The Effectiveness of PhoTransEdit Apllication in Improving Pronunciation Skill

Abstract

ESL and EFL students need to master pronunciation because it lays the foundation for speaking. Pronunciation is the biggest thing that people notice when speaking English. This research has observed the use of PhoTransEdit application in improving pronunciation skills. The research questions are: (1) Do the students taught by PhoTransEdit achieve better pronunciation than the students taught by the conventional method? (2) What are the students’ opinions about the application in helping improving pronunciation?. The answer to those has been formulated in the hypotheses, saying that students from the experimental group would get better achievement scores than the control group. This study used an explanatory design that is characterized by the collection and analysis of quantitative data in the first phase of research, followed by the collection and analysis of qualitative data in a second phase that builds on the results of the initial quantitative results. The participants of the study were 30 students of the English Department from UNISBA Blitar in their fourth semester. They were divided into experimental and control groups. Tests, questionnaires, and interviews were prepared for the data collection instruments of this study. For the data collection, the participants were going to have to take a pretest. Treatment was applied for the experimental group, and finally, after the treatment was done, the participants were going to take the post-test. In order to analyze the data, the researcher applied the ANCOVA formula to prove the hypothesis. Based on the findings, the students from the experimental group achieved better scores than the control group. Concluded from the questionnaire, they stated that PhoTransEdit as a representative media learning was an excellent way to improve pronunciation these days. In the interview, they stated that the application helped them to write and understand phonetic transcriptions; therefore,they could improve their pronunciation. From the findings, it can be concluded that it proved that PhoTransEdit gave the students improved significantly in their pronunciation skills. By using PhoTransEdit software, the student could easily have many chances to transcribe the words and sentences individually. PhoTransEdit could help students learn and understand the phonetic symbols. It has two options, whether they want British English or American English. If the students learn the phonetic symbols from PhoTransEdit, they can learn to pronounce the word better. Finally, for further research, future researchers were encouraged to research in the same field but with different respondents of a broader scope. Limitations of the current study should also be under consideration for further research.