Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
National Capital Region

SCHOOLS DIVISION OFFICE OF NAVOTAS CITY

Bagumbayan Elementary School Compound
M. Naval St., Sipac-Almacen, Navotas City
Telephone Number: 83327764/83555032/82755239/83327985/
Website: depednavotas.ph / Email: navotas.city@deped.gov.ph / Facebook: DepEd Division of City Schools, Navotas

THE USE OF TONGUE TWISTER TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ PRONUNCIATION OF

GRADE 10 STUDENTS IN ENGLISH

Ginalyn G. Yeban Susana S. Sabeniano

ABSTRACT
This study aimed to improve the pronunciation performance of Grade 10 students in English through the use of a Tongue Twister technique.
Quasi-experimental research design was utilized in this study. Two heterogeneous classes were randomly selected and assigned as experimental
and control groups. Weekly test and first periodic test scores were used in measuring students’ academic performance. The students in the
experimental group were taught by using tongue twister, while those in the control group were taught by using repetition technique. The students
were also grouped based on two types of learning styles, namely active and reflective learning styles referring to Felder and Silverman’s (1988)
learning style model. The findings of the study showed that there was no significant difference in pronunciation ability between the groups. No
significant difference was either found in pronunciation ability between students with active learning style and those with reflective learning style. In
spite of the insignificant results, tongue twister is considered beneficial by the students as they perceived that practicing tongue twisters cultivated
joyful learning and it helped them to improve their pronunciation, fluency, and motivation in learning English pronunciation. Tongue twister
practice could complement the use of repetition technique to enhance students’ learning experience and learning outcome.

Key Concepts: active, learning styles, pronunciation, reflective, tongue twister

INTRODUCTION RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Among the four language skills and other language components,
pronunciation gets the least attention to discuss. The attitudes towards
foreign accents have generally changed from judgmental to more tolerant
(Tergujeff, p. 2013). In fact, the teaching of pronunciation takes part every
year in most English Departments curriculum at the university level. Some
prior issues such as whether pronunciation is worth teaching (Richards &
Renandya, 2002, p.175), whether pronunciation can be taught (Jones in
Richards & Renandya, 2002, p. 179), and the importance of teaching
pronunciation to adult learners (Thompson & Gaddes, 2004) have put
pronunciation in a settled position in language teaching. Over the past 50
years, at least three primary orientations of
pronunciation teaching exists.
Acquiring good pronunciation is teacher and students’ goal.
Therefore, teacher spends time considering appropriate ways of teaching
pronunciation and developing students’ skill. Velázquez and Ángel (2013)
and Szyszka (2016) revealed that the majority of teachers use repetition
technique to facilitate the acquisition of English pronunciation and help
students to become more familiarized with the pronunciation more easily
and quickly. In its most basic form, repetition technique asks students to
repeat individual words or utterances. As the teacher gives a model of the
language, the students repeat it either in unison or individually or both.
However, apart from these findings, repetition is a pronunciation technique
that does not fully address some native language interference challenges
faced by the students.
In responding to the challenges above, one technique namely
tongue twister comes as a technique that promotes native-like pronunciation
provides exposure of certain different sounds, and drives students’
motivation for good pronunciation. Harmer (2007, p. 256) mentions that Prior to the treatment, learning style questionnaire was administered to
teacher can use tongue twister in working with difficult sounds. A previous CONCLUSION
identify whether the students had active or reflective learning styles.
study by Turumi, Jamiluddin, and Salehuddin (2016) on tongue twister in the Based on the analysis of the students’ score from the questionnaire, 6
eighth grade of junior high school showed that tongue twister is a promising studentsThehaduse of alearning
active tonguestyles
twister learning
and platform
11 students had as part of the
reflective
technique to teach pronunciation. teachingstyles
learning and inlearning process group.
the experimental was found
In the effective in promoting
control group, there
The types of learning style involved in this study were active and students’
were engagement,
8 students thereby
with active improving
learning speaking
style and performance.
9 students with reflective
reflective learning styles, which postulated by Felder and Silverman (1988) learning style. Thus, holistically, 14 students had active learning style
in their learning style model. These learning styles were selected due to RECOMMENDATIONS
and 20 students had reflective learning styles. The students’
their relevance to the pronunciation teaching and learning process, which pronunciation scores were analyzed and organized into descriptive data
included listening activities, repetition, and tongue twister practice,  Grade
based on the
10 groups.
english The descriptive
teachers data showedtothat
are encouraged the mean
adapt the usescore
of
from the experimental
Tongue group
Twister in their was 86.2 with standard deviation (SD) of
class.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM 8.03,
 Thewhile the mean
school should score from the
provide control
training group
and was 81.8 with SDthat
seminar-workshop of
This research aimed to improve the pronunciation 11.21. Thus, the experimental group had
would enhance teachers’ capacity inhigher
using mean
varietyscore than did
of online andthe
performance of selected Grade 9 students in English by using Tongue control group with the difference of mean score
game-based resources to cope up with theofdemands
4.4 points.ofThe
the 21st
Twister at Kaunlaran High School from August 22 to November 22 of descriptive
century. data of students’ pronunciation scores from both groups are
the school year 2022 – 2023. displayed in Table
Specifically, this study sought to answer the following:  The local government unit should also provide if possible, free,
1.Is there a significant difference between the pronunciation accessible and stable internet connection to every school in the
performance of Grade 10 students as indicated by the weekly test division so that teachers and students can use it whenever needed
and first periodic test mean scores of the students taught using: specially when conducting assessments and activities that require
a.Conventional teaching approach; and internet connection.
b.Tongue Twister: in addition to the conventional teaching REFLECTION
approach? The researcher realized that the use of tongue twister activities
2.How can the use of Tongue Twister! help improve students’ is a challenging task on the part of the teacher because it requires
engagement and pronunciation performance of selected Grade 9 time and effort to prepare activities, but the students’ positive
students in English? reception towards the intervention made the study worthwhile. In
addition, the intervention helped improved the students’ confidence
METHODOLOGY and enthusiasm in learning. As a commitment, the researcher will
The quasi-experimental design was utilized in this study continue the use of Tongue twister in the teaching and learning
which compared means of two groups. Forty (40) pairs of individuals in process.
each group were selected which were matched based on their general
average in Grade 10 English. After the matching was done, the choices REFERENCE:
Iwaomoto D., Hargis J., Taitano E., & Vuong K., (2017).. Turkish Online Journal
of selecting the experimental and the control group were performed
of Distance Education. Vol.18, Number 2 Article 7. Retrieved from:
randomly. Independent-Samples T-test was used to analyze the data https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1145220.pdf Baldwin, L. & Sabry, K. (2010).
gathered.

ISO Certified:
P a s s i o n... P u r p o s e . . . P r o d u c t i v i t y . . .
9001:2015 SDO Navotas City, U N O !