Tongue Twister, Students’ Pronunciation Ability, and Learning Styles

Abstract

In EFL context, considering appropriate technique in teaching pronunciation is a pivotal issue since it could help students to learn how to pronounce English sounds easy. This study aimed to investigate the effect of tongue twister technique on pronunciation ability of students across different learning styles. This study involved 34 first-year English major students taking Intensive English course at Universitas Lambung Mangkurat, one of leading universities in Indonesia. 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.

Learning Style in Learning Pronunciation of Efl Learner

“…Thus this study supports the empirical evident that the influencing factors to the subject's achievement in pronunciation is due to three different media: listening, watching, and reading aloud. It is also confirmed that the study is different from the prior finding in learning pronunciation through audio stories (Abdolmanafi-Rokni et al, 2013) and another researcher through tongue twister (Mu'in et al, 2017), and twitter as reported previously (Mompean & Fouz-González, 2016).…”

“…One of the many strategies in learning pronunciation is by listening to audio stories on pronunciation (Abdolmanafi-Rokni et al, 2013). Some others did it through tongue twister (Mu'in et al, 2017). Still some others reported the study using twitter to learn pronunciation (Mompean & Fouz-González, 2016).…”

“…Each of the learners has his own style to larn it (Mu'in et al, 2017). The term "learning styles" in this paper is meant as the style of learning pronunciation applied by an individual learner.…”

Teaching classic put to the test: Do tongue twisters work for L2 pronunciation?

“…Several previous publications on tongue twisters have promoted the technique by referring to learners finding it enjoyable (e.g., Masfirotul Uyun & Kumalarini, 2014) and motivating (e.g., Mu'in et al, 2017; Zhang, 2014). In addition, Sitoresmi (2016) claims that tongue twisters can have a positive effect on the atmosphere in class.…”

“…The most systematic study (as for research design and reporting) on tongue twisters for pronunciation training seems to be by Mu'in et al (2017), who investigated the development of English vowels by L1 Indonesian learners with two techniques: tongue twisters and repetition of individual words. After 14 training sessions, vowel production of the participants was tested.…”