Integrating music, gamification, and acoustic visualization enhances prosody and comprehensibility in secondary EFL classrooms

Introduction This study investigates how a multimodal pedagogical intervention integrating music, gamified technology, and acoustic visualization influences the development of prosody, speech comprehensibility, and affective variables in English as a foreign language at the lower secondary level. Methods Adopting a mixed-methods quasi-experimental design, the intervention was implemented during regular classroom instruction with intact groups. Quantitative data included acoustic measurements, native-speaker ratings of comprehensibility, and questionnaires assessing motivation, self-efficacy, and pronunciation-related anxiety, collected at three time points: pretest, immediate post-test, and delayed post-test. Qualitative data were gathered through group interviews and classroom observation. Results Results indicate that learners exposed to the intervention achieved significantly greater gains than the control group in prosodic features related to intonation, rhythm, and stress, as well as in overall speech comprehensibility, while no differential improvement was observed in segmental accuracy. Acoustic analyses revealed changes in rhythmic and melodic patterns consistent with a shift toward stress-timed speech, and perceptual evaluations confirmed a substantial increase in ease of understanding for native listeners. In addition, the intervention was associated with increased motivation and communicative self-efficacy, together with reduced pronunciation-related anxiety. Discussion Follow-up data show that a substantial proportion of these gains was maintained three months after the end of the intervention.