EFFECTIVENESS OF PRONUNCIATION AMONG GRADE 9 STUDENTS

Effectiveness of Pronunciation among Grade 9 Students

Andrea D. Almario, Ezekiel C. Dizon

Ruffa Mae C. Manicdao, Jerick R. De Leon

Jason Allen G. De Leon, Jester N. Florendo

An Action Research

Presented to the Faculty of the

Magalang Christian Ecumenical School, Inc.

2019
 EFFECTIVENESS OF PRONUNCIATION AMONG GRADE 9 STUDENTS

Abstract

Pronunciation is the most neglected aspect of English. There are many reasons why

pronunciation is neglected, first, because it is hard to learn and teach. So the researchers

conducted a survey among Grade 9 students of Magalang Christian Ecumenical School,

Inc. to test the students' pronunciation skill and to know if they are facing difficulties on

it. The researchers also wanted to know who faces more difficulties in pronunciation

among male and female respondents. The researchers also found out that you can’t learn

correct pronunciation by watching movies but it depends on the certain person on how to

cope, so the researchers also asked the respondents if they can learn correct pronunciation

through it.
 EFFECTIVENESS OF PRONUNCIATION AMONG GRADE 9 STUDENTS

Acknowledgment

The researchers want to say a sincere thank you to the teachers, research critic and

research statistician who helped throughout the journey to accomplish the thesis.

Also to the following;

To Almighty God who gave the researchers a strength to finish the thesis.

To the Grade 9 students who cooperated and gave their exert effort to answer the

questionnaires.

To the research adviser, Ms. Regine Lumbang, who guided and helped the researchers all

throughout the thesis.

To the statistician, Ms. Patricia Anne Macasaquit, who also helped the researchers in the

solving the results of the conducted survey.

Also to the advisers of Grade 9 students who let the researchers to conduct the survery

among their students.

To Mrs. Haydee Manalo, School principal, who gave the researchers a permission to

perform the survey among Grade 9 students.

Also to Mr. Jan Neru Bernas who also guided the researcher in making and

accomplishing the thesis.

 EFFECTIVENESS OF PRONUNCIATION AMONG GRADE 9 STUDENTS

Table of Contents

Title Page……………………………………………………………………………..i

Acknowledgement……………………………………………………………………ii

Abstract……………………………………………………………………………….iii

CHAPER 1

Introduction………………………………………………………………………….1-4

CHAPTER 2

Research Problem……………………………………………………………………..5

Hypotheses……………………………………………………………………………5

CHAPTER 3

Methods……………………………………………………………………………….6

CHAPTER 4

Results and Discussion………………………………………………………………...7-9

CHAPTER 5

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………….10

Recommendation……………………………………………………………………...10

CHAPTER 6

References……………………………………………………………………………..11
 EFFECTIVENESS OF PRONUNCIATION AMONG GRADE 9 STUDENTS

Introduction

Poor pronunciation skills can affect the studies of some students. Pronunciation is the

most important yet difficult problem that non-native English speakers have to face when

studying English. Improper pronunciation can lead to negative impression,

misunderstanding and ineffective communication. Pronunciation is one area of teaching

which is often neglected, probably due the fact that it is perceived to be difficult.

However, it is an area which learners need guidance. We all know that English is not a

phonetic language, which means that looking at the written word often doesn’t help

students say it. Pronunciation has always been perceived as a difficult area by teachers

and learners alike. Like listening, pronunciation is sometimes neglected in the process of

language teaching in favor of reading and writing, which are rather more likely to lead to

success in examination in cultures which are so much focused on those media.

Martin Hewings (2009:5) has also underlined the importance of pronunciation in

students. He states that, difficulties with pronunciation might mean that students fail to

get their messages across, even when the correct words are being used or they might fail

to understand what is being said to them. Incorrect pronunciation of words can lead to

negative impressions, misunderstanding and ineffective communication. In this case,

confidence of some students may affect because of improper pronunciation.

According to Peter Trench (2008:79), the basic strategy in pronunciation teaching is

imitation, Language teachers should take advantage of the children’s ability to imitate

quiet what they hear. Regards to this, it can be first step to engage children in to

practicing proper pronunciation.

 EFFECTIVENESS OF PRONUNCIATION AMONG GRADE 9 STUDENTS

According to Balboni (2012), it constitutes the energy responsible for the memorization

of new information and it is vital for the acquisitions of every of English. Meaning, the

eagerness of studying aspects of pronunciation sometimes doesn’t only rely on who is

teaching but to the person who is open for new learning. The interest of learning proper

pronunciation of words begins to the person who wants to learn.

As for Dawes and Iavarone (2013:82), it is vital that children received a good model of

pronunciation from the beginning of their foreign language. The person who surrounds

every child must teach them the aspects of pronunciation, so when they grow up, they

wouldn’t neglect pronunciation and they will know the importance of it at very young

age.

According to Lynda Yates and Beth Zeilinski (2009:11), pronunciation refers to how we

produce the sound that we use to make meaning when we speak. It includes the particular

consonants and vowels of a language (segments), aspects of speech beyond the level of

the individual segments, such as stress, timing, rhythm, intonation, phrasing,

(suprasegmental aspects) and how the voice is projected (voice quality). Although we

often talk about these as they were separate, they all work on together in combination

when we speak, so that difficulties in one area may impact on another and it is the

combined result that makes someone’s pronunciation easy or difficult.

According to Gilbert (2008:6), while it may be easy to see the benefit of good

pronunciation instruction for increasing intelligibility, it is just as useful for increasing

listening comprehension. Students who are taught about English prosodic patterns often

report speech on TV, in films, conversation.

 EFFECTIVENESS OF PRONUNCIATION AMONG GRADE 9 STUDENTS

Reggy Rayasa (2018) says, developing student’s pronunciation skills by using English

movies as a teaching media and investigating the student’s perception of the use English

movie in learning pronunciation. This is another way to learn English pronunciation by

watching movies. When you often watch English movies, you can adapt the correct

pronunciation of a particular word by the dialogues of the certain, not just pronunciation

but also accent correct vocabulary.

Claimed by Cook (2008), a global language such as English faces the problem not just

the local variety of every country to teach but of which country to take as a model, if any.

Since English is the universal language, the non-speaking English will struggle a lot

during learning the English because simply they are not fluent. In discussing

pronunciation, English pronunciation always takes the place because it is the widely

spoken language but there are also a number of people who can’t speak in English.

Pourhosein Gilakjani (2016), Understandable pronunciation is one of the basic

requirements of learners’ competence and it is also one of the most important features of

language instruction. Good pronunciation leads to learning while bad pronunciation

promotes to great difficulties. The goal of pronunciation instruction is not to ask learners

to pronounce like native speakers. Instead intelligible pronunciation should be the real

purpose of oral communication. If learners want to change the way of pronouncing

English words, they have to change the way they think about the sounds of those words.

Unfortunately, pronunciation instruction is sometimes ignored in English language

teaching. By means of it, it is really important to learn correct pronunciation because bad

pronunciation can result a failure for conveying the message and troubles in

communication.
 EFFECTIVENESS OF PRONUNCIATION AMONG GRADE 9 STUDENTS

ABBAS POURHOSEIN GILAKJANI (2016), English Pronunciation instruction is

difficult for some reasons. Teachers are left without clear guidelines and are faced with

contradictory practices for pronunciation instruction. There is no well-established

systematic method of deciding what to teach, when, and how to do it. As a result of these

problems, pronunciation instruction is less important and teachers are not very

comfortable in teaching pronunciation in their classes.

 EFFECTIVENESS OF PRONUNCIATION AMONG GRADE 9 STUDENTS

Research Problems

This research work sought to answer the following question; 1.) Are the Grade 9 students

facing difficulties in pronunciations?; 2.) Is there significant relationship between Grade

9 students and their demographic profile?; 3.) Do English movies really help the

pronunciation skills of some students? This study will be beneficial among grade 9

students of Magalang Christian Ecumenical School, Inc. This study aims to inform the

students that having a good pronunciation is a very good help and important when it

comes to communications skills. The following are the people who would benefit in this

particular study; to other teachers who could help and be enlightened in teaching the

students the proper pronunciation to avoid miscommunication or misleading information.

Also to the other people who thinks pronunciation is just nonsense, this study will

enlighten them to eager the other children to learn correct pronunciation of words and

have the sense to teach learners at very age aspects of pronunciation.

Hypotheses

The Grade 9 Students have difficulties in pronunciation; there is a significant relationship

between the Grade 9 students’ pronunciation and their demographic profile; Students

can’t learn correct pronunciation by watching movies due to different accents of some

actors but it depends on how some students can cope.

 EFFECTIVENESS OF PRONUNCIATION AMONG GRADE 9 STUDENTS

Methods

To accomplish the objectives of the research study, the researchers used the descriptive

method which is concerned with the nature of the situations that occurs in the study. By

the use of this method, we can examine the respondent’s socio-demographic profile and

their common difficulties.

Respondents

The respondents of this research are the Grade 9 pupils of Magalang Christian

Ecumenical School Inc.

Instrument

The researchers will use a questionnaire as their research instrument test and determine

the pronunciation abilities of the Grade 9 students.

Procedure

The researchers will ask permission to the teachers before performing the actual survey

among the Grade 9 students. The researchers will be choosing ten students among every

section; the chosen students will be answering the following question in 30 minutes.
 EFFECTIVENESS OF PRONUNCIATION AMONG GRADE 9 STUDENTS

Results and Discussion

Table 1.1 and 1.2 are showing the overall scores that the respondents got. In table 1.1, the

word ‘Chaos’, half of the respondents got the correct pronunciation of the certain word.

Also in table 1.2, almost of the respondents also got the correct pronunciation of the word

‘Hoax’. In the other words, especially ‘Prelude’ and ‘Either’, they got the lower score.

Meaning the Grade 9 students are really facing difficulties in pronunciation and they have

poor pronunciation skill. As the researchers observed, the respondents are basing on a

pronunciation they grew up with. Like the word ‘Chocolate’ and ‘Receipt’
 EFFECTIVENESS OF PRONUNCIATION AMONG GRADE 9 STUDENTS

The table 1.1 and 1.2 are showing the scores that the female respondents got. The only

correct pronunciation that they got is the word ‘Chaos’ in table 1.1 and ‘Hoax’ in table

1.2. It showing that the females are very familiar to the correct pronunciation of those

words by basing on the fact that the females respondents almost got the correct

pronunciation of the word ‘Hoax’ and half on the word ‘Chaos’.

 EFFECTIVENESS OF PRONUNCIATION AMONG GRADE 9 STUDENTS

The table 1.1 and table 1.2 are showing the total scores that the male respondents got.

Just like the female respondents, many of the male respondents only got the correct

pronunciation of the word ‘Chaos’ and ‘Hoax’.

Regards to this, the female respondents got the highest score among the male

respondents. This means, the male are the one who experiencing difficulties in

pronunciation than females. But in an overall score of the respondent, they got a lower

score, showing that the Grade 9 students are facing difficulties in pronunciation.
 EFFECTIVENESS OF PRONUNCIATION AMONG GRADE 9 STUDENTS

References

Master Thesis Teaching Pronunciation

https://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/pronunciation/american/all_1

The effectiveness of pronunciation teaching to Greek state school students

http://www.enl.auth.gr/gala/14th/Papers/English%20papers/Tsiartsioni.pdf

Pronunciation Instruction and Students' Practice to Develop Their Confidence

http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1657-07902014000200011

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

https://eprints.uny.ac.id/9077/3/bab%202-04202244047.pdf

A Review of Literature on Teaching Pronunciation

http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/jspui/bitstream/10603/186284/10/09%20chapter%202.p
df

Teaching Pronunciation at Secondary Level

https://theses.cz/id/svihrl/Master_Thesis_Teaching_Pronunciation.pdf

English pronunciation problem encountered by Indonesian Students

http://etheses.uin-malang.ac.id/4094/1/12320063.pdf

Teaching English pronunciation to secondary school students

https://is.muni.cz/th/183878/pedf_m/the_final_thesis.pdf
 EFFECTIVENESS OF PRONUNCIATION AMONG GRADE 9 STUDENTS

Conclusion

As a result, the grade 9 students are really facing difficulties on pronunciation. The

results are showing they have poor pronunciation skill. Also the males are facing more

difficulties in pronunciation than females. The respondents agreed that they can learn

correct pronunciation through watching movies but the overall results of their scores are

low so therefore the researchers can conclude that watching movies can’t really help

some students in their pronunciation.

Recommendations

The researchers are recommending that the grade 9 students and other students should

prioritize also their pronunciation and shouldn’t neglect it. Also, do not rely on watching

movies to study correct pronunciation; it is much better if a student will listen to

pronunciation podcast. The teachers also need to teach their students the correct

pronunciation so that the student will be familiarized and put an effort to study

pronunciation. Also do not criticize if a person has poor pronunciation skill, instead

educated them.
EFFECTIVENESS OF PRONUNCIATION AMONG GRADE 9 STUDENTS