Paper Title International Journal of Language Teaching and Education 2018, Volume 2, No.1, 31 March ISSN Online: 2598-2303 ISSN Print: 2614-1191 International Journal of Language Teaching and Education (IJoLTe) Page 19 Using Video to Improve Pronunciation of The Second Years Students of FKI UIR Pekanbaru Afrizal, Al Malikul Ikhwanda Putra Universitas Islam Riau, Riau, Indonesia afrizal_head@yahoo.com, wanda18.w1@gmail.com How to cite this paper: Afrizal, Putra, A. I. (2018). Using Video to Improve Pronunciation of The Second Years Students of FKI UIR Pekanbaru. International Journal of Language Teaching and Education. 3(2), 19-24 Accepted: 28 March, 2018 Published: 31 March,2018 Copyright © 2018 International Journal of Language Teaching and Education. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution InternationalLicense (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4 .0/ Abstract The purpose of the research is to find out the use of video to improve students’ pronunciation. The study employed a classroom action research. The participants of this study were 37 students. They were the second year students of FKIP (faculty of teacher training and education) in Islamic University Riau (UIR) Pekanbaru, Indonesia. This study was conducted in two cycles. Each cycle comprised four meetings. The data of this research were obtained through (1) observation sheets, (2) field notes, (3) interview, and (4) tests which consisted of consonants in detail, linking, and stress within target segments based on the phonetic symbols. The findings showed that the use of video in mastering pronunciation was able to improve students’ pronunciation. The study also revealed that the activities of using video enable students to enhance the quality of sound patterns they pronounce. In this case the researcher found that the key factors that enhance the quality of sound patterns were also influenced by familiar words, student’s basic needs and level. Hence, those factors should be considered in learning and teaching pronunciation. Moreover, the activity such as listening and imitating the way native speaker pronounces words and sentences as the lesson material can help students improve their pronunciation. The average class score of students’ pronunciation increased from 58.4 in the first cycle to 88.3 in the second cycle. Material, media, classroom activities, classroom management, teacher’s approach, and teacher’s strategy were also significantly essential for the improvement of students’ pronunciation. Subject Areas Language Teaching Keywords Video, Pronunciation INTRODUCTION Why is learning and teaching pronunciation very important? Basically, the concept of learning and teaching pronunciation is the way of transferring different language expressions without the effects of their mother language. Based on Adult Migrant English Program Research Centre, the way we speak immediately conveys something about ourselves to the people around us. Learners with good pronunciation in English are more likely to be understood even if they make errors in other areas, whereas learners whose pronunciation is difficult to understand will not be understood, even if their grammar is perfect (2002:1). Open Access http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Afrizal, Al Malikul Ikhwanda Putra International Journal of Language Teaching and Education (IJoLTe) Page 20 As a result, the concept of pronunciation is actually the context of practical ways related to communicative competence. When teachers teach pronunciation, they should apply the features of pronunciation, that are, segmental and supra-segmental features within communicative context so that ESL/EFL learners are able to speak and express English language without the effects of their mother tongue. Nowadays, teaching pronunciation is granted as the least subject in some schools and universities in Pekanbaru, Riau because it is assumed as a complex and complicated subject that students and teachers have to face. Some teachers believe that teaching pronunciation can be done just by introducing and getting their students to transcribe the phonetic symbols, pronouncing the phonetic symbols one by one in an isolated way, and attaining a native-like accent. But in fact, providing a media such as video, youtube, skype to teach pronunciation is also important. Based on the researcher’s observation and discussion with one of English lecturers, in fact, in teaching pronunciation a teacher should always motivate students to speak English by providing the students some dialogue practices and get the students to understand the messages of the dialogue. Unfortunately, sometimes teacher is not concerned with the distinctive features of pronunciation in the dialogues. One of the solution to solve the problem above is by having video. By using video, the students were hoped to be able to master segmental and supra-segmental features in pronunciation. LITERATURE REVIEW Definition of Pronunciation According to Cook (1996) in Abbas (2012) states that pronunciation is a set of habits of producing sounds. The habit of producing a sound is acquired by repeating it over and over again and by being corrected when it is pronounced wrongly. Based on Adult Migrant English Program Research Centre, pronunciation refers to the production of sounds that people use to make meaning. It includes attention to the particular sounds of a language (segmental aspects), aspects of speech beyond the level of the individual sound, such as intonation, phrasing, stress, timing, rhythm (suprasegmental aspects), how the voice is projected (voice quality). Additionally, in its broadest definition, pronunciation refers to an attention to gestures and expressions that are closely related to the way people use a language. (2002). Marriane, Donna, and Janet (2000) stated that “teachers should have student’s analysis of features, practice distinguishing similar sounds, and then use the feature which is under controlled and guided in communicative contexts”. Sadiman (2000) classified the media into three kinds in general. The first kind of media is visual media. Visual media are things or objects that can be seen. They can be divided into two kinds: projected visual media and non-projected visual media. Projected visual media are OHP’s, slides, videostrips and motion pictures. Stempleski (2002) stated that a video sequence contains not only words, but visual elements (and often sound effects and music) that provide essential evidence on behavior, character, and context, which are not usually in the script. Additionally, Hemey in Cakir (2006) added that students like video because it is interesting, challenging, and stimulating to watch. Video will motivate students by bringing a slice of real life into the classroom and by presenting language in its complete communicative context.Moreover, video also can be useful for improving students’ creativity in language learning. They can make their own video by using video cameras for practicing their language. In addition, Mayora (2006) mentions some advantages of using video in language teaching, they are: (1) the use of video can be more appealing and entertaining for the students than audio exclusive materials. (2) the use of video exposes students to authentic language in natural situations. (3) video provides a situational and visual context to language interactions. There are several ways to teach pronunciation using video, they are: Afrizal, Al Malikul Ikhwanda Putra International Journal of Language Teaching and Education (IJoLTe) Page 21 Freeze Framing and Prediction Freeze framing means stopping the picture on the screen by pressing the still or pause button. Video gives us an additional dimension of information about the characters’ body language, facial expressions, emotions, reactions, and responses. Silent Viewing In silent viewing, the video segment is played with the sound off using only the picture. Silent viewing arouses students’ interest, stimulates their thought, and develops skills of anticipation. Sound on and vision off This activity can be interesting and useful to play a section of a video unit and remove the visual element from the presentation by obscuring the picture. Through this activity, the students predict or reconstruct what has happened visually depending only what they have heard. Repetition and role play A scene on video is replayed with certain pauses for repetition. When students have a clear understanding of the presentation, they are asked to act out scene using as much of the original version as they can remember. Reproduction After the students have seen a section, they are asked to produce either what is being said, to articulate those sounds. The students will have benefit from experimenting in English, even though it is challenging and mistakes are made. Dubbing Activities This activity can be done when the students have the necessary language competence. In this activity, the students are asked to fill in the missing dialogues after watching a sound-off video episode. Follow up Activities It is important that a video presentation should lead to follow-up activity as the basis for further extended oral practice. Discussion stimulates communication among students and it helps them to achieve communicative practice. The techniques above were applied into the classroom activities. The classroom activities were be divided into three stages as the following: Previewing activities There are some experts propose activities that can be done in previewing activities. According to Stempleski (2002), in previewing activities the teacher prepare the students to watch the video by tapping their background knowledge, stimulating interest in the topic, and lessening their fear of unfamiliar sounds. There are some steps that can be done in this stage: (1) The teacher prepares the students to watch the video. (2) The teacher builds the students’ background knowledge related to the topics discussed in the video. The topics are about the unfamilliar sounds such as thee “th” and so on. (3) The teacher leads the students into a discussion about what they have known related to the sounds they watched. (4) The teacher wrote lists of unfamilliar sounds and prepares questions to guide the students into the soounds articulated in the video. Viewing activities Experts had proposed activities that can be applied in viewing activities. According to Stempleski (2002), this stage concerns with playing and replaying the entire sequence or relevant parts and requiring students to focus on important aspect. Post viewing activities There are some steps that can be done in this stage: (1) The teacher plays the video. The students are asked to focus on important aspects in the video. (2) The teacher leads the students into discussion about the meaning of the sounds in the video. (3) The teacher also led the students in discussion about the three dimensions of teaching and learning pronunciation. (4) The teacher used video as a good model for the students in teaching pronunciation. (5) The students practiced the sounds on the video in pairs and indivually. Post viewing activities According to Stempleski (2002), this stage requires students to react to the video or to practice some particular language point. The range of post viewing Afrizal, Al Malikul Ikhwanda Putra International Journal of Language Teaching and Education (IJoLTe) Page 22 activities is enormous and includes things such as discussion, role-play, and debate. The stages can be explained in the following. There are some steps that can be done in this stage: (1) The teacher asked the students to produce sounds and practiced it in pairs and individually. (2) The students were asked to articulate sounds based on the video. METHODOLOGY This classroom action research was conducted in two cycles. Each cycle comprised four meetings. The research instruments used to collect data are in the forms of ob- servation sheets, field notes, interview, and test (sen- tences with target segments). After managing the instruments, the researcher dis- played the materials with the audio tape, then he imple- mented and practiced directly based on using audio lin- gual method in mastering segmental and su- pra-segmental features activities and finally he divided the work activities (individually or in pairs). The video used in this research consisted of recording sound and pictures. In this case, the researcher applied video as a program to improve the students’ pronunciation. The video will contain explanations, exercises, and practises for students. The students were showen real model of pronunciation through the video given.While watching the video, the students can focus on the content and imitate the vowels, consonants , and suprasegemnetal features as well displayed in the video. DISCUSSION The data intended to find related to the questions of (1)“To what extent can video improve students’ pronun- ciation? And (2) “What factors influence the changes of students’ pronunciation?”. The first meeting was conducted on Thursday, 13th of March 2014. The topic was long and short vowel sounds (segmental features). The activities were implemented through three phases. Teacher’s teaching activities From the observation sheet of teacher’s activities through video it could be seen that pre-teaching activi- ties were not supposed to be improved because the teacher displayed a minimal pair activities to generate their interests. Students’ learning activities Based on the observation sheet of students’ activi- ties of using video, most of the students did the indicator in terms of listening the materials from the video, paying attention to the teacher’s explanation about the target segments, and sound patterns of target segments. The followings are interview responded by the stu- dents. Researcher : “What do you think about the mate- rial?” Student 1 : “We think that there are some words we do not know how to pronounce, sir.” The second factor was the media used in using vid- eo Researcher : “What do you think about the media used?” Student 1 : “Sir, we cannot listen to the audio tape because it is too noisy out there.” The third factor was classroom activities. Researcher : “What do you think about classroom activities done by the teacher in the classroom?” Student 4 : “I like the activity of drilling and repeat- ing new words and also the dialogues, sir.” The fourth factor was classroom management. Researcher : “What do you think about classroom management done by the teacher?” Student 20 : “Sir, it is motivated, but we need more practice to know new words and their sound patterns.” Student 32 : “It is well managed from the beginning up to the end.” The fifth factor was teacher’s approach. Researcher : “What do you think about the teacher behavior during the teaching and learn- ing process in controlling the students in improving Afrizal, Al Malikul Ikhwanda Putra International Journal of Language Teaching and Education (IJoLTe) Page 23 pronunciation?” Student 32 : “The teacher attempted to help us pronounce unfamiliar words.” The last factor was researcher’s strategy. Researcher : “What do you think about the activi- ties of using audio lingual method? Do the activities help you improve your pronunciation?” Student 1 : “Using Audio Lingual Method encourages us to know the sound patterns and improves my pronunciation.” The second meeting was held Friday 14th of March 2014. The topic was consonants in detail (/ʃ/ and /ʒ/ sounds). The followings are interview responded by the stu- dents Researcher : “What do you think about the mate- rial?” Student 11 : “We think the material is quite dif- ficult because we find lots of new vocabularies.” The other factors were classroom management, teacher’s approach, and teacher’s strategy. Researcher : “What do you think about classroom management done by the teacher?” Student 20 : “Sir, we need more practice to know new words and their sound patterns.” Researcher: “What about the teacher’s approach?” Student 17 : “It is encouraged to be active in improving pronunciation.” The third meeting was conducted on Thursday, 20th March 2014. The topic was linking. Similar with teaching and learning activities done in the previous meeting, the activities were also implemented through three phases. CONCLUSION According to the findings and discussion of the students’ pronunciation by using video during the two cycles of the classroom action research, it can be concluded that the use of video could improve the students’ pronunciation. In addition, the researchers and collaborator also observed that there were sixth important factors that supported the improvements. The first factor is materials used in the research. By having interesting materials, the students had willingness to have discussion and used English in speaking class. The second factor is the use of media in teaching speaking on transactional and interpersonal text. The video as one media used highly increased the student’s pronunciation. Most of the students agreed that video was very helpful in gaining those more to speak in the classroom. Most of the students expressed their agreement that video better improve their motivation to pronounce well in the classroom. The third factor is the classroom activity. The classroom activity that was applied by the researcher better improved the students’ participation to become more active in the teaching and learning process. The forth factor is the classroom management. In this research, the teacher’s control and guidance on students’ activities could improve students’ willingness to articulate. The students’ attitudes were very positive toward the teacher’ guidance since they can gain many benefits dealt with the process of understanding the materials. The fifth factor is teacher approach. As it was done in this research, the researcher tried hard to have good approach to the students.They made the classroom atmosphere enjoyable, so the students did not feel shy to speak in the classroom. The last factor is teacher strategy. The strategy which had been done by the researchers had built the students’ motivation and participation to become more active in pronunciation class. REFERENCES Dauer, M. R. (1993). Accurate English. 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