THESIS PROPOSAL

CHAPTER I

A. Title

The Use of Tongue Twister Game for Improving Students Pronunciation And Their
Ability in Distinguishing Minimal Pair to The Students of Grade VIII and IX at MTsN 2
Gambut

B. Background of Study

English is a global language that used by many countries in the world, therefore
studying English is important as our provision to have interaction with other country or to
communicate with foreigners and that is the considered thing that made English become
one of our main object in Indonesian schools. However, English learned as foreign
language that surely the learned must be face many difficulties in learning it because of
interference of first language, contrasitive spelling form, and its sound system or the way
it pronunce that are not found in Indonesia language such as vocal, consonant, diphthong
and another sound systems.

The writer conducted an observation in a junior high school at Gambut to find out
the difficulties that experienced by their students, and the result showed that their
problem is vocabulary building, lack of proficiency and less motivation. The writer
considered that caused by various things such as the different sensitivity of ear, the matter
of making foreign sounds, the distribution of the sounds, and fluency. And the writer
interested in conduct research regarding the problem of their vocabulary buiding and
pronunciation especially in minimal pair material. The writer chose minimal pair because
they often difficult to distinguish the two word that have similarity, for example ship and
sheep. Also the difficulties to pronounce similar word, for example "to, two, and too"
which all have the phonetic transcription /tu/. Sometimes, words can be written similarly
but have different pronunciations as in the "ough" combinations thought, though, bough,
and through. The teacher tried to overcome this thing with doing exercises with
 contrasting sounds, recognition and dictation. But the writer considered that is not
effective for them.

After conducted the observation, the writer find a strategy that can be used to
solve the problem. That is using tongue twister game. The writer considered that as the
effective way because it is fun activity and meaningful, in other side, this game can be
extended with many variation that can reach other skill that not only speaking skill.
Tongue twister game unconsciously force the students learn more how to pronounce the
word and distinguish the word that seemed similar to them.

Karin M. Cintron, (1999-20120) state that tongue twisters are a great way to
introduce the concept of alliteration and help those trying to learn English better
understand the language. Practicing tongue twisters allows people who are learning
English to strengthen their speech skills. The faster a person can say the tongue twister
without slipping up, the stronger their language skills become. Tongue twisters are also
useful in understanding how we process language. It turns out that there are certain sound
sequences that are difficult to alternate because of the changing positions in the mouth
and/or the aural feedback of the sound similarities, and tongue twisters focus on the

Therefore, the writer interested in conducted the research to find out how
powerful the tongue twister game strategy to improving their pronunciation and ability to
distinguish minimal pair as the way to overcome the problem that experience by the
students where the researcher made the observation before.

C. Problem Statements

This study aims to find the impact of using tongue twister game in the classroom
to students pronunciation and ability to diffenciate minimal pair.

The researcher questions are determined as follows :

1. Is tongue twister game effective in improving student pronunciation?

2. Is tongue twister game effective in improving their ability in distinguishing minimal

pair?
D. Objective of The Study

Based on the questions formulated above, the aims of this research are:

1. To investigate effectiveness of tongue twisters in improving student pronunciation?

2. To investigate effectiveness of tongue twisters in improving students ability

distinguishing minimal pair?

E. Definition Key Terms

1. Tongue twister game : a game in which students exercise to speak fast, but the
sentence is hard to say fast because of alliteration or a sequence word with similar
sound.

2. Pronunciation ; way in which a language or particular word or sound spoken

3. Distinguish : recognizing between two or more people or things.

4. Minimal pair : a pair of word that vary only a single sound.

F. Significance of Research

The results of the research are expected to be a very useful reference for the
English teacher in general in order they can improve their knowledge and strategy in
teaching process and for the students to increase their knowledge and ability in
mastery English so they can use English actively and fluently.
 CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHOD

A. Research Design

The research type is the experimental research by which the researcher have to
make an experiment in the class using the game of tongue twister, and the researcher
have to control the factor that can affect the learning and result. Furthermore, the
method used is quantitative by which the researcher would like to measure the
students pronunciation and ability to distinguish minimal pair through the statistical
count. Also, it is necessary to make descriptions to explain the quantitative data with
the interpreting statements, so the result would facilitate the readers understanding

B. Research location
The research is conducted at MtsN 2 Gambut.

C. Subject

1. Subject

This study will be conduct to Students of VIII and IX Grade of MtsN 2

Gambut that will be taught with tongue twister game. In sum, each class has
35 students.

2. Object

The objects of this research are the skill and pronunciation of students of of
VIII and IX Grade of MtsN 2 Gambut academic year 2014/2015. also their
ability in distinguishing minimal pair.
D. Source of Data
1. Data
There are two kinds of data collected in the research as follows:
a. Primary Data
The primary data is the skill and pronunciation of students of of VIII and IX
Grade of MtsN 2 Gambut academic year 2014/2015. also their ability in
distinguishing minimal pair.
 b. Secondary Data
The secondary data are the the brief history of MTsN Gambut and the
description regarding the headmaster, the teachers, the students, the
administration staffs, the learning activities, and the school facilities.
2. Source of Data
a. Respondents: VIII and IX Grade of MtsN 2 Gambut academic year 2014/2015.
b. Informants: the headmaster, the teacher of grammar, and the administration staff.
c. Documents: the written sources relating to the primary and the secondary data.

E. Technique of data collection

The technique of data collection will be used in this study as follows :

a. Observation

This is used to get the information about how well their proficiency,
pronunciaition and other factor that influence their learning process

b. Experimental

This technique will be use to find out whether the tongue twister game
effective in helping students improving their pronunciation. It will be
conducted 12 times in different classroom of grade VIII and IX.

c. Questionnaire

This instrument use to measure out their ability and pronunciation whether
or not there is a significant development by using the strategy.

F. Data Analysis Procedure

1. Data Processing
a. Editing
This technique is to examine all the collected data and ensure the
completeness of the data.
b. Classification
 The researcher classifies the collected data into certain categories to get
easy in studying the data.
c. Scoring
The respondents answers are evaluated with the scores and counted based
on the frequency.
d. Tabulating
The researcher tabulates the collected data based on their frequency of
completion.
e. Data interpretation
The interpretation is required to point out the significant meaning from
the data verbally.
G. Data Analysis
The collected and processed data are analysed quantitatively and descriptively.
The conclusion is taken inductively that is to synthesize the facts into general
explanation.

H. References

Oxford University, 2008. Oxford Learners Pocket Dictionary. Oxford. Oxford

University Press.

http://www.kidspot.com.au/kids-activities-and-games/tongue-twisters+14.html