ABSTRACT
Kalumata, Meiske Jeanete Lydia. 2010. Improving the Elementary School Students’ Accuracy in Learning English. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program Sanata Dharma University.
The role of English as a global language has demanded its learners across the age to learn and master the language. As a result, elementary schools students are also required to learn and master English as an important subject matter so that they are readily equipped for their future learning. Formal study of English requires its learners to be accurate in their grammar and pronunciation. Therefore, improving learners’ accuracy is essential. The questions of what techniques and how to improve accuracy especially for elementary school students are still open.
This current study would like to answer four questions which emerged during the practice of teaching learning activities of the writer. The first and second questions were on the techniques to improve the students’ grammar and how the students’ grammar accuracy can be improved. The area of grammar which was improved was on the subject-verb agreement. On the other hand, the third and the fourth questions were on the techniques to improve the students’ pronunciation accuracy and how the students’ pronunciation accuracy can be improved. Besides, the area of pronunciation which was improved was on near-close near front unrounded vowel [ɪ], voiceless postalveolar fricative [ʃ] and voiced dental fricative [ð]. In order to answer those four questions, collaborative
action research was conducted to the fourth graders of SD BOPKRI Gondolayu Yogyakarta.
The research discovered that (1) techniques repetition drill, substitution drill, question, and answer and complete the dialog were proven could be employed to improve the students’ grammar accuracy. On the other hand, (2) techniques repetition drill, substitution drill, and question and answer were also proven to improve the students’ pronunciation accuracy. Based on the achievement level criteria that the writer made, the students improved from basic level up to the proficient level and fluent level. Besides the techniques, the research also discovered students’ accuracy could be improved by employing (1) appropriate task, (2) attractive teaching aids, and (3) positive feedback so that students could learn in appropriate pace and be motivated.
Finally, the discoveries bring about a change in the practice of English language teaching especially to teaching fourth graders of elementary school. This research has proven that the employment of suitable techniques which based on the students’ characteristics and give more opportunities for students to practice were successful in improving the students’ grammar and pronunciation accuracy. Language teachers interested in related topic can adapt or adopt the techniques to be employed in their classroom and they can improve their practice based on the action research framework.
ABSTRAK
Kalumata, Meiske Jeanete Lydia. 2010. Improving the Elementary School Students’ Accuracy in Learning English. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Peran bahasa Inggris sebagai bahasa global telah menuntut para pelajar di seluruh usia untuk belajar dan menguasai bahasa tersebut. Akibatnya, siswa sekolah dasar juga diharuskan untuk belajar dan menguasai bahasa Inggris sebagai mata pelajaran penting sehingga mereka terbekali sebagai pembelajaran di kemudian hari. Studi formal bahasa Inggris mewajibkan pelajar akurat dalam tata bahasa dan pengucapan. Oleh karena itu, meningkatkan akurasi adalah sangat penting. Pertanyaan tentang teknik apa dan bagaimana untuk meningkatkan akurasi terutama untuk siswa sekolah dasar masih terbuka.
Studi ini ingin menjawab empat pertanyaan yang muncul dalam praktek kegiatan belajar mengajar penulis. Pertanyaan pertama dan kedua berkaitan dengan teknik untuk meningkatkan ketepatan tata bahasa dan bagaimana ketepatan bahasa siswa dapat ditingkatkan. Wilayah tata bahasa yang diperbaiki adalah pada kesesuaian subjek-kata kerja. Di sisi lain, pertanyaan ketiga dan keempat berkaitan dengan teknik untuk meningkatkan ketepatan pengucapan dan bagaimana ketepatan pengucapan siswa dapat ditingkatkan.Selain itu, wilayah pengucapan yang diperbaiki adalah pada suara [ɪ], [ʃ] dan [ð]. Untuk menjawab
empat pertanyaan tersebut, penelitian tindakan kolaboratif dilakukan untuk anak-anak kelas empat SD BOPKRI Gondolayu Yogyakarta.
Penelitian ini menemukan bahwa (1) teknik repetition drill, substitution drill, question and answer dan complete the dialog terbukti dapat digunakan untuk meningkatkan ketepatan tata bahasa siswa. Di sisi lain, (2) teknik repetition drill, substitution drill dan question and answer juga terbukti meningkatkan akurasi pengucapan siswa. Berdasarkan kriteria tingkat pencapaian yang dibuat penulis, para siswa meningkat dari tingkat basic sampai proficient dan fluent. Selain teknik, penelitian ini juga menemukan bahwa akurasi siswa dapat ditingkatkan dengan menggunakan (1) tugas yang sesuai, (2) alat bantu pengajaran yang menarik, dan (3) umpan balik positif sehingga siswa dapat belajar dalam kecepatan yang tepat dan termotivasi.
Akhirnya, penemuan ini membawa perubahan dalam praktek pengajaran bahasa Inggris khususnya untuk mengajar anak kelas empat SD. Penelitian ini telah membuktikan bahwa penggunaan teknik yang sesuai berdasarkan karakteristik siswa dan memberikan lebih banyak kesempatan bagi siswa untuk praktik berhasil dalam meningkatkan ketepatan tata bahasa dan pengucapan siswa. Guru bahasa yang tertarik pada topik terkait dapat mengadaptasi atau mengadopsi teknik-teknik untuk dipakai di kelas mereka serta meningkatkan praktek mereka didasarkan pada kerangka penelitian tindakan.
IN LEARNING ENGLISH
A THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Meiske Jeanete Lydia Kalumata Student Number: 031214066
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
IMPROVING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ACCURACY IN LEARNING ENGLISH
A THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Meiske Jeanete Lydia Kalumata Student Number: 031214066
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
2010
A Sarjana Pendidikan Thesis on
IMPROVING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ACCURACY IN LEARNING ENGLISH
Prepared and Presented by Meiske Jeanete Lydia Kalumata
Student Number: 031214066
Approved by
Date
Dr. Retno Muljani, M.Pd. 21 January 2010
Sponsor
A Sarjana Pendidikan Thesis on
IMPROVING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ACCURACY IN LEARNING ENGLISH
By
MEISKE JEANETE LYDIA KALUMATA Student Number: 031214066
5
Yogyakarta, 5 February 2010 Faculty of Teachers Training and Education Sanata Dharma University Dean
Drs. Tarsisius Sarkim, M.Ed., Ph.D.
For my mom, my dad, my brother, and Ari Wijayanto
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY
I honestly declare that this thesis, which I have written, does not contain the work or parts of the work of other people, except those cited in the quotation and bibliography, as a scientific paper should.
Yogyakarta, 21 January 2010 The writer
Meiske Jeanete Lydia Kalumata 031214066
ABSTRACT
Kalumata, Meiske Jeanete Lydia. 2010. Improving the Elementary School Students’ Accuracy in Learning English. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program Sanata Dharma University.
The role of English as a global language has demanded its learners across the age to learn and master the language. As a result, elementary schools students are also required to learn and master English as an important subject matter so that they are readily equipped for their future learning. Formal study of English requires its learners to be accurate in their grammar and pronunciation. Therefore, improving learners’ accuracy is essential. The questions of what techniques and how to improve accuracy especially for elementary school students are still open.
This current study would like to answer four questions which emerged during the practice of teaching learning activities of the writer. The first and second questions were on the techniques to improve the students’ grammar and how the students’ grammar accuracy can be improved. The area of grammar which was improved was on the subject-verb agreement. On the other hand, the third and the fourth questions were on the techniques to improve the students’ pronunciation accuracy and how the students’ pronunciation accuracy can be improved. Besides, the area of pronunciation which was improved was on near-close near front unrounded vowel [ɪ], voiceless postalveolar fricative [ʃ] and voiced dental fricative [ð]. In order to answer those four questions, collaborative
action research was conducted to the fourth graders of SD BOPKRI Gondolayu Yogyakarta.
The research discovered that (1) techniques repetition drill, substitution drill, question, and answer and complete the dialog were proven could be employed to improve the students’ grammar accuracy. On the other hand, (2) techniques repetition drill, substitution drill, and question and answer were also proven to improve the students’ pronunciation accuracy. Based on the achievement level criteria that the writer made, the students improved from basic level up to the proficient level and fluent level. Besides the techniques, the research also discovered students’ accuracy could be improved by employing (1) appropriate task, (2) attractive teaching aids, and (3) positive feedback so that students could learn in appropriate pace and be motivated.
Finally, the discoveries bring about a change in the practice of English language teaching especially to teaching fourth graders of elementary school. This research has proven that the employment of suitable techniques which based on the students’ characteristics and give more opportunities for students to practice were successful in improving the students’ grammar and pronunciation accuracy. Language teachers interested in related topic can adapt or adopt the techniques to be employed in their classroom and they can improve their practice based on the action research framework.
ABSTRAK
Kalumata, Meiske Jeanete Lydia. 2010. Improving the Elementary School Students’ Accuracy in Learning English. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Peran bahasa Inggris sebagai bahasa global telah menuntut para pelajar di seluruh usia untuk belajar dan menguasai bahasa tersebut. Akibatnya, siswa sekolah dasar juga diharuskan untuk belajar dan menguasai bahasa Inggris sebagai mata pelajaran penting sehingga mereka terbekali sebagai pembelajaran di kemudian hari. Studi formal bahasa Inggris mewajibkan pelajar akurat dalam tata bahasa dan pengucapan. Oleh karena itu, meningkatkan akurasi adalah sangat penting. Pertanyaan tentang teknik apa dan bagaimana untuk meningkatkan akurasi terutama untuk siswa sekolah dasar masih terbuka.
Studi ini ingin menjawab empat pertanyaan yang muncul dalam praktek kegiatan belajar mengajar penulis. Pertanyaan pertama dan kedua berkaitan dengan teknik untuk meningkatkan ketepatan tata bahasa dan bagaimana ketepatan bahasa siswa dapat ditingkatkan. Wilayah tata bahasa yang diperbaiki adalah pada kesesuaian subjek-kata kerja. Di sisi lain, pertanyaan ketiga dan keempat berkaitan dengan teknik untuk meningkatkan ketepatan pengucapan dan bagaimana ketepatan pengucapan siswa dapat ditingkatkan.Selain itu, wilayah pengucapan yang diperbaiki adalah pada suara [ɪ], [ʃ] dan [ð]. Untuk menjawab
empat pertanyaan tersebut, penelitian tindakan kolaboratif dilakukan untuk anak-anak kelas empat SD BOPKRI Gondolayu Yogyakarta.
Penelitian ini menemukan bahwa (1) teknik repetition drill, substitution drill, question and answer dan complete the dialog terbukti dapat digunakan untuk meningkatkan ketepatan tata bahasa siswa. Di sisi lain, (2) teknik repetition drill, substitution drill dan question and answer juga terbukti meningkatkan akurasi pengucapan siswa. Berdasarkan kriteria tingkat pencapaian yang dibuat penulis, para siswa meningkat dari tingkat basic sampai proficient dan fluent. Selain teknik, penelitian ini juga menemukan bahwa akurasi siswa dapat ditingkatkan dengan menggunakan (1) tugas yang sesuai, (2) alat bantu pengajaran yang menarik, dan (3) umpan balik positif sehingga siswa dapat belajar dalam kecepatan yang tepat dan termotivasi.
Akhirnya, penemuan ini membawa perubahan dalam praktek pengajaran bahasa Inggris khususnya untuk mengajar anak kelas empat SD. Penelitian ini telah membuktikan bahwa penggunaan teknik yang sesuai berdasarkan karakteristik siswa dan memberikan lebih banyak kesempatan bagi siswa untuk praktik berhasil dalam meningkatkan ketepatan tata bahasa dan pengucapan siswa. Guru bahasa yang tertarik pada topik terkait dapat mengadaptasi atau mengadopsi teknik-teknik untuk dipakai di kelas mereka serta meningkatkan praktek mereka didasarkan pada kerangka penelitian tindakan.
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma: Nama : Meiske Jeanete Lydia Kalumata
Nomor Mahasiswa : 031214066
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
IMPROVING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ACCURACY IN LEARNING ENGLISH
beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, me-ngalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di Internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya.
Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggal: 20 Februari 2010
Yang menyatakan
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to express my greatest gratitude to Jesus Christ for His everlasting love, blessing and for teaching me through this writing that life is very colorful and beautiful as well as fulfilling my passion for the truth and knowledge. My deepest gratitude goes to my major sponsor, Dr. Retno Muljani, M.Pd., for her insight, knowledge, solution and support. I would like to address my thankfulness to the headmaster od SD BOPKRI Gondolayu M.G Triyarsih for her permission to conduct the research. I also would like to thank the fourth graders of SD BOPKRI Gondolayu Yogyakarta for their willingness to be the participants of this research.
My sincere appreciation also goes to my mother, my father and my brother for their support in accomplishing this thesis. I would like thank Ari Wijayanto for his everlasting love, support and insight for this research. I also thank Dr. Bambang Triguno who always supports and encourages to study and to think critically.
The writer would like to thank all the lecturers of the English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University, PBI secretariat staff, Mbak Daniek and Mbak Tari, and the library staff, Pak Pargiyono, Mas Drajat, Bu Mini and Mbak Ismi, for their help, support and encouragement during my study.
I also want to express my gratitude to PBI fellows, Daniel, Mas Denny, Niko, Reta, Lintang, Nina, Ozzy, Yuanita, Ipad, Edu, Bayu, Ratna, Retno, Alene,
Cimoy, Indra, Om Adit, Prima, Lydia, Wisnu and Bram for the unforgettable moments during the study.
I thank Yosep Subardja’s family for their support and help for accomplishing my thesis. I also thank my colleagues in SD BOPKRI Gondolayu Yoyakarta for their help, support and experience. Finally, I thank for everyone
who are not mentioned for their support, guidance and pray.
Meiske Jeanete Lydia Kalumata
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
TITLE PAGE ... ... i
APPROVAL PAGES ... ii
DEDICATION PAGE ...……... iv
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ... v
a. Dialog Memorization ... ... 16
B. Research Findings ...…………... 52
1. Techniques to Improve Students’ Accuracy ... 53
a. Repetition Drill ... ... 54
b. Substitution Drill ...………... 58
c. Question and Answer ... ... 62
d. Complete the Dialog ... ………... 65
2. Improving Students’ Accuracy ...………... 66
a. Appropriate Task ... 67
b. Attractive Teaching Aids ... ... 70
c. Positive Feedback ……... 72
CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS A. Conclusions ... 74
1. Techniques to Improve Grammar Accuracy ... 74
2. Techniques to Improve Pronunciation Accuracy ... 75
3. Improving Students’ Grammar and Pronunciation Accuracy ... 77
B. Teaching Implications ... 78
C. Suggestions ... 80
BIBLIOGRAPHY ………....………. 81
APPENDICES ……….… ...….. 83
A. Field Notes …….………..……… ...….. 84
B. Rating Checklist ……….………...………...….. 88
C. Single Lesson Time Line Record Sheet …….………....……...….. 93
D. Interview Transcript ……….………… ...….. 96
E. Lesson Plan …….………..…...….. 100
F. Permission Letter …….……….……… ...….. 106
LIST OF TABLES
Page Table 3.1 Rating Checklist ... 29 Table 3.2 Triangulation Matrix…... 36
LIST OF FIGURES
Page
Figure 2.1 Sagor’s Model of Action Research ... 22
Figure 3.1 Framework for Action Research ………... 26
Figure 4.1 The Research Cycles ...………... 43
Figure 4.2 Trend Analysis of Grammar Accuracy ... 46
Figure 4.3 Trend Analysis of Pronunciation Accuracy ... ... 48
Figure 4.4 Trend Analysis of Cycle One ... ... 50
Figure 4.5 Trend Analysis of Cycle Two ... 51
Figure 4.4 Trend Analysis of Cycle Three ... 52
LIST OF APPENDICES
Page
Appendix A: Field Notes …….………..………...….. 84
Appendix B: Rating Checklist ……...………...….. 88
Appendix C: Single Lesson Time Line Record Sheet …...……...….. 93
Appendix D: Interview Transcript ………… ……...….. 96
Appendix E: Lesson Plan ………..…...….. 100
Appendix F: Permission Letter ………….……… ...….. 106
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
The writer puts forward her rationale in doing the research in this chapter. The researcher questions four important problems which arise in classroom practice. Furthermore, the purpose, limitation and benefit of the research are also elaborated in this chapter. Finally, the writer also provides the definition of terms based on the relevant sources to avoid misunderstanding.
A. Research Background
The role of English as a global language has demanded students across the age and level to study the English language as an important subject mater. Elementary schools students, therefore, should also learn and master English as one of their school subject. Crystal (2003: 3-6) and Goodwyn (2005: 1) sustain that one of the main indicators of English as a global language is the priority given to English as the primary subject of foreign language teaching, although English has no official status in the country. Shortly, English has become the main choice to be taught to children when they start their formal study. In practice, however, teaching English to young children emerges problems which certainly need to be solved. In this case, the writer who is an English teacher of SD BOPKRI Gondolayu Yogyakarta also faces problems in her teaching learning
activities especially in teaching fourth graders. Problems which hold immediate concern to be solved is the students’ grammar and pronunciation accuracy.
The writer observes that there are six students whose grammar and pronunciation accuracy need to be improved. Based on the writer’s exploration and observation to those students, the writer notices they often make mistakes in subject-verb agreement related to their grammar accuracy. Whenever the teacher asked those students to construct, transform, or answer teacher’s questions, they made mistake in using the verb or the be-verb. Sometimes, in fact, they can construct, transform, or answer the teacher’s question. However, they need more time to think than the other students do in order to perform well on those tasks. Besides, those students need ample explanation from the teacher before they successfully construct, transform or answer the teacher’s question. On the other hand, those six students also often make mistake on their pronunciation. The writer notices that their mistakes are on near-close near front unrounded vowel
[ɪ], voiceless postalveolar fricative [ʃ] and voiced dental fricative [ð]. Those
students’ mistakes are certainly unsuitable for normal conversation in which it needs accuracy on both grammar and pronunciation.
grammar accuracy the students will be readily equipped by additional knowledge of English before they enroll into secondary education. Further, the intelligibility of a language largely depends on the understanding of the grammar of that language. Grammar is the explanation on how one creates and understands novel utterances and sentences from limited words (Fromkin, Rodman and Hyams, 2003: 117-121). Another fact which supports those arguments is whenever the writer meets the students in the real context of conversation. As an example is when the students come across the writer after the school hour. Some students like to say Miss go home or finish Miss. Surely, the intended meaning can be more precise if those students apply accurate grammatical rules. Based on that situation, it can be understood that grammar is an important process for making a speaker’s meaning clear when contextual information is lacking.
organs, learning to make the right motions may require a good deal of time and practice. Therefore, it has been the writer’s concern to eradicate the students’ mistakes on pronunciation to avoid fossilized habit of pronunciation so that they can attain better performance in their future learning.
The writer, therefore, would like to conduct an action research based on the practical problems which occur in the teaching learning activities. The major focus of the action research is on practical issues of immediate concern to particular social groups or communities. In this case, the role of grammar and pronunciation accuracy which is very important to communicate globally hold immediate concern to be investigated and solved whenever problems occur on that aspect of language. In addition, the rigorous analysis and systematic data collection of the action research facilitate the writer to conduct the research in her own pace without sacrificing her involvement in the teaching learning activities. Finally, the writer hopes to give contributions on English language teaching especially in teaching elementary school students though this research.
B. Problem Formulation
Through the study of grammar and pronunciation accuracy, the writer would like to answer these following research questions:
1. What are the techniques which improve the students’ grammar accuracy? 2. How can the students’ grammar accuracy be improved?
C. Problem Limitation
The research is conducted to the fourth graders of SD BOPKRI Gondolayu Yogyakarta in the framework of action research. The outcomes of the research will be closely associated to the participants of the research. However, as the nature of the action research which pertains to improvement, the application of the findings to the other cases with similar problems and characteristics is widely opened. In addition, as the nature of the action research allows collaboration, the writer is helped by two language teachers in conducting this research. They will help to observe and record progress during the research.
Although there are many problems occurring in the class, this research focuses on techniques which improve the students’ grammar and pronunciation accuracy. Besides, this research investigates how to improve the students’ grammar and pronunciation accuracy. The study on the grammar accuracy will be limited on the improvement of the students’ grammar accuracy on subject-verb agreement. The writer reasons that subject and verb are the two most important elements of sentences structure in that complex sentences will be ill-formed by the absence of those elements. By emphasizing on the importance of the subject and verb, the students will acquire functions and the role of those elements. In addition, the English teaching curriculum suggest that the elementary school students should learn simple sentence structure such as making simple question, responding to questions and making simple sentence.
students’ pronunciation accuracy on near-close near front unrounded vowel [ɪ],
voiceless postalveolar fricative [ʃ] and voiced dental fricative [ð]. Here, the writer
chooses to use words instead of phrases or sentences since pronunciation of words in isolation could be recognized and analyzed more clearly and accurately rather than the pronunciation of phrases and sentences. There writer reasons that
voiceless postalveolar fricative [ʃ] and voiced dental fricative [ð] are absence on
the students’ native language. As a result, the students replace the sounds with the similar sounds of their native language. Therefore, the students need to be accustomed to pronouncing those two sounds. Finally, the near-close near front
unrounded vowel [ɪ] is actually present on the students’ native language or
Bahasa Indonesia however they often mispronounce the sound because of the
influence of adjacent or initial sound and in some occasion they replace the sound with similar sounds of their native language.
D. Research Objective
This research which is conducted to the fourth graders of elementary school students has objectives to improve the practice of teaching English. In details, the research objectives are:
1. To discover techniques which improve the students’ grammar accuracy. 2. To discover how to improve the students’ grammar accuracy.
E. Research Benefits
This research will give positive contributions to the field of English language teaching especially teaching the fourth graders. The benefits of the research for English language teachers are:
1. The research provides alternative techniques to teach English to young children with problems on grammar and pronunciation accuracy.
2. The research depicts how to improve the students’ grammar and pronunciation accuracy.
3. Teachers with similar problems are possible to adapt or adopt techniques employed in this research.
On the other hand, other researchers interested in language teaching will also gain benefits. The benefits are:
1. The improvements on the findings are possible in that the research is carried out in the framework of action research.
2. New angels could be employed in this research so that other findings could be discovered.
3. Depicts the use of action research for language teachers
F. Definition of Terms
1. Accuracy
Accuracy in this research is defined in line with Nunan (2003: 329) who defines accuracy as the ability to produce grammaticality well-formed words, phrases and sentences. In this research, accuracy refers to the students’ ability to repeat and produce sentence with correct agreement between the subject and the verb. In addition, the students accurately pronounce near-close near front
unrounded vowel [ɪ], voiceless postalveolar fricative [ʃ] and voiced dental
fricative [ð]. The students’ grammar and pronunciation accuracy will be
determined by the students’ performance which is compared to the criteria of achievement level that the writer made.
2. Grammar
Grammar in this research refers to the definition provided by Brown (2001: 362) who defines grammar as the system of rules governing the conventional arrangement and the relationship of words in a sentence. In this research, grammar refers to the students’ ability to produce and to construct words to become sentence in accordance with conventional arrangement of English language with correct subject-verb agreement.
3. Pronunciation
Brown (1992: 3) defines pronunciation as the productions of the speech sounds. In this research, therefore, pronunciation refers to the students’ speech
fricative [ʃ] and voiced dental fricative [ð]. This study investigates techniques to
improve the students’ ability to produce those three speech sound as they evidently occur in the teaching learning activities.
4. Action Research
The research widely employs action research as the framework of the research. In this research, action research is defined in accordance to Sagor (2005: 1) who defines action research as a disciplined process of inquiry conducted by and for those taking the action. The primary reason for engaging in action research is to assist the actor in improving or refining his or her actions. Action research in this research is a research which is conducted by the writer as a language teacher in the fourth grade of SD BOPKRI Gondolayu to improve the students’ grammar on subject-verb agreement and pronunciation accuracy of
near-close near front unrounded vowel [ɪ], voiceless postalveolar fricative [ʃ] and
CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW
The writer elaborates theories of teaching English to young children, the techniques to improve students’ grammar and pronunciation accuracy and action research in this chapter. Contemporary theories related to the research are carefully selected and reviewed to attain the best practice of the research. The theories are compared to the practice of the research in the future to emerge the findings and improvements on the practice of teaching English language.
A. Theoretical Review
The writer reviews theories of teaching English, techniques to improve students’ grammar and pronunciation accuracy and action research in this sub-chapter. Whereas the first part is related to the teaching English to young children, the second part is related to the techniques to improve students’ grammar and pronunciation accuracy. Finally, the third part elaborates the nature of the action research.
1. Teaching English to Young Children
English has become a global language in which it demands every student to master English. Therefore, elementary school students should also learn English from the first grade. On the other hand, teaching English to the elementary school students is considered by many to be the most challenging level
of language instruction. Teaching English as a second language to children, therefore, is not merely excessively exposing the children to the target language. The success of teaching English to young children requires specific skills and intuitions that different from those appropriate for adult teaching (Brown, 2001: 87; Harmer 2007: 82 and Whitehead, 2000: 120). In addition, students at this level have little or no prior knowledge of the target language. Therefore, the teacher becomes a central in the teaching learning activity. Brown (2001: 87-91) suggest five category to give practical approach to teaching young children. They are intellectual development, attention span, sensory input, affective factors and authentic, meaningful language.
a. Intellectual Development
do or does should be added. That rules is in line with Harmer (2007: 82) who
explains that young children have difficulties to grasp grammar rules. Third, giving examples for explaining certain patterns are the way to introduce grammatical patterns to children. Halliwell (1992: 3) sustain that children are able to understand what is being said to them even before they understand individual words because they can understand by intonation, gesture, facial expressions, actions and circumstances. Finally, repetition is used as the way to cooperate between ears and brain. Difficult concepts or patterns require more repetition that adult need. Certainly, maintaining students’ interest and attention of the repetition should be kept intact.
b. Attention Span
require the students to think very hard will be rejected by the students because of their boredom. Second, various activity should be employed to maintain children’s interest and to keep children’s attention alive. Halliwell (1992: 7) introduces the term imagination as a mean to maintain the students’ attention. Although language teaching should be concerned with real life, promoting fantasy and imagination can be very useful for teaching young children. Third, teacher should be animated, lively and enthusiastic about the subject matter. Children need this exaggeration to keep their spirit maintained and their mind alert. Halliwell (1992:6) states that it is because the children’s instinct of being fun. Fourth, humor will also maintain students’ attention. However, appropriate humor to children should be used instead of adults’ humor. Finally, children are very curious to learn. Raising students’ curiosity will maintain the students’ attention and focus.
c. Sensory Input
activity. Young children are basically active and lively. Therefore, by giving them more chances and experience to be active, new ideas and concepts can be introduced easily. Second, sensory aids are helpful to internalize concepts. Pictures, audio-video recordings, taste of foods or smell of flowers are important elements in teaching language to children. Finally, teachers’ nonverbal languages are also important because children sensitively pay attention to teachers’ facial gestures, gestures and touching. Halliwell (1992: 11) states that these special nature of language are the key part of the process by which language develops.
d. Affective Factors
watching what they do and by watching their face. Second, teachers should be patient to build their confidence. However, teacher should also be strict on the expectation of children. Most children arrive at school with their confidence still intact. They do not expect to be able to do everything immediately but they assume that they can do anything eventually (Halliwell, 1992: 12). Finally, teacher should give more opportunities for children to participate orally, especially for the quieter ones. These opportunities and positive reinforcement that the teacher provides will build positive self esteem.
e. Authentic and Meaningful Language
improve students’ attention and retention. Exposing the children with pictures, dialog or conversation which they can easily found in the house or school will be meaningful for them (Halliwell, 1992: 15). Finally, teacher should not broken the language into too many parts because the students will not understand the relationship. Stressing the interrelationship among various skills is very important so that the students are aware of the connection.
Seeing the characteristic of the children, teaching methods and techniques are very important especially to maintain their attention and to provide authentic and meaningful language. The followings are the techniques which can be employed to improve the students’ grammar and pronunciation accuracy without neglecting their characteristics as learners.
2. Techniques to Improve Accuracy
The characteristic of young learners require suitable teaching techniques so that improvement of the students’ grammar and pronunciation accuracy could be attained. The elaborations above suggest that techniques to teach young learners should be various in activities and practical in delivery to maintain the students’ interest and attention. The followings are techniques which are possible to be employed to teach young children.
a. Dialog Memorization
through mimicry based on a dialog provided by the teacher. After the students finished memorizing the dialog, they take turn with the teacher to practice the dialog. Teacher can also give opportunities for students to practice the dialog in pair. Finally, they can perform the dialog they have memorized in front of the class.
b. Repetition drill
Larsen-Freeman (2000: 47) explains that students are asked to repeat the teacher's model as accurately and as quickly as possible. In addition, she explains that this drill is often used to teach the lines of the dialog. Similarly, Richards and Rodgers (2001: 60) adds that utterances must be brief enough to be retained by the ear. Sound is as important as form and order.
c. Chain drill
d. Single-Slot Substitution Drill
According to Larsen-Freeman (2000: 48), the students are required to substitute a part of a sentence with a cue provided by the teacher. The students can substitute a subject, a be-verb, a verb or an object in a sentence. The major purpose of this technique is to practice students’ skill to find and to fill in the slots of a sentence.
e. Multiple-Slot Substitution Drill
Larsen-Freeman (2000: 48) explains that multiple-slot substitution drill is similar to the single-slot substitution drill. The difference is that the teacher gives more cues to be substituted in the sentences. The technique practice the students to recognize what part of speech each cue and where the cue fits into the sentence.
f. Transformation drill
According to Larsen-Freeman (2000: 49) and Richards and Rodgers (2001: 61), the teacher gives students a certain kind of sentence pattern, an affirmative sentence for example, and asks the students to transform the sentence to be another type of sentence, negative or interrogative sentence. Various transformations can be employed based on the students’ level.
g. Question-and-Answer Drill
quickly. Besides, this technique is very good to check the students’ understanding for certain patters. The teacher can also give some opportunities to students to practice the question and answer drill in pair to avoid students’ boredom.
h. Complete the Dialog
According to Larsen-Freeman (2000: 49), in the complete the dialog, selected words are erased from a dialog students have learned. Students complete the dialog by filling the blanks with the missing words. This technique is also good as a media to check students’ understanding of materials that they have learned. In addition, this technique will also give variation because the technique will be done in writing.
3. Action Research
conducts a research to improve his or her teaching technique, classroom activities, students’ motivation or teaching material is doing an action research. In addition, Kemmis and McTaggart as quoted by Suparno (2008: 6) explain that action research is a critical self reflection which is done by practitioners to improve productivity, justice on social problem or educational practice. McNiff (2002: 15) also states that critical reflection of a practitioner who conducts a research become the central of action research. The followings are the complete elaborations of the nature and the model of action research.
a. The Nature of Action Research
Burns (1999: 24) states that the major focus of the action research is on concrete and practical issues of immediate concern to particular social groups or communities. It is conducted in naturally occurring setting, primarily using methods common to qualitative research (Nunan, 1992 quoted by Burns, 1999: 24). However, Sprinthall, Schmutte and Sirois (1991: 99) suggest that action researcher may use any approach that is presumed to solve a practical problem. In this case, the writer conducts the action research to improve her teaching to teach the fourth graders of elementary school. The immediate concern is related to the students’ grammar and pronunciation accuracy. By conducting the action research, immediate answers to problems that cannot wait for theoretical solution can be attained.
characteristics. First, action research is contextual, small-scale and localized. It identifies and investigates problems within a specific situation. In this case, the context is on the fourth grade of SD BOPKRI Gondolayu. Second, it is evaluative and reflective as it aims to bring about change and improvement in practice. The writer would like to improve the students’ grammar and pronunciation accuracy. Third, action research is participatory as it provides for collaborative investigation by teams of colleagues, practitioners and researchers. In conducting the practice, the writer collaborates by colleagues who work as language teacher in the school. Finally, changes in practice are based on the collection of information or data which provides the stimulus for change.
b. The Models of Action Research
Many proponents of action research propose various model of action research. However, they have in common in that they stress on improvement of practice. In this research, the writer follows the model of action research proposed by Sagor (2005: 7). Figure 2.1 illustrates the model.
Figure 2.1 Sagor’s Model of Action Research (Sagor, 2005: 7)
considers young learners’ characteristics to support the employment of the techniques. The stage three is the process of collecting data during actual teaching (Sagor, 2005: 6). Finally, the stage four is the stage where the action researchers adjust their practice to attain improvement on the next meting. After the researchers finish the stage four, they return to the stage three by adjusting and improving their action.
B. Theoretical Framework
differences of communication can be negatively interpreted. Additionally, children are focused on new language which can be used here and now. They will not give effort with language which does not hold immediate reward for. Therefore, classroom activities will not run as it is planned unless the teachers provide authentic and meaningful language.
Therefore, techniques such as repetition drill, single-slot substitution drill, multiple-slot substitution drill, complete the dialog, chain drill and dialog memorization can be employed to improve the students’ grammar and pronunciation accuracy. Those techniques could maintain the students’ attention, provide interesting activities and they expose the students with the language that the students will use in real life. In addition, those techniques also enable the teacher to control the students during the teaching learning activities.
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The writer elaborates the methodology of the research in this chapter mainly to put forward the rationale of using certain research method. It also provides the elaboration the research participant, research instruments, data gathering technique, data analysis technique and research procedure.
A. Research Method
The method which was used in this research was action research. According to Burns (1999: 24), action research focused on concrete and practical issues of immediate concern to particular social groups or communities. This research was conducted by the writer as an English school teacher of SD BOPKRI Gondolayu who taught fourth graders. The immediate concern and practical issues
were the improvement of the students’ grammar and pronunciation accuracy. In practice, although there are many models of action research, the writer followed the action research model and cycles proposed by Sagor (2005: 4-7). The writer selected the model because it provided clear-cut research stages so that it was easily implemented during the research. The model also provided details on every stage to be followed to attain the certainty of the research. Therefore, the teacher was guided during the research to establish clear vision, to select appropriate theories, to implement the action, and to make critical reflections based on her research. In other word, this model is practical for teachers as
researchers who had little experience in doing a research. Figure 3.1 illustrates the model of the action research used by the writer in this research.
Figure 3.1
Framework for Action Research (Sagor, 2005: 7)
B. Research Participants
The research participants were the fourth graders of SD BOPKRI Gondolayu, Yogyakarta academic year 2007/2008. There were 44 students in the
class which consisted of 21 male students and 23 female students. The choice of the participant was also based on the theory that action research is contextual, small-scaled and localized and it is conducted in the natural occurring setting (Burns, 1999: 24 and 30). Based on those arguments, choosing the class as the research participants to conduct the action research was appropriate. However, the writer only investigated six students whose grammar and pronunciation accuracy needed to be improved.
Those six students selected based on their actual use of English and based on the writer’s observation and documentation during the daily teaching learning activities. They often made mistake in producing sentence especially on subject-verb agreement. Whenever the teacher introduced new materials and asked them to make or alter a sentence to be another type of sentence, they made mistake in subject-verb agreement. Sometimes, they could perform the task well. However, the teacher needed to prompt the students before they could perform well. Certainly, it was unlikely in the normal conversation. This research was conducted to improve those six students’ grammar accuracy especially on the subject-verb agreement. Similarly, those six students also often made mistake on their pronunciation. The writer identified that their mistakes on pronunciation was on
near-close near front unrounded vowel [ɪ], voiceless postalveolar fricative [ʃ] and
In addition, action research is also participatory (Burns, 1999: 30). It provides for collaborative investigation by teams of colleagues, practitioners and researchers. In this research, two English language teachers were also involved in the investigation. They helped the writer in conducting the research. The English language teacher recorded the progress of the students who were observed using instruments provided by the writer. On the other hand, the another language teacher also recorded the students’ progress in a different point of view based on the guideline provided by the writer. In addition, their assistance was also to ensure that the writer could concentrate fully on teaching.
C. Research Instruments
could be maintained in the field notes. The writer wrote the field notes after the class ended. Therefore, whenever the writer wrote the field notes, she could make a self reflection of her teaching as the basis of improvement of her action on the next meeting. In addition, the writer wrote the field notes for six times.
The second instrument was rating checklists. The rating checklist was used to answer research problem number one and three. According to Johnson as quoted by Suparno (2008: 49), rating checklist is used to record certain performance and level. In this research, the rating checklist was used to measure and to see the fluctuation and improvement of the students’ grammar and pronunciation accuracy based on the employment of a certain technique. In addition, the writer made criteria of the students’ grammar and pronunciation accuracy to be used as the benchmark. The complete criteria is attached on the Appendix B. The following table is the rating checklist used in this research.
Table 3.1 Rating Checklist
Technique A Technique B Technique C Technique D
Criteria Criteria Criteria Criteria
the observer would simply put a check mark (√) corresponded to the student and the criteria. Those worked both for grammar and pronunciation accuracy.
The third instrument was single lesson time line record. This instrument was to collect the data to answer all research questions. Hancock and Settle (1990: 103) as cited by Wallace (1998: 59-60) suggests that the value of this instrument was on the reflective analysis on why the time-line took the particular changes in direction that it did and what might have been done to keep it in the upper sections of the grid. In this research, this instrument was used to measure whether or not a certain technique could improve students’ accuracy. Therefore, the instrument was employed in every meeting to monitor the improvement of the students’ accuracy based on the employment of a certain technique. Figure 3.2 depicts the instrument.
Figure 3.2 Single Lesson Time Line Record Sheet
opinions, beliefs and feelings about situation in their own words. The interview provided information that could not be obtained through observation or it could be used to verify the observation. This study used semi-structured interview to answer all research problems. The writer prepared questions to be asked to the students. Those questions provided underlying guideline during the interview. The rationale of using the semi-structured interview was this instrument enabled the writer to probe in to the students’ answers so that in-depth data could be gathered and thick description be attained. Further, this interview was conducted in the students’ native language so that data could be elicited in a natural way where language anxiety was taken away. There were six students who were interviewed at the end of each cycle. Basically, there were three questions asked to the students. Those questions were (1) Do you enjoy the English class?, (2) What was the technique which improve your grammar or pronunciation accuracy? and (3) Why do you think that technique improve your grammar accuracy?. Because the interview was conducted to the elementary school students, the writer utilized the students’ language in a way to elicit their answer. The transcripts of the interview were attached on the Appendix D.
D. Data Gathering Technique
1. Observation
Observation was mainly used as technique to collect the data in this research. Field notes, rating checklist, and single lesson time line record sheet were the instruments which were employed to collect the data in the observation. Field notes were used to record changes that happened during the research. In addition, the field notes also recorded the writer’s reflection on each meeting. To maintain the contents of the writing so that yielded the intended data of the research and to understand the context and nuances of the environment where the action took place, Sagor (2005: 92) and Burns (1999: 81) suggest steps to be taken in the observation. Therefore, on writing the field notes, the writer focused on observing six students whose grammar accuracy needed to be improved during the teaching learning activity. The writer made the field notes after the class ended to maintain the memories retention during her teaching. In addition, the field notes were also media of self reflection. To emerge the best practice, the writer was guided three questions in writing her reflection. Those questions were (1) Why the objective of the research on improving the students’ accuracy was successful or unsuccessful in this meting, (2) What elements contributed to the success or failure, and (3) What the writer learned from this success or failure. In the end, the questions would also help the writer to look for patterns and trends.
grammar and pronunciation accuracy. There were five criteria to measure the students’ progress. Those criteria were emerging, basic, developing, proficient and fluent. The complete description of those criteria is attached on the Appendix B.
Similarly, the single lesson time line record sheet would be utilized to monitor the employment of a certain technique and to measure the feasibility of the techniques in improving the students’ accuracy. The administrative details such as meeting, class and date would be recorded in this instrument. In addition, objectives of the lesson, planned outcomes, and point of attention were also present in this instrument. These would be followed by a diagram of horizontal axis and vertical axis. The horizontal axis indicated the time line in a single meeting. On the other hand, the vertical axis indicated the five level of effectiveness. The observer determined the level of the effectiveness based on the criteria made by Hancock and Settle (1990: 103) as it was quoted by Wallace (1998: 59). As an example, the writer employed a repetition drill and the result showed that this technique could improve the students’ grammar accuracy. Therefore, this technique reached level five. The complete criteria of this instrument are attached on Appendix C.
2. Interview
(Ary et. al., 2002: 434). Since the research employed semi-structured interview, the writer prepared guided questions. There were three question asked to the students. Those questions were (1) Did you enjoy the English class, (2) What was the technique which improved your grammar or pronunciation accuracy, and (3) Why do you think that technique improved your grammar or pronunciation accuracy? The writer employed semi-structured interviews because they provided greater flexibility. In addition, semi-structured interviews allowed for the emergence of themes and topics which might not have been anticipated when the investigation began. However, since the questions were asked to the elementary school students, the writer altered the questions in a way without changing the essence of the questions so that those were understood by the students. In addition, students’ native language was used so that students could easily answer the question in their own pace. Because this data gathering technique was done orally, it was necessary to use recording aid. The result of the interview was then transcribed into writing so that it was easier to do the analysis.
E. Data Analysis Technique
be fulfilled. Validity refers to whether the data actually reflect the phenomena they claim to Sagor (2005: 93). On contrary, reliability refers to the accuracy of the data. The followings are the discussion of the trend analysis technique and the data triangulation matrix.
1. Trend Analysis
As it has been stated before, this research employed rating checklist and single lesson time line record sheet as two of instruments for data collection. In order to elicit the trend, the rating checklist and the single lesson time line record sheet were assembled and coded. Then, following Sagor (2005: 111), the trend could be described by the relation between time and performance as Figure 3.3 illustrated.
Figure 3.3 Trend Analysis (Sagor, 2005: 111)
line during the employment the first and second technique. On the other hand, decreasing trend would be indicated by a line from top to the bottom of the performance axis during the employment of the third and fourth technique.
However, findings of the trend analysis should be validated by means of other instruments in this research. Data triangulation was employed to maintain the validity and the reliability of the research. The followings are the complete discussion of the data triangulation technique.
2. Data Triangulation
Sagor, (2005: 93-96) suggests triangulation matrix as the means of fulfilling the validity and reliability. Table 3.2 outlines the triangulation matrix which was used in this research. The rationale of triangulation was that single evidence gathered from a single data might be suspicious and imprecise. Therefore, when separate and independent piece of data were gathered and emerge the same findings, the precision of the findings would be apparent.
Table 3.2 Triangulation Matrix
Research Problem Data Source 1 Data Source 2 Data Source 3
1
line record sheet field notes interview
3
line record sheet field notes interview
sheet were gathered and scanned to look for patterns. These emerging patterns were called as the trend. As an example, on the second cycle the writer employed repetition drill. During the employment of the repetition drill, the trend showed that this technique could improve the students’ grammar accuracy. Second, this finding then was tested against the field notes to validate whether or not repetition drill improved the students’ grammar accuracy. On the field notes, the writer not only recorded the events occurring during her teaching but also her critical reflection as a professional. Certainly, her critical reflection held theoretical and practical explanation of her action on employing a certain technique. Therefore, it would give explanation on why certain pattern emerged during her teaching. It would also give theoretical and practical explanation on why a certain technique could improve the students’ grammar accuracy. Finally, the interviews were conducted to the students to validate the observations. If the interview emerged the same finding, then it could be concluded that a certain technique or repetition drill in this case, could improve the students’ grammar accuracy.
F. Research Procedure
There were six procedures to conduct the research. Those procedures were conducted systematically to elicit the certainty of the findings. The procedures were the followings:
1) Exploring
it is the phase where teachers ‘feel their way’ into the research. As a teacher, the writer explored that problems in teaching learning activity such as teaching techniques, teaching material and students’ motivation were worth researching. However, the writer decided to conduct the research on the area of teaching technique. The writer noticed that students’ grammar and pronunciation accuracy needed to be improved.
2) Clarifying
After the writer explored that the students’ grammar and pronunciation needed to be improved, the writer documented her observations which related to the research in broad and unfocused way. This step was used to help to clarify the nature of the situation and suggest further action.
3) Planning
This phase involved developing a feasible plan of action for gathering data, considering the constraint and preparing the appropriate method and instruments. Based on the discussion of the writer and the two observers, the research would focus on improving the students’ grammar and pronunciation accuracy. The research would focus on the progress of the six students and the employment of certain technique to improve their grammar and pronunciation accuracy.
4) Collecting the Data
The data were collected in each meeting. The writer, helped by the two observers, observed carefully the progress of the students’ grammar and pronunciation accuracy based on the employment of a certain technique. The writer recorded her observation and reflection in the filed notes and the two observers recorded their observation in the single lesson time line record sheet and rating checklist. The interview was also conducted to verify the observation and to complete the data triangulation to attain the validity and the reliability of the research.
5) Analyzing the Data
After the data were gathered, the writer and the two observers analyzed the data and built interpretation. The observational data obtained from the rating checklist were tested against the single lesson time line record sheet and the field notes to check whether or not they emerged similar patterns. The interview, finally, was employed to verify the observation and to complete the data triangulation to attain the certainty of the findings.
6) Writing the Report
CHAPTER IV
RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
The writer discloses and discusses the research findings thoroughly in this chapter. It presents the techniques which best improve students’ accuracy and how the writer improve the students’ accuracy. The data gathered from the research are triangulated carefully to elicit the certainty of the findings and to disclose the practice and the improvement of theories related to the research in line with the nature of the action research.
A. Data Analysis
As it has been stated in the previous chapter, trend analysis and data triangulation were two important factors in the phase of data analysis in the action research. In this part of the chapter, the writer firstly would like to discuss the research cycles and then discussed the trend analysis.
1. The Research Cycles
In this part of the chapter, the writer elaborated her actions in each cycle whereas the details why certain technique succeed or failed would be discussed on the next part. The major difference between the action researches from traditional research method is the present of research cycles (McNiff, 2002: 40-46; Sagor, 2005: 4-8 and Wallace, 1998: 13-16). Since this research adopted action research model which is proposed by Sagor (2005: 4-7), therefore the outline and the
elaboration of the research cycles followed his model. The model has four stages to be taken. The completion of these four stages was called one cycle. Instead of returning to the first stage, the next cycle was started from the third stage. The continuity of one cycle to the other cycles until the intended findings were discovered was called research cycles.
In this research, one cycle consisted of two meetings. The writer considered that one meeting was very short in practice to conduct one research cycle. In practices, one meeting lasted for 70 minutes. However, that amount of time was included the preparation of the students to enter the class, opening pray and reading some verse from the Bible. Therefore, in practice, the writer decided to consider two meetings to be one cycle. The writer passed three cycles, or six meetings, before she discovered the intended findings. On the first cycle, the writer employed four techniques. They were repetition drill, transformation drill, chain drill and complete the dialog. However, only repetition drill which showed positive trends. On the other hand, the transformation drill and the chain drill showed negative trends. The techniques could not improve the students’ grammar accuracy and moreover those two techniques were time consuming. As the result, the complete the dialog was unable to be employed because of time constraint. Because the writer discovered that transformation drill and the chain drill could not improve the students’ accuracy, the writer revised her action on the cycle two.
drill was only required the students to alter a part of the sentences. Dialog memorization was also employed in the cycle two. Instead of producing new utterances, the dialog memorization only required the students to remember a dialog and to perform in front of the class.
The employment of those four techniques showed positive trend in the cycle two. However, the employment of the dialog memorization was time consuming. During the employment of the dialog memorization in the cycle two, the writer was only able to assign eight pairs of students to perform the dialog memorization in front of the class. Comparing to the twenty-two pairs of students, eight pairs was certainly outnumbered. Therefore, the writer replaced the dialog memorization with question and answer in the cycle three. The question and answer was also able to be used to maintain interaction among students. Students could take turn to question and answer with their friends.
In the end, the writer discovered the intended findings in the cycle three. Those four techniques implemented could improve the students’ grammar and pronunciation accuracy. Because of the time limitation and the students had to prepare for the final examination, the research finished after meeting six. However, this research had met the objective of the research in which the research were intended to improve the students’ grammar accuracy on subject-verb agreement and pronunciation accuracy on near-close near front unrounded vowel
[ɪ], voiceless postalveolar fricative [ʃ], and voiced dental fricative [ð]. Figure 4.1
Figure 4.1 The Research Cycles
2. The Trend Analysis
analysis was based on the assembled rating checklist and the single lesson time line record sheet. The emerging trends were analyzed further to validate the findings through data triangulation. The followings are the trend analysis of the rating checklist and the single lesson time line record sheet.
a. Rating Checklist
Based on the rating checklist gathered from each meeting, the trend of the students’ achievements on grammar and pronunciation accuracy based on the employment of a certain technique could be depicted. The trend emerged from the rating checklist were utilized to discover the research findings. Since there were two aspects which were investigated, the trend of grammar and pronunciation accuracy, were elaborated in the beginning and at end of this part respectively.
the time ran out. As the result, employment of the complete the dialog was unable to be observed because of the time constraint.
In the cycle two, the writer replaced the employment of the transformation drill and the chain drill with substitution drill and dialog memorization. The substitution drill was similar to the transformation drill. However, the substitution drill was only required the students to alter a part of the sentence. Additionally, dialog memorization replaced the chain drill. The employment of the dialog memorization was to maintain the students’ interaction with their friends so that it was similar to the chain drill technique. However, the students were guided by the dialog on the dialog memorization. The result of the cycle two was better than the cycle one. The cycle two showed a positive trend on the employment of the four techniques. The students’ achievements increased to the level developing, proficient, and fluent in comparison to the cycle one. However, the employment of the dialog memorization was time consuming. The writer was only able to assign eight pairs out of twenty-two pairs of students during the cycle two. This proportion was certainly imbalance in giving opportunity the students to perform. Therefore, the writer replaced the dialog memorization with question and answer in cycle three. The employment of the question and answer was also to maintain the students’ interaction with their friends. They could take turn to give questions and answer questions.
to the level of fluent. Figure 4.2 clearly depicted the trends and the students’ achievement in this research.
Figure 4.2
Trend Analysis of Grammar Accuracy
Similar to the grammar accuracy, the data of the students’ pronunciation accuracy were gathered using rating checklist. The data from each meeting were assembled to look for patterns and themes. Furthermore, the data were analyzed to find out whether certain technique could improve students’ pronunciation accuracy.1
Similar to the grammar accuracy, only repetition drill showed an increasing trend during the employment of four techniques in the cycle one. On the other hand, students’ pronunciation accuracy was stable on level developing during the employment of transformation drill and chain drill. Moreover, these two techniques were time consuming. Therefore, the complete the dialog could not be employed in this cycle because of time constraint. The writer replaced the
