UNLOCKING THE POWER OF TOPHONETICS: INDONESIAN EFL LEARNERS' PERCEPTIONS ON PRONUNCIATION ENHANCEMENT THROUGH A PHENOMENOLOGICAL LENS

The aim of this research conducted at one of the public universities in Banten was to investigate the perception of second-semester students in the English Department regarding the features of the Tophonetics application in improving their pronunciation of fricatives. Employing a phenomenological qualitative research design, the researchers selected five participants through purposive sampling, focusing on students who had experience using Tophonetics and were willing to participate. Data was collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted via online Zoom meetings, utilizing three main open-ended questions to delve deeper into participants' experiences. The obtained data was analyzed using the Stevick-Colaizzi-Kenn technique, as described by Moustakas (1994). The analysis revealed four themes, including positive perception, negative perception, the features of Tophonetics, and the obstacles of using Tophonetics. The findings suggest that students in the English Department perceive Tophonetics positively in terms of improving their pronunciation of fricative sounds, highlighting the potential benefits of integrating this application into language teaching and learning practices.


Introduction
In the realm of language learning, pronunciation stands as a pivotal aspect, shaping the way words are s p o k e n a n d u n d e r s t o o d i n communication. According to Yates and Zielinski (2009), pronunciation represents how people produce the sounds that they use to construct a m e a n i n g w h e n t h e y s p e a k . I n communication, people might construct another meaning which happens when they mispronounce the words. The mispronunciation occurs when there is a change in sound. For example, when p e o p l e s a y a w o r d " s h e " b y pronouncing it with /si:/, which is "sea" instead of /ʃi:/, it will construct a n o t h e r m e a n i n g . W h e n t h e mispronunciation happens, it could lead to a misunderstanding.

Indonesian English as a Foreign
Language (EFL) learners, like many others, encounter challenges in mastering English pronunciation, leading to potential misunderstandings and communication breakdowns (Sidik, et al., 2021;Meliyani, et al.,2022). Among Indonesian college students, pronunciation challenges are evident when speaking English. Tambunsaribu and Simatupang (2021) reported that many Indonesian college students encounter difficulties in correctly pronouncing English words.
Numerous studies have explored these challenges, revealing issues with

Tophonetics
The application that is called Tophonetics is a tool that shows the phonetic transcriptions of a given

Pronunciation
Pronunciation is a sub-skill which allows a person to speak the word correctly according to its spelling. As Hornby (1995)  native-like manner within the context of a phrase and with fluency as the rhythm, phrasing, and timing seen in producing, reading, and repeating sentences (Murcia, 2010: 316). All of these definitions lead to the conclusion that pronunciation is the ability of the sound of language to carry meanings from the speaker to others, which should be paid attention to. September 2023

Methodology
prior experience with the application.
The interviews were conducted using an interview protocol to ensure that the discussions followed a well-defined and focused path.

Results
The "…I can say that Tophonetics is very effective for learning IPA symbols and improving my pronunciation as well, and I will highly recommend junior students to use it if they would like to learn about IPA symbols because to the ease and practicality of Tophonetics besides being easy to use it is also practical."

Informant 2:
"…To me, Tophonetics is effective in improving my pronunciation in consonant sounds. Of course, it tells us about how the user pronounces English words correctly and allows the user to write transcription with IPA symbols as well. Furthermore, when we read the phonetics symbol, we are more able to pronounce the words correctly and the audio is quite clear." By interviewing five participants, the researchers found the sub themes, which are easiness, audio feature, and accent feature.

Informant 1:
"…its simplicity in getting IPA symbols transcription and audio features…" "…instantly assisted in doing assignments…"

Informant 3:
"…it could transcribe English words and even text all at once…"

Informant 4:
"…It was super easy to get phonetics transcription by typing the text and copying them to the book…"

Informant 5:
"…It is easy to use just do typing the text we want to find out…" "…It is accessible to everyone…" Audio feature

Informant 1:
"…Could learn how to pronounce words by using the audio feature"

Informant 2:
" … i s t h e a u d i o f e a t u r e t h a t Tophonetics provides. I used a web platform which has a voice feature." "…Gaining new knowledge about British and American accents"

Informant 5:
"… It provides the audio of each phonetic sound" Accent feature "…It was continuously loading so I could not find the transcription" "…-I had difficulty in getting some words, such as slang words, expressions…"

Informant 3:
"… Because I used the application platform, I had difficulties in having the audio of the phonetics transcription. That feature is only available on the website platform." "…could not found any certain words, such as some unpopular names" "…the application does not provide the feature side-by-side or line-byline."

Informant 4:
"…could not find any phonetics transcription of certain words."

Informant 4:
"…There are still any difficult sounds I have, such as the sound / ʒ/."

Informant 5:
"…The challenges I got when using Tophonetics were I still struggling to distinguish the sounds" "…I am still struggling to pronounce them." All of the essential statements which obtained from the informants will be analyzed deeper by the researchers using the techniques of data analysis by Stevick-Colsizzi-Kenn.

Discussions
At this public university, first- Despite using Tophonetics, she continued to encounter difficulties with these sounds.