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics, including percentage, mean, and standard deviation, while the comparison of pre-test and post-test scores was conducted using a dependent samples t-test. The results of the research revealed the following: 1. The overall appropriateness of the curriculum was rated at a high level. Furthermore, the curriculum implementation manual was also found to be highly appropriate. 2. The sampled students who participated in the English pronunciation curriculum based on phonetic principles demonstrated significant improvement. Their post-test mean scores were significantly higher than their pre-test scores at the 0.05 level of statistical significance. Additionally, the students’ performance successfully exceeded the designated 80% proficiency criterion.