Aims of Teaching Pronunciation
This drill is similar to the single slot substitution drill. The difference is that the teacher gives cue phrases, on at a time that fit into different slots in the dialog line.
The students must recognize what part of speech each cue is, or at least, where it fits into the sentence, and make any other changes, such as subject-verb
agreement. f. Transformational drill
The teacher gives students a certain kinds of sentence pattern, an affirmative sentence for example. Students are asked to transform this sentence into a
negative sentence. Other examples of transformations to ask of students are changing a statement into a question, an active sentence into passive one, or direct
speech into reported speech. g. Question and answer drill
This drill gives students practice with answering questions. The students should answer
the teacher’s questions very quickly. The example of exercise in drilling is teacher give stimulus by sentence to
learners then teacher asked them to repeat it until they memorize it. Brown stated about drills as follows:
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Drills offer students an opportunity to listen and to orally repeat certain strings of language that may pose some linguistics difficulty-either phonological or
grammatical. Drills are to language teaching what the pitching machine is to baseball. They offer limited practice through repetition. They allow one to
focus on one element of language in a controlled activity. They can help to establish certain psychomotor pattern to ―loosen the tongue‖ and to associate
selected form with their appropriate context.
In pronunciation drills, chaining is one of the activities that can be used in class. The difficulties of words and sounds in the sentence for learners can be
proved by chaining drills.
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Selected learners receives 4-10 words on separate cards which are used to make a story then tell it in front of class. Other example is
teacher asked learners to sit in the circle then individual learners ask and the
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H. Douglas Brown, Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedadody. New York: Pearson Education Company, 2001, p. 272.
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Gerald Kelly, op.cit p. 16.
others answer. Teacher starts to drill and ask to learners then the learner answer it then they repeat the question to their friends.
The second technique is a minimal pair. Teachers used minimal pairs in the classroom as a process of focusing on sound that are difficult for learners. The
activity is teacher give two words whose pronunciation is different by only one sound, such as reach and rich, bought and boat, or man and main. The aims of
minimal pairs are to help learners differentiate between similar and problematic sounds to achieve the goal of language through listening discrimination and
spoken practice.
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The third technique is visual aids. Improvement of teacher’s description of how
sounds are produced by audio-visual aids, such as: pictures, mirrors, rods, sound- colour chart, realia, etc. The aims of those techniques is to make learners interest
in learning pronunciation and will be more easily to understand materials. The fourth technique is a communicative activity. All of the activities, such as:
interviews, role plays, drama, speech, and audiotaped dialog journal, is can be used in the classroom to practice pronunciation. Meanwhile, all of those activities
are not possible done in class. Its happen because the situation and facilities is not allow.
The last technique is reading aloud. Focusing on stress, timing, and intonation are the part or scripts for learners in learning pronunciation. Reading aloud
technique can be involved or not in memorizing the text and it happens in the spoken, such as: speeches, poems, plays, and dialogues.
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