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 ELT FORUM 5 (1) (2016) 

 

Journal of English Language Teaching 

 

http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/elt 

 

 

IMPROVING THE STUDENTS’ MASTERY IN PRONOUNCING 

CONSONANTS /f/ AND /v/ 

 

Nunung Setiyo Rini 

 

English Department. Faculty of Languages and Arts. State University of Semarang. 

 

Aticle Info 

________________ 
Article History: 

Received in February 

2016 

Approved in March 2016 

Published in April 2016 

________________ 
Keywords: 

Cambridge Advanced 

Learner’s Dictionary, 

Pronunciation, Action 

Research. 

____________________ 

Abstract 
___________________________________________________________________ 
This final project is concerned with the use of Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary toward the students’ 

pronunciation of consonants [f] and [v]. The objective of this study is to improve the students’ pronunciation by 

using Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. This study used action research design. There were two cycles 

of action in this study. This research started with an initial pre-test and ended with a final post-test. In each cycle 

there were pre-test, treatment, and post-test. The tests were used to collect the quantitative data. Meanwhile, 

observation checklist and questionnaire were used to gather the qualitative data. Thirty one students of class VIII 

H of SMP N 22 Semarang were chosen as the subjects of this study. Based on the data analyses, there was a 

significant improvement of the students’ achievement after the implementation of Cambridge Advanced Learner’s 

Dictionary was given. This improvement was proved by the comparison between the result of Initial Pre-test and 

Final Post-test. This improvement was also supported by the results of observation checklists and questionnaire. 

Based on the observation checklists, the students’ attendance and engagement in Cycle 2 was better than their 

attendance and engagement in Cycle 1. Moreover, the result of questionnaire showed that the students gave 

positive perception towards the use of Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. With regard to the above 

results, it can be concluded that the use of Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary successfully improves the 

students’ pronunciation of consonants [f] and [v]. Therefore, the use of Cambridge Advanced Learner’s 

Dictionary in the teaching pronunciation, especially pronunciation of English words containing consonants [f] 

and [v] is recommended.   

 

© 2016 Universitas Negeri Semarang 

 
 Correspondent Address:  

   B3 Building  FBS Unnes  

   Sekaran, Gunungpati, Semarang, 50229 

   E-mail: nunungsetiyorini@gmail.com 

 

 

 

 

ISSN 2252-6706 



 

Nunung Setiyo Rini / Journal of English Language Teaching 5 (1) (2016) 

2 

INTRODUCTION 

During my observation on the teaching 

process in SMP N 22 Semarang three months 

ago, I found that the teacher gave less 

pronunciation practice to the students. During 

eighty minutes of teaching and learning process, 

the teacher only gave pronunciation practice for 

five to ten minutes. The rest of the time was spent 

on reading and writing practice, and also doing 

some tasks. 

In the beginning, the teacher pronounced a 

list of vocabulary and then she asked the students 

to pronounce those words. Then, she  randomly 

asked the students to pronounce those words. 

Pronunciation error correction would come up 

when any of the students mispronounced any of 

those words. However, in daily interaction with 

the teacher during the teaching and learning 

process, the students often mispronounced other 

English words but the mispronunciation was not 

corrected. It seemed that the teacher gave less 

attention to the students’ pronunciation. 

 The most interesting pronunciation 

problem I found during my observation was the 

failure of the students in pronouncing the words 

containing the sounds /f/ and /v/. They always 

pronounced the sound /v/ with /f/ but the 

teacher did not correct such a mistake. For 

example, the students pronounced the word love 

as [lɑːf ]. The students’ failure in pronouncing the 

words containing sounds /v/ might be caused by 

some possibilities. Firstly, the teacher did not 

teach how to pronounce that sound explicitly. 

Secondly, the teacher pronounced that sound 

correctly but the students failed to copy it 

correctly.  

 Based on my observation on the teaching 

process, the teacher still used conventional 

method in teaching pronunciation. Her 

pronunciation became the sole model of 

pronunciation that should be followed by the 

students because there is no pronunciation model 

from media. Therefore, the students was not 

interested in the learning process. As a matter of 

fact, there are many media that can be used in 

teaching pronunciation. They do not only make 

the pronunciation teaching and learning more 

interesting, but also become a good model of 

pronunciation. Those teaching media are video, 

internet, flashcard, and dictionary. Any of those 

media can be applied in SMP N 22 Semarang 

because the facilities in that school enable the 

teacher to use media in teaching pronounciation. 

 The fact that the use of media in teaching 

pronunciation is still ignored may occur in the 

other classes of SMP N 22 Semarang. Therefore, 

there is also a possibility that the students in those 

classes of that school mispronounce English 

sounds, especially the sound /v/ because they do 

not get a good model of pronunciation. 

 In an effort to answer the problem above, 

I decided to conduct a research in that school. I 

decided to use Cambridge Advanced Learner’s 

Dictionary in my teaching to prove whether or 

not it successfully improves the students’ 

pronunciation of English consonants [f] and [v]. 

Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary was 

choosen since it was practical and gave the audio 

form of pronunciation of English words. 

Hopefully, with this research, the students will be 

more interested in learning pronunciation and 

they will have a good model of pronunciation of 

English words. 

 

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 

Pronunciation 

Dalton and Seidholfer (1994:3) write their 

idea about pronunciation in general terms, as 

follows: 

Pronunciation is the production of 

significant sounds in two senses. First, sound is 

significant because it is used as part of a code of a 

particular language. Therefore, we can talk about 

the distinctive sounds of English, French, Thai, 

and other languages. In this sense, we can talk 

about pronunciation as the production and 

reception of sounds of speech. Second, sound is 

significant because it is used to achieve meaning 

in context of use. Here the code combines with 

other factors to make communication possible. In 

this sense, we can talk about pronunciation with 

reference to acts of speaking. 

According to Ramelan (2003: 22), there 

are two features that can be distinguished when a 

speaker produces an utterance. They are as 

follows. 



 

Nunung Setiyo Rini / Journal of English Language Teaching 5 (1) (2016) 

3 

1. Segmental features, or just 

segmental which refer to sound unit 

arranged in a segmental order; and 

2. Suprasegmental features, or just 

suprasegmental which refer to such 

features as stress, pitch, length, 

intonation, and other features that 

always accompany that production 

of segmental. 

 

In this study, the main feature of 

pronunciation which will be focused is the 

segmental one. The segmental features are 

vowels, diphthongs, and consonants. According 

to Ramelan (2003: 99-108), there are twenty five 

kinds of consonants; they are [p], [t], [k], [?], [b], 

[d], [ɡ], [f], [v], [θ], [ð], [s], [z], [ʃ], [ʒ], [r], [h], [tʃ], 

[dʒ], [m], [n], [ŋ], [l], [w], and [y]. Among those 

consonants, there are only two that will be 

discussed. They are consonants [f] and [v]. 

Therefore, the next sub-chapter will review 

pronunciation of English consonants [f] and [v]. 

 

Pronunciation of English Consonants [f] and 

[v] 

In producing [f], Kelly (2000: 50) says, 

‘The lower lip makes light contact with the upper 

teeth. The soft palate is raised. /f/ is unvoiced 

and fortis.’ Meanwhile, in producing [v], Kelly 

(2000: 50) states that ‘The lower lip makes light 

contact with the upper teeth. The soft palate is 

raised. /v/ is voiced and lenis. /v/ is devoiced at 

the end of a word.’ 

 

Reasons for Pronunciation Problems 

Since English is a foreign language in 

Indonesia, there will be some pronunciation 

problems faced by Indonesian students when they 

learn English. According to Ramelan (2003: 5-7), 

pronunciation problems are caused by some 

reasons. They are: 

1. transfer of linguistic habit; 

2. different elements between native language 

and the target language; 

3. the same phonetic feature in both language 

but differ in their distributions; 

4. similar sounds in the two languages, which 

have different variants or allophones; and, 

5. similar sounds in two languages which differ 

only slightly in their phonetic features.  

Then, according to Dalton (1997: 1), the 

main problem in learning a foreign language is 

learner’s reception. He states that ‘If the "English" 

sound is not clearly received, the brain of the 

learner converts it into the closest sound in their 

own language.’  

From the statements above, it can be 

concluded that there are many reasons that cause 

the students’ failure in producing proper 

pronunciation of certain sounds. Therefore, the 

teacher should include pronunciation in her 

teaching material in order to help the student able 

to pronounce the English sounds correctly. The 

next sub-section will explain further about 

teaching pronunciation.  

 

Teaching Pronunciation 

In mastering English as a foreign language, 

the students should learn English both in written 

form and oral form. In the spoken form, 

pronunciation is important because having bad 

pronunciation may lead to misunderstanding in 

communication although a speaker has a good 

command of grammar. Therefore, teaching 

pronunciation to the students is considered 

important. The idea is in line with Kelly (2000: 

11) who states that it is important to include 

pronunciation teaching in the classroom because 

learners’ errors can cause misunderstanding and 

inhibit successful communication. 

From the statements above, it is obvious 

that the teacher should teach pronunciation to the 

students. However, non-native teacher may feel 

that his/her pronunciation will not meet the 

standard of the native English speaker, so he/she 

does not feel confident to teach pronunciation. In 

this case, teaching pronunciation by using media 

could be the solution to this problem. The 

medium which was used in this study was 

Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. It 

will be discussed in the subchapter below. 

 

Electronic Dictionary 

In this modern era, teachers can use many 

technologies as tools in teaching English to 

achieve effectiveness in the class. One of the 



 

Nunung Setiyo Rini / Journal of English Language Teaching 5 (1) (2016) 

4 

media that can be used by means of technology in 

class is an electronic dictionary. 

There are several definitons of electronic 

dictionary. Webster Online Dictionary  

(http://websteronlinedictionary.org/definitions

/Electronic%20Dictionary) defines electronic 

dictionary as follows: 

An electronic dictionary is either a small 

handheld computer with integrated reference 

materials, or a PDA or a smartphone with a 

dictionary program. Electronic dictionaries are 

also programs that can be downloaded from the 

Internet or purchased on a CD-ROM or DVD 

and installed on a desktop computer or on a 

laptop. Other electronic dictionaries can be 

searched and consulted online on the Internet. 

The computer-installed dictionaries can often be 

consulted directly from within any application 

that uses editable text. The term may be used in a 

broader sense to refer to the features of a 

machine-readable dictionary or spell checker.  

 Based on the Webster Online 

Dictionary’s definition above, there are several 

kinds of electronic dictionaries. They are: 

1. a small handheld computer with integrated 

reference materials; 

2. a smartphone with a dictionary program; 

3. a program that can be downloaded from the 

internet or purchased on a CD-ROM and 

should be installed on a computer; 

4. online dictionaries; and, 

5. spelling checker. 

 In this study, I used Cambridge 

Advanced Learner’s Dictionary as a medium in 

teaching pronunciation. It belongs to the kind of 

electronic dictionaries in the third form. It 

provides meanings, phonetic transcriptions, and 

the audio of English word pronunciation. It can 

be easily downloaded from the internet and 

installed in a laptop/computer. 

 

Action Research 

Since the research design that I used in this 

study was an action research, this sub-chapter 

would discuss action research according to some 

experts. There are several definitions of action 

research. Harmer (2001: 344-345) states that 

‘Action research is the name given to a series of 

procedures teachers can engage in, either because 

they wish to improve aspects of their teaching, or 

because they wish to evaluate the success 

and/appropriacy of certain activities and 

procedures’. 

According to Coats (2005:4) action 

research can be described as ‘Any research into 

practice undertaken by those involved in that 

practice, with an aim to change and improve it. It 

is therefore, a process of enquiry by you as a 

practitioner into the effectiveness of your own 

teaching and your students’ learning.’ 

 

Steps in Action Research 

Burns (2010:8) states that there are four 

steps in action research. Those steps are planning, 

acting, observing, and reflecting. They would be 

explained below.  

1. Planning  

In this step, a problem is identified and a 

plan of action is developed in order to bring 

improvements in the research.  

2. Action  

It is a step where the plan which has been 

arranged is put into action in a period of time.  

3. Observation  

In the observing step, the data are collected 

and the effects of the action are observed. 

4. Reflection  

It is a step of evaluating and describing the 

effects of the action in order to make sense of 

what has happened and to understand the issue 

which have been explored.  

 

METHOD 

This study was an action research with the 

students of VIII H of SMP N 22 Semarang in the 

academic year of 2015/2016 as the subjects. This 

action research consisted of two cycles of four 

steps: planning, action, observation, and 

reflection. 

 The object of the study was the students’ 

improvement of the students’ pronunciation of 

English words containing consonants [f] and [v]. 

Therefore, the material of this study was the 

English words containing consonants [f] and [v] 

that were available in the students’ handout. 



 

Nunung Setiyo Rini / Journal of English Language Teaching 5 (1) (2016) 

5 

To collect those data, three instruments 

were used. The first was tests; they were used to 

record the students’ pronunciation. The second 

was questionnaires; they were used to record the 

students’ impression to the use of Cambridge 

Advance Learner’s Dictionary. The last was 

observation checklists; they were used to record 

the students’ attendance and engagement during 

the treatments. 

 

 

DATA ANALYSIS AND REFLECTION OF FINDINGS 

Result of the Students’ Pronunciation Test 

Scores 

Initial Pre-

test 

Cycle 1 Cycle 2 
Final 

Post-test 
C1  

Pre-test 

C1  

Post-test 

C2  

Pre-test 

C2 

 Post-test 

42.39 70.05 85.64 14.24 48.70 66.45 

 

The Result of Cycle 1 Observation Checklist 

 

 

 

 

 

The Result of Cycle 2 Observation Checklist 

Indicators Total Point  Mean Point  Criteria  

Attendance  118 3.80 Very Good 

Engagement 101.5 3.27 Very Engaged 

 

The Result of Questionnaire 

No. 
Question 

Number 

Yes No 

  P   P 

1. 1 31 100% - - 

2. 2 29 93.54% 2 6.46% 

3. 3 - - 31 100% 

4. 4 31 100% - - 

5. 5 31 100% - - 

 

REFLECTION OF THE RESEARCH 

FINDINGS 

Initial Pre-test  

The classical mean score of the Initial Pre-

test (42.39) indicated that the students’ 

pronunciation was below the standard of mastery 

of learning score (75) set up by the school. In 

addition, individually, none of the students got 

score above the mastery of learning. Therefore, I 

decided to give some treatments to the students in 

order to improve their pronunciation score. 

  

Indicators Total Point  Mean Point  Criteria  

Attendance  95 3.06 Good 

Engagement 88.25 2.84 Engaged 



 

Nunung Setiyo Rini / Journal of English Language Teaching 5 (1) (2016) 

6 

Cycle 1 Pre-test 

The result of Cycle 1 Pre-test showed that 

the students did not have difficulty in 

pronouncing the sound /f/. They were able to 

pronounce the sound /f/ correctly because this 

sound also existed in their mother tongue. 

However, both classical and individual mean 

score were still below the mastery of learning 

(75). In addition, the students had poor 

performance in pronouncing the other English 

sounds. This problem needed to be investigated 

by other researchers in order to know the cause of 

it because Cycle 1 Pre-test only focused on the 

students’ pronunciation of the sound /f/. Since 

the classical and the individual mean score were 

still below the mastery of learning, the students 

needed to get a treatment in order to make their 

pronunciation reach the mastery of learning 

score.  

 

Cycle 1 Post-test 

The mean score of Cycle 1 Post-test (85.64) 

was higher than the mean score of Cycle 1 Pre-

test (70.05). According to the criteria of success 

that had been explained in Chapter 3 (see page 

32), this mean score fulfilled the first criteria. 

Both classical and individual mean score reached 

the mastery of learning score. However, if we 

referred to the second criteria, the classical mean 

score did not fulfill it. The improvement of 

classical mean score did not reach 20 points. 

Meanwhile, individually, there were only some 

students that made significant improvement. 

Since both classical and individual mean score 

fulfilled the first criteria, Cycle 2 could be 

conducted. 

 

Cycle 2 Pre-test 

By looking at the mean score of Cycle 2 

Pre-test (14.24), both classical and individual 

mean score was below the mastery of learning 

score (75). I conclude that the students had 

difficulty in pronouncing the sound /v/ in the 

context of English words. They always 

pronounced the sound /v/ with /f/, for example 

the word leave was pronounced as [li:f]. 

Therefore, the students needed to get a treatment 

in order to make their performance in 

pronouncing the sound /v/ in the context of 

English words better.  

 

Cycle 2 Post-test 

By looking at the first criteria of success, 

the classical mean of Cycle 2 Pos-test (48.70) did 

not fulfill the criteria. It was still below the 

mastery of learning score. Meanwhile, 

individually, there were only some students 

whose the individual mean score fulfilled the first 

criteria. However, if we referred to the second 

criteria, both classical and individual mean score 

fulfilled the criteria. The improvement of classical 

mean score and individual mean score reached 20 

points. Since the objective of the second 

treatment had been reached, I decided to give the 

students Final Post-test. 

 

Final Post-test 

By looking at the first criteria of success, 

both classical and individual mean score did not 

fulfill the criteria. The classical and individual 

mean score were still below the mastery of 

learning score (75). However, by looking at the 

second criteria, the improvement of classical 

mean reached 24.06 point. Meanwhile, the 

improvement of individual mean score reached 

about 24.05 points. It meant that the second 

criteria had been fulfilled. 

 

Cycle 1 Observation Checklist 

The students’ attendance mean score 

(3.06) was classified as good. Meanwhile, the 

students’ engagement mean score (2.84) was 

classified as being engaged. It indicated that they 

were interested to have a new way in learning 

pronunciation, so that they gave full attention to 

the teacher’s explanation,  immediately 

responded to the teacher’s instruction, and 

actively asked and discussed the medium and the 

teaching material. Those positive reactions might 

be caused by the fact that they had never been 

taught a pronunciation practice by using a 

medium. 

 

Cycle 2 Observation Checklist 

In Cycle 2 Observation Checklist, the 

students’ attendance mean score increased from 



 

Nunung Setiyo Rini / Journal of English Language Teaching 5 (1) (2016) 

7 

3.06 in the first treatment to 3.80 in the second 

treatment. Meanwhile, the students’ engagement  

mean score increased from 2.84 to 3.27. By 

looking at the criterion of observation checklist 

assessment, the students’ attendance mean score 

was classified as very good. Meanwhile, the 

students’ engagement mean score was classified 

as being very engaged. 

 

Questionnaire 

The questionnaire was given to the 

students in order to find out the students’ interest 

in the use of media in pronunciation teaching, the 

relevancy of the materials to the curriculum, the 

level of the materials difficulty, the advantage of 

the use of media, and the sustainability of the use 

of media in pronunciation teaching. The result of 

this questionnaire showed that all of the students 

liked the use of Cambridge Advanced Learner’s 

Dictionary in pronunciation learning. They also 

agreed that the use of medium helped them 

pronounce the English words containing the 

sound /f/ and /v/. None of them had difficulty 

in pronouncing the English words containing the 

sound /f/ and /v/. They also said that the 

medium was very much needed to be employed 

in the pronunciation teaching and learning. There 

were only 2 students who said that the materials 

in this research were not appropriate with the 

curriculum. 

 

CONCLUSION 

First, this study showed that the subjects of 

the study had problems in pronouncing the sound 

/v/ in the context of English words. It was 

proved by their poor mean score in the Pre-test. 

Second, the use of Cambridge Advanced 

Learner’s Dictionary in pronunciation teaching 

was able to improve the students’ performance in 

pronouncing the sound /v/ in the context of 

English words. It was proved by the significant 

improvement of both classical and individual 

mean score. 

Third, the students showed positive 

reactions towards the use of Cambridge 

Advanced Learner’s Dictionary in pronunciation 

teaching. It was proved by the improvement of 

students’ attendance and engagement. Moreover, 

based on the result of the questionnaire, the use 

of Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary in 

pronunciation teaching and learning was 

necessary. 

  

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Coats, Maggie. 2005. Action Research: A Guide for 

Associate Lecturers. London: COBE.  

 

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