Are Arabic YouTube Videos Narrated by Artificial Intelligence Suitable for Training Foreign Students in Listening Skills?

Abstract

This study aims to find out if AI-narrated Arabic YouTube Videos can be used for listening practice by students learning Arabic as a foreign language (AFL). A sample of Arabic videos narrated by Artificial Intelligence (AI) were collected from YouTube and anlyzed to find out which Arabic words are mispronounced by AI narrators. Whether the videos are translated from English or originally produced in Arabic and whether they are stories, medical or commercial videos, it was noted that AI narrators speak with a natural voice, good expression and intonation. They make no grammatical or syntactic errors. But they make pronunciation errors, especially in diacritics and homographs (words that are spelled the same but have different pronunciations and meanings depending on the short vowel diacritics which are not usually shown on written words). This means that AI has difficulty matching the pronunciation of a homophone with the context of the text in which it occurs. They confuse vowels on تsuffix /ta/, /ti/ /tu/ when it refers to first, second, and third person, changing masculine to feminine, singular to plural and vice versa (كَتَبَ كُتِب كُتب كَتّبَ كُتُب كتبتَ كتبتُ كتبتِ كُتِبَتْ). It also confuses first This affects comprehension in L2 learners and causes cacophony and distortion for Arabic native speakers and non-native speakers of Arabic. The presentation will explain how AI reads Arabic aloud, give reasons for AI pronunciation errors in Arabic videos, suggestions for improvement and recommendation for students learning Arabic as a foreign language.