ABSTRACT
Ampuni, Fransissca Kristanty Bijak. (2017). The Use of Podcasts in Learning Pronunciation in Class VIII of SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University.
This research was concerned with learning media which could help the students’ pronunciation skills in SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten. The researcher conducted the Classroom Action Research in order to solve the students’ pronunciation problems in pronouncing English words especially animals’ names in the classroom. In this research, the researcher tried to answer a question namely how does the use of podcasts help the students to learn pronunciation?.
The subject of this research was 15 eighth grade students of SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten in academic year 2015/2016 who joined classroom pronunciation activities. The instruments of this classroom action research were pre-test and post-test, flashcards, podcasts, questionnaire, and pronunciation rubric. This research was aimed to help Junior High School students in learning pronunciation using podcasts.
The researcher realized that the students have some general problems in pronouncing animals’ names. The students had difficulties in pronouncing animals’ names which have two or more syllables, they were not confident, and they also had limited vocabulary. The students were excited to practice their pronunciation skills using podcasts in pronunciation activities. They could make progress of their pronunciation in terms of stress and accuracy. It could be seen from the students’ pre-test score in cycle one. Almost all students could not pass the passing grade and in cycle two all students could pass the passing grade. Therefore, the use of podcasts created good atmosphere of the classroom and made the learning process not boring. Podcasts also encouraged the students to study individually.
ABSTRAK
Ampuni, Fransissca Kristanty Bijak. (2017). The Use of Podcasts in Learning Pronunciation in Class VIII of SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University.
Penelitian ini mengenai media pembelajaran yang tepat dalam belajar pelafalan bahasa Inggris untuk membantu kecakapan pelafalan murid Sekolah Menengah Pertama SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten. Peneliti menggunakan Penelitian Tindakan Kelas untuk mengatasi masalah pelafalan bahasa Inggris siswa dalam melafalkan kata bahasa Inggris terutama nama-nama hewan di kelas. Dalam penelitian ini, peneliti berusaha menjawab sebuah pertanyaan yaitu bagaimana penggunaan podcasts membantu siswa untuk belajar pelafalan bahasa Inggris.
Responden dalam penelitian ini berjumlah 15 siswa dari kelas VIII B SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten tahun ajaran 2015/2016 yang mengikuti kegiatan pelafalan bahasa Inggris di kelas. Alat-alat yang digunakan dalam Penelitian Tindakan Kelas ini adalah pre-test dan post-test, kartu bergambar, podcasts, kuesioner, dan rubrik penilaian pelafalan. Penelitian ini dimaksudkan untuk membantu siswa Sekolah Menengah Pertama dalam kegiatan belajar pelafalan bahasa Inggris menggunakan podcasts.
Peneliti menyimpulkan permasalahan umum pelafalan bahasa Inggris siswa dalam melafalkan nama-nama hewan bahwa siswa kesulitan dalam melafalkan nama-nama hewan yang memiliki dua suku kata atau lebih, mereka tidak percaya diri, dan mereka juga memiliki kosa kata terbatas. Siswa bersemangat untuk melatih kemampuan pelafalan mereka melalui pengalaman kegiatan pelafalan bahasa Inggris dikelas. Hal ini dapat dilihat dari nilai pre-test siswa disiklus pertama hampir semua siswa tidak dapat melewati kriteria ketuntasan minimal dan disiklus kedua semua siswa mampu melewati kriteria ketuntasan minimal. Oleh karena itu, podcasts menciptakan situasi kelas yang kondusif dan membuat proses pembelajaran tidak membosankan. Podcasts juga mendorong siswa untuk belajar secara mandiri.
Pada penelitian ini diharapkan bahwa jika siswa tidak percaya diri pada kemampuan pelafalan mereka, siswa dapat belajar secara mandiri di luar kelas. Guru direkomendasikan untuk menyediakan atau mencari podcasts yang menarik, mengatur aktivitas siswa dalam proses belajar, memberi perintah yang jelas dan kesempatan untuk berlatih pelafalan bahasa Inggris dengan teratur menggunakan media podcasts.
i
THE USE OF PODCASTS IN LEARNING PRONUNCIATION IN CLASS VIII OF SMP PGRI 10 WEDI KLATEN
A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Fransissca Kristanty Bijak Ampuni Student Number: 111214008
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
iv
I DEDICATE THIS THESIS TO:
MY BELOVED PARENTS
MUKLAS MODJO AND MARIA KRISTIANA
MY BELOVED AYAH Drs. SAMUEL MODJO
vii ABSTRACT
Ampuni, Fransissca Kristanty Bijak. (2017). The Use of Podcasts in Learning Pronunciation in Class VIII of SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University.
This research was concerned with learning media which could help the students’ pronunciation skills in SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten. The researcher conducted the Classroom Action Research in order to solve the students’ pronunciation problems in pronouncing English words especially animals’ names in the classroom. In this research, the researcher tried to answer a question namely how does the use of podcasts help the students to learn pronunciation?.
The subject of this research was 15 eighth grade students of SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten in academic year 2015/2016 who joined classroom pronunciation activities. The instruments of this classroom action research were pre-test and post-test, flashcards, podcasts, questionnaire, and pronunciation rubric. This research was aimed to help Junior High School students in learning pronunciation using podcasts.
The researcher realized that the students have some general problems in pronouncing animals’ names. The students had difficulties in pronouncing animals’ names which have two or more syllables, they were not confident, and they also had limited vocabulary. The students were excited to practice their pronunciation skills using podcasts in pronunciation activities. They could make progress of their pronunciation in terms of stress and accuracy. It could be seen from the students’ pre-test score in cycle one. Almost all students could not pass the passing grade and in cycle two all students could pass the passing grade. Therefore, the use of podcasts created good atmosphere of the classroom and made the learning process not boring. Podcasts also encouraged the students to study individually.
In this research, it is recommended that if the students are not confident in their pronunciation skills, the students can learn individually outside the classroom. The teachers are recommended to provide or find out interesting podcasts, control the students’ activities in the classroom, give clear instructions, and give chances to practice their pronunciation skills as frequently as possible using podcasts.
viii ABSTRAK
Ampuni, Fransissca Kristanty Bijak. (2017). The Use of Podcasts in Learning Pronunciation in Class VIII of SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University.
Penelitian ini mengenai media pembelajaran yang tepat dalam belajar pelafalan bahasa Inggris untuk membantu kecakapan pelafalan murid Sekolah Menengah Pertama SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten. Peneliti menggunakan Penelitian Tindakan Kelas untuk mengatasi masalah pelafalan bahasa Inggris siswa dalam melafalkan kata bahasa Inggris terutama nama-nama hewan di kelas. Dalam penelitian ini, peneliti berusaha menjawab sebuah pertanyaan yaitu bagaimana penggunaan podcasts membantu siswa untuk belajar pelafalan bahasa Inggris.
Responden dalam penelitian ini berjumlah 15 siswa dari kelas VIII B SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten tahun ajaran 2015/2016 yang mengikuti kegiatan pelafalan bahasa Inggris di kelas. Alat-alat yang digunakan dalam Penelitian Tindakan Kelas ini adalah pre-test dan post-test, kartu bergambar, podcasts, kuesioner, dan rubrik penilaian pelafalan. Penelitian ini dimaksudkan untuk membantu siswa Sekolah Menengah Pertama dalam kegiatan belajar pelafalan bahasa Inggris menggunakan podcasts.
Peneliti menyimpulkan permasalahan umum pelafalan bahasa Inggris siswa dalam melafalkan nama-nama hewan bahwa siswa kesulitan dalam melafalkan nama-nama hewan yang memiliki dua suku kata atau lebih, mereka tidak percaya diri, dan mereka juga memiliki kosa kata terbatas. Siswa bersemangat untuk melatih kemampuan pelafalan mereka melalui pengalaman kegiatan pelafalan bahasa Inggris dikelas. Hal ini dapat dilihat dari nilai pre-test siswa disiklus pertama hampir semua siswa tidak dapat melewati kriteria ketuntasan minimal dan disiklus kedua semua siswa mampu melewati kriteria ketuntasan minimal. Oleh karena itu, podcasts menciptakan situasi kelas yang kondusif dan membuat proses pembelajaran tidak membosankan. Podcasts juga mendorong siswa untuk belajar secara mandiri.
Pada penelitian ini diharapkan bahwa jika siswa tidak percaya diri pada kemampuan pelafalan mereka, siswa dapat belajar secara mandiri di luar kelas. Guru direkomendasikan untuk menyediakan atau mencari podcasts yang menarik, mengatur aktivitas siswa dalam proses belajar, memberi perintah yang jelas dan kesempatan untuk berlatih pelafalan bahasa Inggris dengan teratur menggunakan media podcasts.
ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude and love to my Lord, Jesus Christ, for His holy spirit that remains in me. He is the one and only who always gives me spirit, awesome blessings, strength in my good and bad times of my life especially when working on this thesis. I could finish this thesis because of Him.
I would also express my gratitude to my major advisor, Christina Lhaksmita Anandari, Ed.M., for her valuable feedback, motivation, patience, and guidance during the accomplishment of this thesis. I would like to thank her for her precious time that she spent to guide me in doing this thesis.
My special and sincere thanks go to Sarwoto, S.Pd. the headmaster of SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten, for permitting my conducting research on VIII B class. I would like to thank him for his advice and support that he gave to me when conducting the research.
x
Special thanks go to my friends, all of Teater Seriboe Djendela (TSD) family, especially Kak Eko, Koko Padmo, Kak Netta, Mak Via for giving me the meaning of family among friends. My SPD group, thanks for giving me the great chance to learn how to be an awesome leader, the bad and good times we spent together to pass SPD class. I like that moments.
Further, I would like to give my gratitude to all of PBI lecturers in Sanata Dharma University, PBI Secretariat staff, Mbak Dhanniek and all
librarians’ staffs in Sanata Dharma University for their support and best
services.
Finally, my gratitude goes to all of my friends and people who support and help me accomplishing this thesis that I cannot mention one by one. May God bless them all.
xi
TABLE OF CONTENTS
page
TITLE PAGE ... i
APPROVAL PAGES ... ii
DEDICATION PAGE ... iv
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ... v
PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ... vi
ABSTRACT ... vii
ABSTRAK ... viii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... ix
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... xi
LIST OF TABLE ... xiv
LIST OF FIGURES ... xv
LIST OF APPENDICES ... xvi
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION A. Research Background ... 1
B. Research Problem ... 3
C. Problem Limitation ... 3
D. Research Objectives ... 4
E. Research Benefits ... 4
xii
CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ... page
A. Theoretical Description ... 8
1. Nature of Pronunciation ... 8
a. Definition of pronunciation ... 8
b. The process of pronunciation ... 10
2. Learning Pronunciation ... 10
a. The principles of learning pronunciation ... 11
b. Learning technique... 12
3. Problems and Factors during Pronunciation Activities in the Classroom ... 13
4. Classroom Action Research ... 15
a. Definition of Classroom Action Research ... 15
b. Aims of Classroom Action Research ... 16
c. The Steps and Characteristics of Classroom Action Research .... 16
5. Podcasts ... 18
a. The nature of podcasts... 18
b. The advantage of podcasts ... 18
6. VIII B of SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten ... 20
B. Reviews of Related Studies ... 21
C. Theoretical Frameworks ... 22
xiii
B. Research Setting ... 25
C. Research Subject ... 26
D. Research Instrument ... 27
E. Data Gathering Technique ... 29
F. Data Analysis Technique ... 30
G. Research Procedure ... 32
CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ... A. The Research Process ... 34
1. The Observations ... 34
2. The Students’ Difficulties in Pronouncing Animals’ Names ... 36
3. Action Implementation ... 37
B. The Role of Podcasts in Helping the Students’ Pronunciation Skills ... 53
1. The Students’ Pronunciation Skills Progress ... 54
2. The Questionnaire Analysis ... 55
CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS A. Conclusions ... 64
B. Recommendations ... 66
xiv
LIST OF TABLES
Table page
xv
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure page
Figure 1.1. An Overview of Pronunciation ... 9
Figure 2.1. The Acquisition Process of L2 Pronunciation ... 10
Figure 4.1. Students’ Activities in the Classroom... 41
Figure 4.2. Flashcards and Podcasts in Animals ... 43
xvi
LIST OF APPENDICIES
Appendix page
Appendix 1. Cover Letter for the Head of SMP PGRI 10 ... 72
Appendix 2. Research Official Statement from SMP PGRI 10 ... 74
Appendix 3. Lesson Plan and Materials of First Cycle ... 76
Appendix 4. Lembar Kerja Siswa (LKS)... 84
Appendix 5. Blueprint of Pronunciation Rubric ... 91
Appendix 6. Students’ Pre-Test Score of First Cycle ... 93
Appendix 7. Lesson Plan and Materials of Second Cycles ... 95
Appendix 8. Blueprint of Questionnaire ... 99
Appendix 9. Questionnaire... 101
Appendix 10. The Raw Data of Questionnaire ... 104
1 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This research was Classroom Action Research on the use of podcasts for learning pronunciation in class VIII of SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten. There were six parts in this chapter, namely: research background, problem formulation, problem limitation, research objectives, research benefits, and definition of terms. A. Research Background
According to Brandone, Salkind, Golinkoff, and Pasek (n.d, p. 499), “language can be defined as an organized system of arbitrary signals and
rule-governed structures that are used as a means for communication”. Based on this statement, as a conclusion, language is a sign and structure which is changing anytime and used by people to communicate.
According to Setiyadi (2006, p. 10), “language is a group of sounds with specific meanings and organized by grammatical rules”. It can be concluded from
what Setiyadi (2006, p. 10) has stated that learning a language was not an easy thing. It is because when we learn a language, we learn sounds which make specific meaning which should be understood by other people.
According to Yuzawa (2007), “pronunciation is basic and essential skill required for those who want to use English communicatively”. Based on Yuzawa’s statement, pronunciation is needed to be taught in order to help the
By having good pronunciation, hopefully the students are able to communicate with other people and avoid misunderstanding. There are two reasons why pronunciation has to be taught. Firstly, pronunciation improves students’ intelligibility. Secondly, pronunciation allows students to create a favorable impression in situations such as job interviews if these are conducted wholly or partially through the medium of English (Poedjoseodarmo, 2003). In other words, by learning pronunciation, it can improve the clear sounds of words and also can help the students to have a good English speaking skill for communication.
Many students in SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten had difficulties in learning English especially in learning pronunciation. The researcher did the observation in VIII B of SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten on 5th and 7th August, 2015. It was the beginning of first semester in academic year 2015/2016. At that time, the English teacher taught about simple present tense and the topic was animals. She read animals’ names and asked the students to repeat animals’ names after her. When repeating the animals’ names, most of the students could not pronounce animals’
media to help the students to make their pronunciation skills better because podcasts provided colorful pictures with audio and there were many sources of podcasts in YouTube which could be downloaded easily. Therefore, podcasts were interesting and it could help and improve the learning process, the researcher used Classroom Action Research (CAR) to apply podcasts in this research.
B. Research Problem
According to the background of the research, the researcher formulates the research question as follows:
1. How does the use of podcasts help the students to learn pronunciation?
That problem was proposed in order to know whether the use of podcasts helps the students to learn pronunciation in VIII B of SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten.
C. Problem Limitation
D. Research Objective
The objective of the research is to find out how the use of podcasts helps the students to learn pronunciation in VIII B of SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten.
E. Research Benefits
The researcher hopes that this research will bring benefits especially for: 1. The readers
This research can give new information about the use of podcasts in learning pronunciation to the readers. Therefore, the readers can develop their pronunciation skills by using podcasts.
2. English students
This research can help the students in learning pronunciation with fun way and easier by using podcasts. Therefore, the students can increase their pronunciation skills to pronounce English words correctly.
3. English teachers
pronounce the animals, and giving the podcasts to correct their wrong pronunciation.
4. Future researchers
This research can inspire other researchers who will conduct a similar research and further discussion on the use of podcasts as medium to increase the students’ pronunciation skills.
F. Definitions of Terms
In order to clarify the concept used in the research, avoid misinterpretation, and give clear information of the discussion in the research, the researcher provides the definitions of the key words used in the research. The definition of terms is presented are as follow:
1. Pronunciation
Pronunciation is one of the elements that has to be mastered by the students in learning English. According to Yuzawa (2007, p. -), “pronunciation is a basic and essential skill required for those who want to use English communicatively”. It means that pronunciation is an important thing to communicate in English clearly. It is because pronunciation is dealing with the voice production through the mouth.
2. Podcasts
According to Deal (2007, p. 2), “podcasting is a mean of publishing audio and video content on the web as a series of episodes with common theme. It can be concluded from what Deal (2007, p. 2) has stated that podcasts can be one of educational media to learn pronunciation or vocabulary for elementary until Senior High School students. It is because podcasts contain audio and video recording with particular themes that are posted on the internet.
3. VIII B Class of SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten
SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten is private school that is located on Sukorejo, Wedi, KP. 57461. This school uses Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP) curriculum for teaching activities. There are six classes in this school. Each of grade has two classes A and B. The students’ socio-economic backgrounds are middle to low. Their parents’ jobs are farmers, building laborers,
and housekeepers.
VIII B is one of the classes of SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten. Class VIII B has 15 students that consist of 8 male students and 7 female students. When doing the previous observation, the researcher finds that the students lack of ability in pronouncing English words especially animals. Thus, the researcher wants to help them in learning pronunciation by using podcasts.
8 CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
In this chapter, the researcher divides the review of related literature into three parts. They are: theoretical description, review of related studies, and theoretical framework.
A. Theoretical Description
In theoretical description, the researcher is going to discuss the theories related to this research. The researcher employs theories of pronunciation, learning pronunciation, problems and factors, Classroom Action Research (CAR), and podcasts.
1. Nature of Pronunciation
a. Definition of Pronunciation
Pronunciation is one of the three elements that have to be mastered by the students in learning English. According to Yuzawa (2007, p. -), “pronunciation is a basic and essential skill required for those who want to use English communicatively”. In other words, pronunciation is the first language element
speak. Pronunciation itself has two features: segmental and suprasegmental. The features of English pronunciation are as follows:
Figure 1.1: An Overview of Pronunciation (Burns and Claire, 2003, p. 6)
In this research, the researcher focuses on suprasegmental feature on word stress. According to Burns and Claire (2003, p. 7), “word stress relates to the prominence given to certain words in an utterance”. It can be concluded that word stress is
about emphasizing some words in our pronunciation. Indeed, pronunciation should be mastered by the students in order to speak English well.
According to Adult Migrant Program Research Centre (2002, p. 1), “pronunciation refers to the production of sounds that we use to make meaning”.
b. The Process of Pronunciation
According to Isono (2000, p. 2), “the acquisition process of L2 pronunciation is the selection process that decides which L1 features are transferred and which are not, and also which L2 features are taken into the systems of interlanguage phonology”. To sum up, the process of L2 pronunciation is the replacement of L1 features into L2 features in the interlanguage phonology. Interlanguage phonology is the phonological systems which are between a learner first language (L1) and learner second language (L2) (Isono, 2000). Therefore, it is necessary to know what are involved in the process. The model of the acquisition process of L2 pronunciation as follows:
A underlying representations
hypothesized by child
(AB) LEARNED RULES
B phonetic representations
perceived by child
(BC) INVENTED RULES
C child’s pronunciation
Figure 2.1: The Acquisition Process of L2 Pronunciation (Kiparsky and Menn, 1987, p. 36 as cited in Isono (2000, p. 3))
2. Learning Pronunciation
a. The Principles of Learning Pronunciation
Burns and Claire (2003, p. 4) suggest some principles of learning pronunciation. The first principle is teaching features of pronunciation from the very beginning stages of learning. It means that the students have to be taught English pronunciation features such as phonemes, consonant sounds, vowel sounds, intonation, and word stress from very beginning. The second principle is assessing learners’ pronunciation needs in combination with their overall spoken
to a metalanguage and notation system that will assist them to learn more about pronunciation independently, both side and outside the classroom. It means that the students have to study independently because there are many things of pronunciation which can be learnt.
b. Learning Technique
Ravin (n.d, p. 1) says that the goal of teaching pronunciation skill will be achieved better if the students master the language’s pronunciation patterns to
create the flowing communication. There are five techniques that should be taught by the teacher to help the students master the pronunciation patterns. The first step is learning the correct articulation of English vowel and consonants. The second step is making sure to pronounce the last sound of each word. The examples are the sentence “I play the violin (present tense)” and “I played the violin (past
tense)”. The third step is slowing down the rate of speech. The fourth step is using correct syllable stress. The last step is practicing five minutes a day to rapidly improve the pronunciation (Ravin, n.d). It means that by practicing regularly, it makes the students’ pronunciation skills better.
According to Thornbury (2005, p. 2) as cited in Gianjar (2013), “drilling is
pronunciation and emphasize stress on students’ mind from short term memory to
long term memory.
3. Problems and Factors During Pronunciation Activities in the classroom
During the learning process, the teachers should be aware of the problems that may occur in the classroom. There are three factors of problems which may occur: from the student himself, their friends, and the teacher. There are also several problems that occur during pronunciation activities that influence the students’ pronunciation accuracy. There are seven problems of pronunciation’
features that can cause confusion. The first problem is using the wrong sound. The example is the word “copy” when “coffee” was intended in a question Do you
want a copy? The listener supposed that the speaker was asking whether or not
she or he wanted a photocopy rather than a cup of coffee (Jenkins, 2000 as cited in Poedjosoedarmo, 2003). The second problem is leaving sounds out. The example is when a Taiwanese is deleting a word final consonant sound. When a Taiwanese speaker pronouncing “children’s programme” as /ʃʊɹeˀ p gwæˀ/ in which the initial [t] of the affricate is dropped, [ldr] in the middle of “children” is simplified
second syllable can be heard as “damsels” (Poedjosoedarmo, 2003). The fifth
problem is putting stress on the wrong word in a sentence. This problem often happens even the fluent speakers of English may continue to have problems with stress placement within the sentence. For example is a Singaporean radio and TV announcers often speak flawless English with pronunciation of segmental phonemes. She or he gives stress syllables in bold.
Every $20.00 of synergy fuel gives you a chance to win a two-year supply of synergy fuel. We’re giving away so much synergy fuel, you won’t be able to finish it all.
The example above is wrong because the phrase synergy fuel occurs three times and it is stress every time. When the phrase of synergy fuel is mentioned for the first time, it can be new information, but when it is mentioned three times, it is not new information again. It is because the last word all refers to all the synergy fuel. This is the example which would make much more sense:
Every $20.00 of synergy fuel gives you a chance to win a two-year supply [of synergy fuel]. We’re giving away so much synergy fuel, you won’t be able to finish it all (Poedjosoedarmo, 2003).
cluster, combined with misplaced stress. The example is an Indonesian student once heard the first line of the song “How much is that doggy in the window?” as
“Amatsutejo in the window,” where “Amatsutejo” is an Indonesian man’s name.
[“how much is” was heard as “atmasu” and “ that doggy...” was heard as “tejo”].
Both segmental and suprasegmental (e.g stress placement) involved in this misunderstanding (Poedjosoedarmo, 2003).
4. Classroom Action Research
This part presents a discussion of Classroom Action Research. It consists of three parts of the definition, aims, steps and characteristics.
a. Definition of Classroom Action Research
According to Mettetal (2001, p. 7), “Classroom Action Research is a method of finding out what works best in your own classroom so that you can improve student learning.” It can be concluded that Classroom Action Research is finding an appropriate method to solve problems in learning process in the classroom by doing a research that is conducted by the teachers. The teachers also have to know what is happening in the classroom.
b. Aims of Classroom Action Research
According to Mettetal (2001, p. 7), “the goal of CAR is to improve your own teaching in your own classroom (or your department or school)”. Hole and McEntee (1999) as cited in Mettetal (2001, p. 7) add that the aim of CAR is that the teachers have to focus on what his or her own classroom to look back at what is going well and what is not going well in the classroom.
c. The Steps and Characteristics of Classroom Action Research
Classroom Action Research is solving the students’ problems in the classroom which will be done by teachers in their classroom (Hendricks (2009) as cited in Ary, Jacobs, and Sorensen (2010, p. 512)). There are seven steps of Classroom Action Research (Mettetal, 2001). The first step is identifying a question or problem. It means that the question which will be examined in Classroom Action Research must be clear and it relates to the students’ learning in the classroom. As the example is would the use of flashcards in teaching vocabulary help students to understand easier? According to Mettetal (2001, p. 8), “the question or problem should look at something under teacher control, such as
researcher to do structured research. According to Mettetal (2001, p. 9), “the research design of a CAR study may take many forms, ranging from a pretest-posttest design to a comparison of similar classes to a descriptive case study of a single class or student”. All in all, by planning strategy the researcher can choose which form is used to do the research. The fourth step is gathering data. Mettetal (2001, p. 9) says that “CAR tends to rely heavily on existing data such as test scores, teacher evaluations, and final course grades”. It means that as the researchers, we can also use other instruments which help to collect the data. The fifth step is making sense of the data. It means that every researcher should make sense of data they get from the research. The way of making sense of data is by analyzing the data and looking for findings with clear explanation. The example of analyzing data is simple statistical analyses of quantitative data, such as simple t-tests and correlations, are usually sufficient. Another example is the use of tables or graphs are often really helpful in qualitative data. The sixth step is taking action. It means that after analyzing the data, the researcher should use the result of data to make decisions about the teaching strategies in the classroom. Therefore, the strategies which are used in the classroom can help to solve the students’ problems (Mettetal, 2001). The last step is sharing your findings.
According to Mettetal (2001, p. 9), “you can share your findings with peers in many ways”. It means that sharing the findings with other people is needed in
5. Podcasts
There are two things which are discussed in this part. They are the nature of podcasts and the advantages of podcasts.
a. The Nature of Podcasts
Podcasts are digital media such as audio or visual and sometimes videos which are used to make the students’ performance better in pronunciation skills. Podcasts may be very simple because it is designed to show the correct pronunciation to the students or people who watch it. Podcasts media are fun and useful for students when pronouncing English words. Podcasts help the students to give example of the correct pronunciation. Therefore, podcasts give the chance for the students to memorize the correct pronunciation.
Deal (2007, p. 2) defines podcasting is a mean of publishing audio and video content on the web as a series of episodes with a common theme. Therefore, the students are able to download the podcasts whenever and wherever as they want. Moreover, the use of podcasts makes the students more flexible in learning pronunciation.
b. The Advantages of Podcasts
When the students are asked to pronounce some of English words in the classroom, many of them will pronounce them unclearly. It is because they are afraid to be laughed by their friends if they pronounce incorrect. The use of podcasts really helps them to reduce their anxieties because they can learn by themselves.
Ractham and Zhang (2006) as cited in Evans (2007, p. 492) suggest that producing podcasts are relatively easy for educators. It is because the educators or teachers could download from YouTube if they do not have time to make it by themselves. They have just to copy the podcasts and save it in the laptop. Then, the laptop is connected with LCD and the learning process can be begun.
Other advantages of using podcasts are that the learners can download the audio recordings on the web as long as they have personal computer or gadgets. The second one is that podcasts can accommodate a huge variety of learning strategies for the learners (Scutter, Stupans, Sawyer and King, 2010). According to Boulos, Maramba and Wheeler (2006) as cited in Scutter, Stupans, Sawyer and King (2010, p. 181) they say that the students learn more effectively by taking notes during a lecture and by reviewing these in their own study time, the others learn more effectively by active listening, without taking notes.
played directly from home or school computers”. Therefore, there is no reason for students to purchase new equipment or learn sophisticated technology in order to access podcasts. In any event, most of the students now have MP3 players or gadget available to them.
By implementing podcasts which provides the easy way to use, cheap, and enjoyable the researcher could solve the problems occurred during the learning process in the classroom. Moreover, the use of podcasts gave not only a lot of chances for the students to pronounce animals’ name correctly and increase their pronunciation skills level but also the teacher could be more creative and autonomous in finding out the best method to solve classroom’s problems.
6. VIII B of SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten
VIII B is one of the classes of SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten. It consists of 7 female students and 8 male students. Based on the previous observation, students of VIII B have difficulty in learning pronunciation. They think that learning pronunciation is really difficult. They need many times to pronounce words correctly. The results of their pronunciation actually are not satisfying enough. Hence, the use of podcasts is an appropriate media to help them to pronounce English words.
Pendidikan is a curriculum in which school is given a privacy to develop their
curriculum (The National Education Department, 2008). In this school, one academic year consists of two semester namely odd and even semester. Each semester lasts for six months.
From the analysis of the primarily studies, the implementation of podcasts media gives good results on the progress of the students’ pronunciation performance. In this case, the students are excited to join the learning process and they are focus when listening and watching the podcasts.
B. Reviews of Related Studies
According to Hew (2009) as cited in Long and Fabry (2011, p. 13), he says that “podcasting is a relatively unexplored technology tool in education. At that time, it is true that podcasting is unexplored technology tool in education”. It is because technology becomes the rare and expensive things. Nowadays, technology is not a rare thing anymore in education. Many teachers use technology such as email, website, and blog, to support their learning process more.
that podcasting as a tool to facilitate on giving instruction in learning process. It is proved by Hew (2009, p. 346) as cited in Long and Fabry (2011, p. 13) who said the research has focus on examining where and how to best use podcasts as an instructional medium. Hence, podcasts must be used as an instruction.
According to Bangert (2005), Bannan-Ritland (2002), Dennen (2007), and Kennedy (2004) as cited in Long and Fabry (2011, p. 14), “podcasts have the potential to enhance student knowledge construction in the socio-cognitive environment”. The purpose and design of the podcasts is critical to student learning. As a result, podcasts becomes a tool that can be used in education because the teachers or educators can design podcasts by themselves that appropriate to the students.
C. Theoretical Framework
In conducting this research, the researcher analyzes the use of podcasts in learning pronunciation in VIII B class of SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten. The researcher employed pronunciation, Classroom Action Research, and podcasts theories to solve the research problem: (1) how does the use of podcasts help the students to learn pronunciation?.
24 CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In this chapter, the researcher discusses the methodology used in conducting this research. The explanation of the detailed methodology in this research is elaborated in several parts. They are research method, research setting, research participants, research instruments, data gathering technique, data analysis technique, and research procedure.
A. Research Method
Based on the research objectives, this research was a Classroom Action Research (CAR) which aimed to show the benefits of learning pronunciation by using podcasts in VIII B class of SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten. Based on Mettetal’s (2001) statement, CAR was one of the useful methods to be used in a
Mettetal (2001, p. 9) says that “the research design of a CAR study may
take many forms, ranging from a pretest-posttest design to a comparison of similar classes to a descriptive case study of a single class or student”. Based on Mettetal’s statement, the researcher ranged a pre-test and post-test design and to
complete the pre-test and post-test, the researcher used flashcards and podcasts as the students’ treatment. Kemmis and McTaggart (2000) as cited in Huang (2007,
p. 15) say that Classroom Action Research consists of four essential stages. They are planning, action, observation, and reflection. In this case, the Classroom Action Research was both a quantitative and qualitative research, since its purpose was to find out the information about students and teachers’ opinion towards teaching methodology in English class. The information was concluded from the number of the answers from the close-ended questionnaires. Besides that, the information was also concluded from progress reports, test score and activity.
B. Research Setting
The research was conducted in SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten, in the odd semester of the academic year of 2015/2016, from August 5th, 2015 to September 11th, 2015. The researcher did this research on VIII B class of SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten. VIII B class of SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten is located near the teachers’ office in which the class is near the street which made the students could
C. Research Participants
The participants of the research were the students and the English teacher of SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten. They were all members of SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten.
There was only one English teacher in SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten. The teacher took her first diploma from PGSMTP and third diploma from UT UNS. The teacher has been teaching English for 35 years. The teacher started in 1981 as honorary teacher and in 1986 the teacher got her SKPNS (Surat Keputusan Pegawai Negeri Sipil) to be civil servant.
There were 15 students in VIII B class of SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten in the 2015/2016 the academic year. The students consisted of 8 male students and 7 female students. Their socio-economic backgrounds were middle to low. Their parents’ jobs mostly were farmers, building laborers, and housekeepers.
In addition, their English proficiency was not really good because in the classroom, they did not pay attention to teacher’s explanation and some of them
D. Research Instruments
In order to gather the data for this research, the researcher used five instruments. The instruments are as follows:
1. Pre-test and Post-test
According to Mettetal (2001) as cited in Schmidt (2002, p. -), three major research design could be used for Classroom Action Research projects: pre-test-post-test design, comparisons of similar classes, and case studies.
The first thing that the researcher did was did the pre-test and post-test. The researcher asked the teacher to teach pronunciation in conventional method in which the teacher read some animals’ names and then the students repeated what the teacher said. After doing the pre-test, the researcher used podcasts in the classroom as their treatment to deliver the materials of pronunciation. After all two steps above, the researcher did the post-test to see whether the students made progress or not.
2. Flashcards
The use of flashcards in this research was did the pre-test in beginning and post-test in the end of Classroom Action Research. The researcher provided colored pictures of animals’ names to make the students easier to memorize the animals’ characteristics and make the learning process more fun. The researcher
3. Podcasts
The researcher used podcasts as the students’ treatment in order to help the students to learn pronunciation in an interactive way. The researcher chose videos as one of the types of podcasts. The researcher used videos in order to make the students enjoyed the learning process. The researcher played the podcasts in the LCD then students watched the podcasts and they had to really pay attention to
podcasts. It was because after watching the podcasts, the researcher asked the students to repeat what they had heard based on the podcasts.
4. Questionnaire
The researcher distributed questionnaire to the students to gather the data about the usefulness of using podcasts in learning pronunciation. There were two parts in the questionnaire. In the part one, the researcher provided five close-ended questions in order to know the students’ general opinions. Then, in the second part, the researcher provided five open-ended questions in order to give the students an opportunity to elaborate their opinions. The complete questions represented in Appendix 9.
5. Pronunciation rubric
Pronunciation rubric became the main source of data in this research. The researcher made the pronunciation rubric by the researcher self and it based on the blueprint. The blueprint could be seen in Appendix 5. The researcher used pronunciation rubric to score the students’ pronunciation. The pronunciation
Table 3.1 Rubric for Pronunciation Ability
The data of this research were gathered by doing the pre-test and post-test by using flashcards and distributing the questionnaire. Both of the research instruments were applied after the researcher had the permission from the Headmaster and English teacher of SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten.
The pre-test and post-test to the students of SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten was conducted to answer the problem formulation about the usefulness of using podcasts in learning pronunciation. The questionnaire was conducted to gather the data whether the use of podcasts went well or not. The data got through pre-test and post-test, podcasts, and questionnaire results. All of these things would be explained in the following paragraphs.
podcasts as the media to learn pronunciation. Then, after three weeks of giving the treatments, the researcher did the post-test to see the results of the use of podcasts in learning pronunciation.
The questionnaire was distributed in the classroom during the learning process. In this research, the researcher used close-ended in order to know the students’ general opinions about podcasts. Then, the researcher used open-ended
questionnaire in order to give chances to the students to elaborate their opinions about podcasts. Therefore, there were ten questions consisting of five close-ended questions and other five questions are open-ended questions.
F. Data Analysis Techniques
The data was compared and contrasted with the theory reviewed in chapter II. The researcher analyzed the primary study based on the real situation in the classroom and also pre-test and post-test through the learning process in the classroom to measure the students’ ability. The researcher used Classroom Action Research to analyze the students’ problems in the classroom and to find out what is the best treatment of the students’ problems. Moreover, the researcher also used questionnaire to collect the data to get the result whether the use of podcasts was useful or not in helping the students in learning pronunciation.
animals’ names given in the flashcards. At the end of the second cycle, the researcher also gave the post-test. If the result of the students’ pre-test were better in their pronunciation skills in the first cycle and their post-test in the second cycle were better than their pre-test in the first cycle, it meant that the students made good progress.
The progress of the students’ pronunciation skills was covered based on the criteria in the pronunciation rubric mentioned in the research instruments. It could be concluded that the use of podcasts could help the students to make their pronunciation skills better. Thus, with all the instruments, the researcher could finish the implementation of research.
In order to see the achievement indicators, the researcher also employed the pronunciation rubrics during the research implementation. The researcher monitored the progress of the students’ pronunciation skills including task stress and accuracy. The researcher used the formula to see the percentage of the students who made progress. The formula asfollows:
: Number of students who made progress in pronunciation skills : The total number of the students being observed
minimum score was 1 and the maximum score was 4 for each criterion. Each student would have total scores for their pronunciation skills.
G. Research Procedure
The researcher took some steps in conducting the research. The first is the researcher did two observations on 5th and 7th August, 2015 to identify the problem faced by the students. Then, the researcher tried to find a solution of the problem. The researcher chose podcasts as media to help the students to make their pronunciation skills better.
The researcher chose podcasts because there were four advantages. The first is podcasts helped to reduce the students’ anxieties. The second is podcasts gave chances to the students to learn when and wherever they want by downloading on YouTube as long as they had computer or gadgets. The third is it was relatively easy for the teachers in producing podcasts. The last is podcasts made the learning process in the classroom was fun and easier. The researcher also prepared the materials, lesson plan, and the implementation.
observe the students’ ability in pronunciation. Afterwards, the second cycle was
only one meeting on Friday, 11th September, 2015.
In the second cycle, the researcher asked the students to do post-test and also distribute the questionnaire to the students to find out if the use of podcasts could help the students to pronounce better. Then, the researcher collected all data including the students’ scores. The researcher had to make reflection on what went well and what went wrong during the actions in the classroom.
34 CHAPTER IV
RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
This chapter was divided into two parts. They were the process of the research and the role of podcasts in helping the students’ pronunciation skills.
A. The Research Process
Classroom Action Research (CAR) was a research which was conducted by a teacher who wanted to find out the best method that could improve the students learning in her own classroom. In this research, the teacher as the researcher collected and analyzed the data in her classroom related to the teaching practice. After collecting and analyzing the data, the teacher could reflect on her finding. After finding the problems in classroom, the researcher collected fresh data related to the problem and then analyzed some solutions to solve the problem. This process was called as a cycle which could be repeated until the researcher found a suitable solution. In this research, the researcher tried to answer the objective which was to find out whether podcasts are useful for the students’ pronunciation skills in VIII B of SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten.
1. The Observations
The researcher did the observations after getting the English teacher’s
the students’ cooperation during this research to the students in VIII B class.
Then, the researcher sat down in the back of classroom and started to observe the English teacher, students, and the situation in the classroom. During the observation, the researcher found that the students had difficulties in learning English such as grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary, and the students were not accustomed to use English in the classroom. The researcher paid attention to the English teacher’s way of teaching and the researcher knew that on several
occasions the English teacher used Bahasa Indonesia to give instructions in the classroom to the students. Afterwards, the researcher decided to do this research about the students’ pronunciation skills because the students’ pronunciation skills
was worse than their grammar or vocabulary.
On 7th August, 2015, the researcher did the next observation to know the students’ difficulties in learning pronunciation deeper in order to find out an appropriate method or treatment to overcome the students’ difficulties. The
2. The Students’ Difficulties in Pronouncing Animals’ Names
In this research, the researcher tried to find an action to overcome the research problem. Podcasts were chosen to help the students’ pronunciation skills
in VIII B class of SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten. Podcasts were chosen because the researcher found some advantages of using podcasts to learn pronunciation exercises. For example is the atmosphere of pronunciation exercises was conducive enough because the students really could pay attention to teacher’s explanation by using podcasts. After knowing the advantages of podcasts to learn pronunciation exercises, the students were able to pronounce animals’ names with correct stress and good accuracy.
By using the pronunciation rubric, the researcher assessed the students’ pronunciation skills. From these stages, the researcher could show problems which occurred in students’ pronunciation skills. From their performances, the
researcher concluded the general problems of the students. The problems were as follows:
a. Students had difficulties in pronouncing animals’ names which have two or more syllables. For examples:
Eagle /ˈi.ɡᵊl̩/ became “Eagel” /eagəl/.
Tiger /ˈt ɪ·ɡər/ became “Tiger” /tɪger/.
Crocodile /ˈkr k·əˌd ɪl/ became “Krokodil” /krokodɪl/.
Kangaroo /ˌkæŋ·ɡəˈru/ became “Kangeru” /k ngəru/.
b. Students had limited English vocabulary. Some of the students often asked the teacher for the English vocabulary.
c. Students were not confident when the teacher asked them to read aloud the materials.
3. Action Implementation
This research was CAR. The actions were implemented through the steps of CAR. This research consisted of four steps namely; planning, action, observation, and reflection. Those four steps were a part of a cycle. In the planning step, the step was done to prepare everything before the teaching and learning process. Meanwhile, the actions and observation were done at the same time during the action implementation.
a. The First Cycle
The participants of this research were 15 students. The first cycle was conducted in four meetings on Friday, 14th August, 2015, Friday, 21th August, 2015, Friday, 28th August, 2015, and Friday, 4th September, 2015. The teaching and learning processes were based on the syllabus and the researcher’s materials.
The first cycle of this research consisted of four stages namely; planning, action, observation, and reflection. The actions and observation were conducted at the same time. When the actions were implemented, the researcher could observe what was going on during the implementation. After that, the researcher did reflection for the next cycle.
1) Planning
At the first time, the researcher began to plan the CAR by asking permission to the headmaster of SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten and to the English teacher. After having permission, the researcher prepared the lesson plan, the model of exercises, flashcards, podcasts, and questionnaire. The planning step was done after the researcher found problem faced by the students in VIII B class of SMP PGRI 10 Wedi, Klaten. The main focus of this step was to prepare an appropriate treatment to help the students’ pronunciation skills by using podcasts.
researcher made a plan to use 12 color animal flashcards and asked the students to read it correctly. There were two reasons why the researcher chose 12 animal flashcards. First reason was 12 animals’ flashcards was mostly used in students’ handbook and also in LKS. Second reason was 12 animals’ flashcards categorized clearly which stress in the beginning and in the middle of word. The researcher also planned to explain the function of stress and give the correct example in pronouncing the animal’s names.
The researcher also asked each student to read the 12 color animals’ names in the teacher’s desk as their pre-test. The researcher also planned to make the
2) Action
This action was conducted in the meetings on Friday, 14th August, 2015, Friday, 21st August, 2015, Friday, 28th August, 2015, and Friday, 4th September, 2015 for eighty minutes. In this stage, the researcher played role as the classroom teacher. On Friday, 14th August, 2015, the researcher started the activity by checking the students’ readiness to follow the lesson and it was continued by recalling the students’ pronunciation skill to pronounce animals’ names by asking some questions. After that, the researcher asked the students to do task 2a page 2 from the book “English on Sky SMP book 2” and do activity 1 and 2 from LKS page 5. The researcher asked the students to do part in LKS because it made the students were accustomed to pronounce animals’ names as often as possible by doing several exercises from the book and also LKS. All in all, it made the students pay attention to the animals’ names’ pronunciation and emphasize stress
on students’ mind from short term memory to long term memory (Thornbury,
2005 as cited in Gianjar, 2013). The researcher also asked the students to do task 2b from book page 3 as their homework.
The researcher gave examples on how to pronounce animals’ names
correctly by showing the phonetic transcriptions of animals’ names on the flashcards to the students. The researcher showed the phonetic transcriptions of animals’ names because it was important to the students to know the basic
knowledge of English vowels and consonants to avoid misunderstanding in pronouncing animals’ names. The example is when the students pronounced the
those two animals’ names correctly because the word “Kangaroo” has double vowels /æ/ which are followed by /ŋ/consonant and the word “Ostrich” has /tʃ/ consonant. The researcher pronounced /æ/ vowel and /ŋ/ and /tʃ/ consonants loudly and frequently in the classroom and asked the students to repeat many times. In this stage, the researcher chose the animals’ names as a topic in pronunciation exercises in the first cycle.
After the students had enough accustomed to listen the correct pronunciation on animals’ name, the researcher asked the students to read 12
flashcards one by one as the pre-test. The researcher let the students to read the 12 flashcards based on their understanding. Each student read the 12 flashcards in order from first line until fourth line. After all students had done the pre-test, the researcher asked them to discuss together whether their pronunciation was right or wrong.
In the second meeting of the first cycle on Friday, 21st August, 2015, the researcher asked the students to do the task 3a on page 4 from the book and activity 3 and 1 on page 6 from LKS. After that, the researcher asked the students to discuss together. Then, the researcher showed the podcasts by using LCD in the classroom. The researcher would stop the podcasts after one animal name was showed. Then, the researcher asked the students to repeat twice what they heard from the podcasts.
students to discuss it together in the classroom. After that, the researcher showed podcasts and also asked the students to repeat aloud. When the students pronounced incorrectly, the researcher played the podcasts.
Figure 4.1: Students’ activities in the classroom
In the last meeting of the first cycle on Friday, 4th September, 2015, the researcher reviewed the previous materials by asking the students to do task 11a on page 15 from book. The students had to complete seven questions about writing the pets’ names .The researcher also asked the students to do activity 7 on
page 8 from LKS about guessing what animals are through the animals’ characteristics. The researcher asked the students to read the animals’ names in the book. After that, the researcher showed the podcasts again to the students in the classroom.
The reason why the researcher used podcasts was that this media could help the students to give the correct pronunciation in giving the right stress of animals’ names which have two or more syllables, to be accustomed to listening
English. Moreover, the students had color animal flashcards to make it more interesting. Here were the examples of the flashcards and podcasts used in this research.
Figure 4.2: Flashcard and Podcast in Animals
3) Observation
The observation was conducted at the same time with the action implementation on Friday, 14th August, 2015, Friday, 21st August, 2015, Friday, 28th August, 2015, and Friday, 4th September, 2015. In the observation stage, the researcher asked a help to the English teacher to observe what was going on during the action implementation.
In the second meeting of the first cycle on Friday, 21st August, 2015, the stage of learning was done by giving the podcasts in LCD. Earlier, the researcher asked the students to do the task from the book on page 7. The researcher asked the students to discuss it in a group of two. After that, the researcher asked each of the students had to answer the questions. After discussing the task together, the researcher showed the podcasts by using LCD in the classroom. The researcher asked the students to repeat and speak loudly what they had heard after watching the podcasts. Additionally, the students were very excited to watch the podcasts and repeat it although sometimes they were noisy.
Based on the observation during the first cycle, the students were very excited in learning pronunciation through the podcasts and active in repeating the podcasts. Even if, some students still did little mistake in pronouncing animals’ name. Therefore, the researcher asked one of the students to pronounce loudly. On the first meeting of the first cycle, when the students did the pre-test, each of the students gave different pronunciation. For examples are when the students pronounced animal “Elephant” and “Eagle”. The first student pronounced “Elephant” became “Elepen” /elepen/ and “Eagle” became “Eagel” /eagel/.
The next student pronounced “Elephant” became “Elephen” /elephen/ and “Eagle” became “Igle” /ɪgle/. From those two examples, it could be concluded that the students were having difficulty in pronouncing animals’ names which
have two or more syllables. To help the students, the researcher made correction toward their pronunciation by giving the correct pronunciation by showing the phonetic transcriptions of the animals’ names.
After the pre-test, the researcher showed the podcasts and asked two different students to pronounce the same of animals’ names: “Elephant” and “Eagle”. Both of the students could pronounce correctly even the stress was still
not disappear yet. From those two students, the researcher concluded that the students had already been able to pronounce animals’ names.
they enjoyed the process of pronouncing animals’ names by using podcasts they saw. To help the students pronounce animals’ names correctly, the researcher moved around the classroom and helped the students who still had difficulty in pronouncing animals’ names correctly.
During the learning processes in the classroom, the researcher observed and took notes everything which was considered significant and important related to the students’ progress. The researcher conducted the first cycle by using
podcasts in four meetings. In the first meeting until the fourth meeting, the researcher taught about how to differentiate the use of stress in two or more syllables. The researcher explained about the importance of stress to have good pronunciation skills.
4) Reflection
In CAR, reflection was important. The researcher reflected the actions implementation in the first cycle. In the reflection stage, the researcher tried to find what went well and what did not go well. The result of the reflection stage would be used for the second cycle of this Classroom Action Research. From questionnaire analysis, the researcher found that the students showed progress of their pronunciation skills through podcasts.
The researcher planned to recall the students’ understanding about the
animals’ names correctly. In addition, the goal of using podcasts was visible and
stimulating. Practicing the podcasts in pronunciation exercises could decrease the students’ difficulties while, at the same time, helping them to speak up. In this
situation, the researcher planned to explain more about how to use the phonetic transcriptions of learning stress in pronunciation.
In the second cycle, the researcher still planned to use the same flashcards. However, flashcards which were used in second cycle was without phonetic transcriptions. After four meetings were conducted, the researcher could see the progress in pronunciation components through the students score based on pronunciation rubric. In second cycle, the researcher planned to have only one meeting. The researcher planned to use one meeting of second cycle for doing the post-test.
b. The Second Cycle
The second cycle was conducted in one meeting. The meeting of the second cycle conducted on Friday, 11th September, 2015. In the meeting, all the students attended the class.
In a meeting of second cycle was to do the post-test. In this cycle, the researcher would provide the same flashcards without phonetic transcriptions. It was aimed to give opportunity for the students to be more confident in pronouncing animals’ names. Moreover, it helped to strengthen the students’
researcher would ask the students to come to teacher’s desk one by one and then, they would pronounce 12 flashcards without phonetic transcriptions.
1) Planning
Based on the pre-test in the first cycle, the researcher still used the same steps to do the post-test because the researcher would know the development of the students’ learning. The researcher tried to provide the same flashcards without phonetic transcriptions. In the beginning of meeting in second cycle, the researcher asked the students to sing a song “we are in the train of love” together.
The researcher would make the atmosphere of the classroom was happy. After all students were happy, the researcher asked them to come to teacher’s desk one by one to do the post-test. The example of the flashcards used in post-test in the research is as follow:
Figure 4.3: Flashcard without Phonetic Transcription
