High Variability Phonetic Training (HVPT), an established method of improving the learner’s perception and potentially production of second language (L2) segments, has received considerable attention by the research community (Barriuso & Hayes-Harb, 2018). However, this technique is unknown to most teachers and rarely translated into useable pedagogical tools (Thomson, 2018a). Thomson notes that one reason for this disconnect may be that in its current lab-based form, HVPT is neither accessible nor engaging to L2 learners. In order to mitigate both issues, he suggests implementing this training into a mobile application and adding game elements to the existing HVPT paradigm. He posits that such changes may help in bridging the gap between pronunciation research and pedagogical practices.

This thesis responds to this recommendation by presenting the blueprint for FineTune, a mobile-based application that combines HVPT with research-driven gamification techniques, with the aim of helping learners improve their perception of English speech sounds. In the training, learners hone their perception of vowels and consonants by progressing through levels of gamified forced choice identification tasks. The development of FineTune is informed by empirically motivated frameworks and theories in the fields of Mobile-Assisted Language Learning, HVPT, and gamification. For instance, the game elements incorporated in FineTune are selected on the basis of van Roy and Zaman’s (2017) gamification heuristics for educational contexts, and Deci and Ryan’s (2000) Self-Determination Theory (thus chosen based on their ability to satisfy the user’s feelings of autonomy, competence, and relatedness).

This thesis represents stage one in Cardoso’s (2022) chronological framework for the development of CALL material: outlining the development and rationale of the proposed tool (FineTune), and concludes with suggestions for how to proceed with stage two of Cardoso’s framework: exploring the pedagogical affordances and user attitudes towards the app.