THE USE OF TONGUE TWISTERS TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE

PRONUNCIATION AT IX GRADE STUDENTS

OF SMPN 1 PRAYA TENGAH

Dewi Angelina, Heri Hidayatullah, Haryadi

English Department

Mataram Instutute of Teacher Training and Education

E-mail:

ABSTRACT

This research was aimed to describe the use of tongue twister technique be able to improving
students’ pronunciation. The subject of this study was 24 students at sixth grade students of
SMPN 1 Praya Tengah. In which consist of 14 males and 10 females. It is was classroom
action research with one cycle, each cycle of four steps: planning, acting, observing, and
reflecting. The data gathering used observation sheet and test and analyzed by using
quantitative and qualitative approach. At the result of pre-test was failed where the mean
score of pre-test was 65 and class percentage was 52% and the result of the first cycle that the
mean score was 70,4 and the class percentage was 100% indicating the target of 70 of the
minimum criterion has been achieved, it means that the action was stopped

Key Word: Pronunciation and Tongue Twister Technique.

ABSTRAK

Penelitian in bertujuan untuk mengetahui penggunaan teknik Tongue Twister untuk meningkatkan
cara pengucapan siswa. Subjek dalam penelitian ini adalah 24 siswa kelas sembilan di SMPN 1 Praya
Tengah. Yang mana terdiri dari 14 laki-laki dan 10 perempuan. Ini merupakan penelitian tindakan
kelas dengan satu siklus, setiap siklus memiliki 4 tahap: perencanaan, pelaksanaan, observasi, dan
refleksi. Data yang digunakan yaitu angket dan tulis, dalam menganalisa data peneliti menggunakan
pendekatan kuantitatif dan kualitatif. Hasil yang diperoleh dari pre-test adalah gagal dimana skor
rata-rata dari pre-test adalah 65 dan presentasi kelasnya adalah 52% dan hasil dari siklus pertama
nilai rata-ratanya adalah 70,4 dan persentasi kelasnya adalah 100% mengindikasikan dari target 70
kriteria minimal telah dicapai, itu artinya pelaksanaan penelitian dihentikan.

Kata kunci: Pronunciation and Tongue Twister Technique.

INTRODUCTION speaking but also in learning

English in general. Patchara
A. Background of the Study (2007) argues that pronunciation
Pronunciation is an is foundation of learning
element that is very important in English. .
English not only in learning
1
 Based on the researchers
observation in the sixth grade
students at SMPN 1 Praya
Tengah, There was something
less in students’ interest in
learning English, some of them
were not communicable, they
were afraid to talk and shy
because they were worry to
make mistakes. Besides, the
teacher was lack of teaching
media, teacher’s strategy was
monotonous, the teacher was not
creative in making the class
active. So in here, there were
many techniques and methods
of languange teaching that can
be selected for teachnig
pronunciation that could be
combined with many activities
such as “dictogloss tongue
twister, chain reading tongue
twister and whisper tongue
twister”.
B. Statement of the Problem
Referring to the background
of the study previously presented,
the researcher formulates the
statement of the problem as follows
“How does the use of tongue
twisters technique improve the
students’ pronunciation?
C. Purpose of the Study
The researcher aims to
describe the use of tongue twister
to improve students’ pronunciation
at SMPN 1 Praya Tengah in
academic year 2017/2018.
D. Significance of the Study
1. Theoretically
a. For the students:
2
The result of this study
is expected to give the
students the theoretical
information of the positive
result of the use of tongue
twisters technique in
learning pronunciation.
b. For the teacher:
The result of this
study will be utilized as
input and information for
the teacher about how to
use tongue twisters
technique in teaching and
learning process to make
students more interested in
learning pronunciation.
c. For the next researcher
The result of this
study is expected to provide
information for the
subsequent researchers
about the method in
teaching pronunciation.
2. Practically
a. For the students:
This method is
believed to be able to give
good influence and to help
students become easier to
comprehend message and to
make the students more
interested in learning
English pronunciation.
b. For the teacher:
The practical
significance of this research
is to provide input to the
English teachers in order to
apply the tongue twisters
technique especially to
overcome the students’
 problems in the teaching of be studied in isolation.
pronunciation. Suprasegmental features cannot
E. Scope of the Study be described, unless it deals
The researcher focuses on with segmental.
the use of tongue twister technique
to improve students pronouncing 3. The importance of
vowel at SMPN 1 Praya Tengah in Pronunciation
academic year 2017/2018. a. Intelligibility (the speaker
produces sound patterns
REVIEW OF RELATED that are recognizable as
LITERATURE English).
A. Pronunciation b. Comprehensibility (the
1. Defintion of Pronunciation listener is able to
Gilakjani (2012, p.119) understand the meaning of
assumes that pronunciation is a what is said).
set of habits of producing c. Interpretability (the listener
sounds. The habit of producing is able to understand the
a sound is acquired by purpose of what is said).
repeating it over and over again 4. Assesing Pronunciation
by being corrected when it is The students’ speaking
pronounced wrongly. performances were assessed
using a scoring rubric proposed
2. The Elements of by David P. Harris as it is cited
Pronunciation in Nurnia (2011: 27). The
Ramelan (1985:22) divides rubric is shown in the
the elements of English following.
pronunciation into two parts 5. Has few traces of foreign
namely segmental and language.
suprasegmental features. The 4. Always intelligible, thought
first is segmental features, one is conscious of a
which refer to sound units definite accent..
arranged in a sequential order. 3. Pronunciation problem
This feature can be studied in necessities concentrated
isolation. It means that every listening and occasionally
utterance may be cut up or lead to misunderstanding.
segmented into a linear 2. Very hard to understand
sequence of segmental feature. because of
The other one is pronunciation problem,
suprasegmental features, which most frequently be asked to
refer to such features as stress, repeat.
length, intonation, and other 1. Pronunciation problem to
features that always accompany serve as to make speech
the production of segmentals. virtually unintelligible.
Suprasegmental features cannot

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B. Tongue Twister
1. Definition of Tongue Twister
Vas as citied in Iryani
(2015) states that “tongue
twister is a word, phrase, or
sentence that is difficult to
pronounce in a row which is
packed with the repetition of the
same sound and the repetition of
consonant sound”. The activity
in tongue twister is done orally
and repeated many times to train
the tongue with particular
sounds.
2. Types of Tongue Twister
1) Sentence types
a) I scream, you scream,
we all scream for an
ice cream!
2) Repetitive
a) Sheena leads, Sheila
needs
3) Story
a) There was a young
farmer of leeds,
Who swallowed six
packets of seeds,
It soon came to pass
he was covered in
grass,
And could not sit
down for the weeds.
(Fiona, 2000)
3. The Implementation of Tongue
Twister Technique in Teaching
Pronunciation:
a. Dictogloss
Dictogloss is essentially
an activity (in this case the
tongue twister) and without
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notes try to write what they
remember. Then they hear it
again and get to work with a
partner to share both renditions
with the end goal of having
replicated the original text
well.
b. Chain Reading
The first step, teacher
starts the activity by grouping
students and asks them to
stand up making some lines
facing whiteboard.
After that, every
member of the group has to
read a word of tongue
twister one by one. The
group which finishes the
reading more quickly
become the winner. Then,
teacher and students discuss
the result together.
1. Whisper Tongue
Twister
The teacher explains
the task to the students.
2. The teacher introduces
the sounds, students are
to practice and write
their symbols on the
whiteboard.
3. Teacher asks students
to suggest words that
illustrate the various
sounds written on
whiteboard.
4. Teacher reads aloud the
words and asks students
to listen carefully.
5. Teacher reads aloud
words randomly
selected from the list,
and ask students to
 identify the words by Research (CAR). With
watching the movement qualitative and quantitative
of teacher’s mouth and approach. Classroom Action
tongue. Research begins with a
6. Teacher asks students question about classroom
to practice pronouncing experience, issue, and
the sounds. challenging. It is reflective
7. Teacher divides the process which helps teacher to
class into groups and explore and examine aspects of
have each group sitting teaching learning process and
or standing in single to take action to change and
file. improve the students
8. Teacher distributes a achievement in teaching
short, typed tongue learning process.
twister to the first
student in each group This research used one
and ask him/ her to cycles which cycle consist of
learn it by heart. four steps, that are: planning,
9. Teacher takes away the acting, observting, and reflecting
strips of paper. (Kemmis and Mc Taggart 1998:
10. Each student is asked to 11-14)
repeat the tongue B. Setting of the Research
twister to next person This research was
in line. That person conducted from September until
repeats the message to Oktober 2018 in SMPN 1 Praya
the next in line. In this Tengah in academic year
way, the message is 2017/2018.
passed from one
student to the next. 1. Place
11. The last student who This research was
hears the tongue twister conducted in SMPN 1 Praya
in each group should Tengah. It is located in Central
write it on whiteboard. Lombok.
12. The group finishing 2. Time
correctly in the shortest The research was
time wins the game. conducted from September
13. Repeat the process with until Oktober 2018.
another tongue twister. C. Subject and Object of the Study
Subject and object of the
RESEARCH METHOD research are explained as follow:

A. Research Design 1. Subject

The research method The subjects of this
used Classroom Action research are 24 students, there

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 are 14 males and 10 females of constructed by the
class IX SMPN 1 Praya researchers based on the
Tengah in academic year English vowels which were
2017/2018. taught during the study. In
2. Object order to get enough data the
The object of this research researcher divided the test
is the use of tongue twister into two: they are pre-test
technique in improving and pos-test.
students’ pronounciation at
the IX grade of SMPN 1 E. Procedure of the Research
Praya Tengah. In this study the writer
applies classroom action research
D. Instruments of the Study
1. Observation Sheets (CAR), the research that is done by
In this classroom the teacher in the classroom by
observation, the objects of emphasizing on the improvement
observation were students’ of practice and process in learning
activities in English (Susilo 2009, p.16).
language teaching learning. a. Planning
The researcher used the Some activities dealing
observation checklist to with the planning are:
make it more systematic. It
is containing list of students’ 1. Arranging the schedule of
activities and response classroom action research
happening during teaching 2. Designing a lesson plan:
and learning process. 3. Designing syllable
Observation is intended to 4. Preparing teaching
know the obstacles appear instruments and materials.
during teaching learning 5. Test
process, the students’ 6. Note taking observer
motivation, their difficulties 7. Assesment
and understanding about the 8. Preparing students’ pre-test.
material given that can be b. Action
seen from their attitude, This action discusses the
behavior, and response. In implementation of planning or
observation stage, the steps and activities that will be
researcher helped by the taken by the researcher. After
English teacher to observe determining the planning of the
students’ behavior and pronunciation teaching, then
activities during the lesson. some teaching steps were done
2. Test as follow:
To measure the First, students are taught
students’ pronunciation how to have good pronunciation
ability, a pronunciation test by giving the example of
was utilized. It was pronunced words based on

6
 segmental feature rules (vowels,
dipthongs, consonants).
Second, the teacher
explains about segmental
features and drilled students by
using tongue twister technique.
Then, students
divided into groups and play
games.
c. Observation
In this step,
researcher observes
students’ behaviour when doing
tongue twister activities, and
identify their difficulties. The
data are obtained through this
observation include
quantitative data and qualitative
data.
d. Reflection
Reflection is
analysis of the observation
result and also the evaluation
of the activities in the first
cycle and the second cycle. In
this step, the researcher
interpretes observed data from
drilling students’ using tongue
twister technique.
F. Techniques of Data Collection
To collect the data, the
researcher uses several methods.
They were:
1. Observation sheet
In this case, the
researcher uses the
unstructured or opened
observation sheet to know the
occurrences within learning
process. It may be about the
teacher’s performance during
Classroom Action Research
(CAR), class situation in the
classroom activity, and
students” response concerning
the use of pronunciation by
tongue twisters technique.
are 2. Test
Test used in this
research is pre-test and post-
test. Pre-test was done before
the implementing Tongue Twisters
the technique in pronunciation. It is
to measure students’
pronunciation at first.
Meanwhile, the post-test is
implemented after using
Tongue Twisters technique in
pronunciation.
G. Technique of Data Analysis
On the research design
the above, the researcher used
classroom action research using
qulitative and quantitative data.
Where qualitative data take from
observation sheets, and quantitative
data take from students’ scores.
H. The Indicator of Succes
Classroom Action Research
(CAR) can be called successful if it
can exceed the criterion that has
been determined, and fail if it could
not exceed the criteria that has been
determined. In this study, tongue
twister technique is success to
enchance students’ pronunciation
mastery, when the students could
pass the target score of the minimal
mastery level criterion (KKM). The
score of minimal mastery level
criterion (KKM) of this school is
>70 where this score was adapted
from school agreement.
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A. Research Findings
In this chapter, the writer
want to describe and discuss the
findings of the research. This
research is Classroom action
research on the use of Tongue
Twister technique to improve
student’s pronunciation. This
research was held on the sixth
grade students of SMPN 1 Praya
Tengah. It is aimed to know
students’ ability in pronunciation.
The data findings research
consisted of qualitative data and
quantitative data. Qualitative data
take from observation sheets, and
quantitative data take from
students’ scores.
B. Discussion
After computing the data,
the result of pre-test was 65 (52%),
and post test cycle 1 was 70,4
(100%). The researcher can see the
comparison before and after
teaching pronunciation by using
tongue twisters technique. The
researcher came to conclusion that
tongue twisters technique can
improve the students pronunciation
at IX grade students of SMPN 1
Praya Tengah. Most of the students
could not pronuncing the words
before the teacher gave the
treatment, the result of the test was
failed and then after the teacher
gave the treatment by using tongue
twisters technique, the result of the
test was success, because of the
treatment that teacher gave and
used to teach pronunciation.
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CONCLUSION AND
SUGGESTION
A. Conclusion
The implementation of
tongue twister technique in
teaching pronunciation could be
combined with many activities
such as “dictogloss tongue twister,
chain reading tongue twister and
whisper tongue twister”. In this
research, the researcher had used
dictogloss tongue twister in the
first cycle. It was started by
dictating students and students
were asked to listen carefully
without taking any notes on their
books. After that, students
discussed the answer in pairs to
decide the answers. Secondly,
chain reading tongue twister
activity was also implemented.
Teacher started this activity by
grouping students and asked them
to stand up making some lines
facing whiteboard. After that, every
member of the group had to read a
word of tongue twister one by one.
The group who finished the reading
more quickly become the winner.
Then, teacher and students
discussed the material together.
B. Suggestion
After implementing and
making evaluation of the research,
there are several important things
can be suggested in this paper and
it is hopefully can be useful for the
readers, especially:
1. For English teachers
There are some
recommendations in teaching
 learning English. First, an
English teacher must be
creative when transfers the
knowledge to students, so
students can easily receive and
understand the materials.
Second, it is necessary for the
English teachers to give
motivation to their students.
Third, it will be better if
English teachers find out the
appropriate and interesting
technique related to the
material. Besides, to give
contribution to English
teachers that teaching
pronunciation using tongue
twister technique is more
interesting and bring in
relaxation.
2. For students
Learning
pronunciation by using tongue
twister technique makes
students easy and fast to catch
the lesson. Also, students
should keep in mind that
learning English is interesting.
3. For the next researchers
The researcher hopes
that the next researchers can
prepare everything as good as
possible in conducting the
research and can do the follow
up of this research. On the
other hand, it is hoped that the
next researchers can
implement the method in
teaching learning process by
using better way.
Finally, the researcher
realizes that this thesis is far
9
from being perfect.
Constructive critics and advice
are really expected for the
perfection of the future
research. Hopefully, this thesis
will be useful for the teachers
and learners especially in
learning pronunciation of
English.
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