The Effect of Using English Songs on Students Pronunciation Ability

Abstract

English speaking ability is a valuable skill that is useful in various situations during communication. However, as practical skill, the ability to speak in English language is not easy, as the main goal of speaking is to deliver the oral communication in a comprehensive way. Pronunciation is important aspect of speaking to produce comprehensible oral message. In teaching proper and native-like pronunciation, it is necessary to use authentic material that produced from native speaker for natives, and English songs enable the students to get exposed to English language input in the form of lyric supported with rhythm and musical instrument which creates enjoyable experience. This is why the researcher interested in studying the effectiveness of slow and fast tempo songs towards students’ pronunciation skill. This research is conducted using quantitative experimental design to answer the research questions. The participants in this study consist of 33 eleventh grade students from one class at MAN 1 Pamekasan who followed pronunciation tests and treatment delivered by the teacher and the researcher in synchronous English class via zoom application. The data analyzed statistically using descriptive statistics and independent sample t test at SPSS 23. The result indicates that slow tempo songs have better influence towards students’ pronunciation. This is shown by the increase of the mean score from pre-test to post-test with 17.37 points for slow tempo songs and 12.52 for fast tempo songs which shows that slow tempo songs are dominant in improving pronunciation skill. In terms of Effectiveness, it is indicated that both songs have the significance of 0.00 which is less than 0.05, indicating that both type of songs significantly influence students’ pronunciation skill. Keywords: Speaking, English Songs, Pronunciation.