The Effectiveness Of Tongue Twister Technique - Uinsby

2practiced in the classroom and it is difficult to assigntasks and activities to further practice beyond the classroom.Pronunciation is one important aspect of speakingEnglish, it can be said that basic skills must be understoodbefore deep learning about speaking. Since Indonesians are notnative speakers, most of the students have difficultyunderstanding and digesting the correct pronunciation inEnglish. The ability to speak using accurate pronunciation isvery important. If we do mispronounce while speaking, itmakes the listener difficult to understand what we are talkingabout. Furthermore, it can be one of the factors which can leadto the conversation breakdown. The fact, most of Indonesianstudents’ pronunciation ability are still low. They considerpronunciation as the difficult subject since the sounds of wordsis usually different from their written form. They feel confusedand difficult to pronounce some English words, especially theunfamiliar one.According to Ramelan, when a student wants to learna foreign language, especially in English. They have to learn tospeak it. Studentsmust try to speak in the way the native speakers speakthe language. This can be achieved by closely imitating andmimicking them untirelessly until their pronunciation issatisfactory and acceptable to them. 3 This means that the role ina learning process for foreign language is the teacher. Theteacher should give examples of good and correctpronunciation in English pronunciation. There are many wayson how to learn speaking or pronunciation in a way that is notboring other than drilling.In this research, researcher use tongue twisters as away to learn to speak this time. A tongue twister is a techniquethat is aimed to consolidate the English sounds students havelearned by creating a game like atmosphere for practice.4 Roleplay and tongue twisters can be quite simple and are good3. Ramelan, English Phonetics, (Semarang: UPT UNNES Press, 2003), 2. Kathleen M. Bailey and Lance Savage, New Ways in Teaching Speaking, (Illionis:TESOL, 1994), 246.4digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id

3techniques to organize.5 A tongue twister is a series of words ora longer piece, like a poem, constructed to be difficult topronounce properly. Tongue twisters are used to create humorby challenging students to repeat the tongue twister very fastand listening to the funny results. Tongue twisters are alsouseful in understanding how we process the pronounceoflanguage. It can be defined that there are certain soundsequences that are difficult to alternate because of the changingpositions in the mouth andor the aural feedback of soundsimilarities.Oral language is the ability to speak and listen. Thedevelopment of thinking and reading abilities is closely linkedto the development of oral language. “Speaking to learn" is thevehicle for increasing and deepening knowledge. Crookes andGass, Bygate, Skehan and Swain suggest that tasks are directedat oral skills, particularly speaking. (Task-based languagelearning and Teaching)6. It means that the task is needed todevelop oral skills like a tongue twister.To teach vocabulary, teachers must point out the wordin its context, repeat it, explain it, expand upon it, and activelyengage students in using it. Students who interact with wordsby hearing them, using them and semantically manipulatingthem are more likely to learn and retain new vocabulary thanthose who are asked to look up and define unfamiliar words. 7 Inthis type of classroom environment, students might learn thebasic skills of reading and writing, but they may not learn howto think critically, express themselves orally in a fluent manner,or make independent conclusions.Tongue twister sentence consists of some similarsounds of words but they are often different in meaning.Moreover, some tongue twisters are humorous and givingamusement values. This technique is needed because studentswill be drilled on how to pronounce English words correctly by5. M. Revathy, M.A., M.Phil. etc,Enhancing Effective Speaking Skills through Role Playand Tongue Twisters.(ISSN 1930-2940 Vol. 16:9 2016), 9.6.M. Revathy, M.A., M.Phil. etc,Enhancing Effective Speaking Skills through Role Playand Tongue Twisters.(ISSN 1930-2940 Vol. 16:9 2016)7. Dr. Lisa R. Troute, Department of Multicultural Education. (School District of PalmBeach County, FL.), 1digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id

4using some similar and interesting phrases or sentences.Through tongue twister, students are hoped to feel easy inimitating and remembering the English phonemes. Those arethe reasons for the researcher choosing this topic.The researcher chooses Eleventh grade students ofSMK Al-Muhajirin Wringinanom Gresik. And on severaloccasions when the researcher taught English extracurricularactivities at SMK Al-Muhajirin lately (a substitute teacher).The teacher said that some of the students almost felt difficultwhen said /ð/ and /θ/ in a word such as “then, think, there”, andetc. The students almost pronoun “/tɛn/, /tɪŋ/, and /ter/” . Fromthat problem, the researcher thinks that this technique can givethe solution to this problem. The students at SMK Al-MuhajirinWringinanom said they were shy to speak English because theydid not know how to pronounce correctly. Based on theresearcher’sobservation inteaching and sharing with teacherofSMK Al-Muhajirin Wringinanom, it was found some problemof students in speaking,the students still have difficulties inexpressing their idea in speaking. Whereasthey tknownhowtoexpressit inspeaking.The researcher also asked some students about howteachers teach about speaking, especially about speaking, andthe students replied that teachers teach speaking with dialogueconversation, they also said that very bored if the learning isjust like that. It is difficult to gain students’ interest inimproving their own pronunciation. Beside that the researcherhas done observation and teaching for several days whichfound some problems that the students faced in speaking areaccuracy (pronunciation) and fluency (content) of the studentsare still low. It is same with the information from the teacher inthe school. Based on the condition of the students faced inspeaking, the researcher would like to solve the problems byusing a technique. The technique that has been applied isTongue Twisters.There are other ways to teach pronunciation such asJazz Chants. Effective methods include using role-play,pictures, flashcards, graphs, chants and interview that candigilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id

5improve learners’ pronunciation, grammar, everyday speech,and real word activities. Further, it can eclipse both adults andchildren to improve their speaking along with accuracy andfluency, so that they can reach their goal that is speakingEnglish fluently and appropriately. 8 Jazz chants is seems liketongue twister, but in jazz chants just use 3 or five words.Regarding that issue, there are some researches thathave been conducted by some researcher. In 2015 by Tri Irianiunder the title “ Improving Fifth Graders’ Pronunciation Of“Th” By Using Tongue Twisters”. This research aiming atfinding out how effective Tongue Twisters in helping fifthgrade improve their pronunciation of /ð/ and /θ/. Based on theobservation, the researcher found that one of the students’problems in learning English was pronunciation and one of theuseful methods in teaching pronunciation is by providing oralexercises. This research use class action research as themethodology.Another similar research in 2009 is done by AnaCristina Chiusano untitled “Implementing Accuracy andFluency-Based Tasks for the Training of the English PlosiveConsonants”. This paper reports the evaluation of theeffectiveness of a set of tasks with a focus on accuracy andfluency for the acquisition of the English plosive consonants inSpanish. The result of this study claimed that learners need tobecome more efficient speakers of English to focus on accuracyand fluency in speaking.Yollanda L. Turumi, Jamiluddin, and Salehuddin alsodoing a research with a title “Using Tongue Twister ToImprove The Pronunciation Of Grade VIII Students”. Thisresearch was to prove that using Tongue Twister can improvestudents’ pronunciation of sound /θ/ and sound /ð/ of GradeVIII Students of SMP Negeri 4 Palu. This research appliedquasi-experimental research design. The result of the studyfound that using tongue twister can improve the pronunciationof grade VIII students of SMP Negeri 4 Palu.Ali Derakhshan et.al.Developing EFL Learner’s Speaking Ability, Accuracy andFluency.Department of English Language Teaching, (Gorgan Branch, Islamic AzadUniversity, Gorgan, Iran), 8.8digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id

6To make this research different from the previousstudy above, this research focuses on the use of tongue twisterto improve fluency and accuracy. This research also uses preexperimental. This subject of the research is the student of theeleventh senior high school. This research also see how far itcan improve fluency and accuracy of the students.B. Research QuestionIn relation to the background of the study previouslyoutlined above, the problem of the study can be formulated asthis following question:1. Is a tongue twister technique effective to improve fluencyand accuracy?C. Objective of the StudyThis research will be aimed at finding out:1. To describe and analyze the effectiveness of tongue twisterwhether it can improve or not the fluency and accuracy inlearning English.D. HypothesisHypothesis is one in which the researcher makes aprediction about the expected direction or outcomes of thestudy.9There were two hypotheses of this research. There are:a. Ha: There is effect of usingtongue twistertechnique to improve students’ fluency and accuracy.b. H0: There is no effect of using tongue twistertechnique to improve students’ fluency and accuracy.E. Significance of the StudyThe result of this study is expected to givecontribution for both teachers and learners. In particular, thisstudy can be one of the sources in recognizing and realizingteacher’s question related to the students speaking ability.9. John W. Creswell. Research Design.(SAGE Publications. United States of America.2009), 211.digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id

7For the students, This study can help students get moremotivation in learning English speaking and they can practicepronunciation in a fun way of speaking, especially inpronounce/ð/ and /θ/.For English teacher, the result of this study can helpthem to enrich their techniques in teaching speaking English byusing tongue twister technique to teach how to say /ð/ and /θ/ infun way.F. Scope and LimitationFrom the identification of the problems, this studylimited the problems in the new technique used to improvestudents’ ability in speaking English. The technique used wasTongue Twister sentence. The researcher focuses on fluencyand accuracy in learning English. The limitation of this study isXI-Marketing students of SMK Al-Muhajirin Gresik theeleventh grade. There are just one class in eleventh grade ofSMK Al-Muhajirin and from that class the researcher doexperimental research.G. Definition of Key TermsIn order to have the same idea and concept in thisstudy, the researcher clarifies the terms used in this study:1. Tongue Twister TechniqueThis research involves in oral activity inpronunciation by repetition in the same vowel, theresearcher do research on how students pronounce /ð/ and/θ/. Even some students feel difficult to say /ð/ and/θ/inthe word “/ðʌs/”, “/θriː/” and etc. From that fact, theresearcher wants to do research by using tongue twister asa way to teach pronunciation.Tongue twister is a sentence or phrase that isintended to be difficult to say, especially when repeatedquickly and often. Moreover, according to Bailey, tonguetwister is a popular game enjoyed by children and adultsalike. This technique is aimed to consolidate the Englishsounds students have learned by creating a game likedigilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id

8atmosphere for practice.10 It is wise to include tonguetwister that highlight particularly problematic minimalsound differences (e.g., pronunciation of /f/ and /v/; /s/and /š/; /f/and /θ/).2.FluencyAccording to Samuel Johnson fluency is whensomeone understood that they speak it with a smooth andeasy flow.11 Brumfit said that fluency is the ability to haveappropriate things to say in a wide range of contexts, sothat you do not become tonguestied or lost for words.Lado points out that speaking ability is described asthe ability to report acts or situation, in precise words, orthe ability to converse or to express a sequence of ideasfluently. Thornbury suggests that pausing is one of thefactors of fluency.In one of the first studies investigating fluency,Fillmore wrote a paper on the language abilities attributedto fluency in L1 speech. He identifies four maindimensions: firstly, the ability to talk at length withoutpauses and hesitations, so the ability to keep the ballrolling; secondly, the ability to speak coherently and in a“semantically dense manner”, so here there is a focus onquality rather than quantity; thirdly, the ability to uselanguage appropriate to the context, here the concernbeing related to pragmatic skills; and fourthly, the abilityto use language creatively and imaginatively. 12Based on the explanations before, the researcher usesthe last explanation about fluency for this research. There10.Kathleen M. Bailey and Lance Savage, New Ways in Teaching Speaking, (Illionis:TESOL, 1994), 246.11. Dore Cecilia. Perceptions of Fluency.(University of reading. British coucil.), 3.12. Dore Cecilia. Perceptions of Fluency.(University of reading. British coucil.), 4.digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id

9are four aspects that include in categories of fluency andcan be in line with this technique.3.AccuracyAccording to Bartram and Walton, accur

4.8 Paired Sample Statistic 44 4.9 Paired Sample Test Accuracy 45 4.10 Result Of Posttest's Fluency 46 4.11 Descriptive Statistic Posttest Fluency 49 4.12 Descriptive Statistic Pretest And Posttes Fluency 50 4.13 Paired Sample Statistic Fluency 50 4.14 Paired Sample Test Fluency 51 LIST OF FIGURES