T1 112009049 Full text
THE USE OF SESAME STREET PROGRAM TO DEVELOP
PRONUNCIATION FOR PRIMARY STUDENTS
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Maria Eka Wijayanti
112009049
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
2013
THE USE OF SESAME STREET PROGRAM TO DEVELOP
PRONUNCIATION FOR PRIMARY STUDENTS
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Maria Eka Wijayanti
112009049
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
2013
ii
iii
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Copyright © 2013. Maria Eka Wijayanti and Prof. Dr. I. G. Gusti Astika, M.A.
All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means
without the permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English
Department, Faculty of Language and Literature, Satya Wacana Christian
University, Salatiga.
Maria Eka Wijayanti:
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112009049
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The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation
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Sesilia Rani Setyo Sari, M.Hum.
v
THE USE OF SESAME STREET PROGRAM TO DEVELOP
PRONUNCIATION FOR PRIMARY STUDENTS
Maria Eka Wijayanti
Abstract
The focus of this study is to find out whether Sesame Street video helped
children to develop their pronunciation in English. In this study, a descriptive
method was used to study the pronunciation development of seven primary
students. The students were asked to watch Sesame Street video several times, and
then their voice was recorded as they were reading the script. The average scores
of correct pronunciation in each treatment were made into a line graph to show the
pronunciation development. It was found that the average score increased 35%
from pre-test to test 5. The findings show that the more students watch and listen
to the video, the better their pronunciation was. This study could be very useful to
teachers in teaching pronunciation to primary school students and to students to
gain better English pronunciation by using Sesame Street video.
Keywords: Sesame Street video, pronunciation, primary students.
Introduction
Pronunciation is a prominent aspect in foreign language learning. It
becomes one of the main elements in speaking no matter what the language is.
Clear and correct pronunciation is important since it will establish the meaning
and make the words understandable. Pronunciation is defined as “the production
of significant sound in two senses: (1) as part of code of a particular language, and
(2) to achieve meaning in contexts of use” (Dalton & Seidlhofer, 2001, p.3). As
part of code of a particular language, pronunciation can distinguish English
sounds to Indonesian, French, and other languages. Besides, pronunciation to
achieve meaning in contexts of use means that pronunciation makes
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The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
communication possible. In short, the definition denotes that pronunciation can
identify English sounds to other languages and make communication achievable.
For years, many English learners, including young learners, have been
struggling, but many times they fail to pronounce English words correctly. In
some cases, the difficulties are due to the fact that irregular spelling of the
language offers poor guidance to its pronunciation (Syafei, 1988). Different L1
may also be one of the causes why many learners fail. English may be strange to
the learners because they stick to their L1, which may be completely different
from English. The L1 pronunciation, sound, or intonation and rhythm were
learned very early in life and are rooted deeply in students’ mind (Gilbert, 2008).
Even though there are many techniques used to teach pronunciation, many
learners still find difficulties in pronouncing English words correctly. One method
that can be used to drill English pronunciation is by using English video (Kumai,
1996 in Wijayanti, 2010).
By using English video, learners will find speeches that are mostly used in
daily activities and obviously tend not to occur in their handouts (Louw, 2006, in
Wijayanti 2010). He adds that videos can attract learners more due to the
visualization that can reduce or prevent boredom. Indeed, using English videos to
teach pronunciation for young learners is a good choice since young learners are
interested in visualization. Young learners, particularly primary students, may be
able to improve their pronunciation on their own such as using an English video
program rather than requiring a human teacher (Mitra et.al, 2003). Watching an
English video, such as Sesame Street program, may help primary students to
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The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
improve their pronunciation skill. Gilbert (2008) claimed that by watching English
video, people will recognize the rhythmic and melody patterns and learn
pronunciation: word stress, intonation, and rhythm. In addition, learning
pronunciation through watching English video provides a rich context for
developing interactional skills and improving intelligibility (Goodwin, 2004).
Thus, it is believed that by watching an English video, primary students
will be familiar with English sounds and help them a lot better if they want to
deliver speeches in English later. This study aimed to provide information about
watching English video to improve pronunciation skill. With the above
consideration, the goal in this study was to find out whether Sesame Street video
helped children to develop their pronunciation in English. In other words, this
research tried to answer the following question, Does Sesame Street video help to
develop the primary students’ pronunciation in learning English? Sesame Street
was chosen because it is a famous program and the topics conveyed are mostly
daily topics which have clear pronunciation. Besides, based on interview
conducted to some children, many children like Sesame Street due to its funny
characters.
Research Question
Based on the discussion above, this study tried to answer the following
question, Does Sesame Street video help to develop the primary students’
pronunciation in learning English?
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The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
Purpose of the Research
It was expected that this study could provide information about watching
English video that could help primary students to improve their pronunciation
skill. With the above consideration, the goal in this study was to find out whether
Sesame Street video helped children to develop their pronunciation in English.
Benefits of the Research
The results of this study might help young learners to gain better English
pronunciation by using Sesame Street video and help the student teachers or
teachers to develop their lesson plans and curriculum in teaching pronunciation
skills, and to other students who might want to do further study about this later on.
Literature Review
Pronunciation
Pronunciation is a set of habits of producing sounds which can be acquired
by repeating it and being corrected when it is pronounced wrongly. Pronunciation
refers to the sounds production that is used to make meaning which includes
attention to the particular sounds of a language, aspects of speech such as
intonation, phrasing, stress, timing, rhythm, pitch levels, how the voice is
projected, and attention to gestures and expressions that are closely related to the
way we speak a language (Gilakjani, 2012). Learning to pronounce a second
language means building up new pronunciation habits and overcoming the bias of
the first language (Cook, 1996, cited Gilakjani, 2012).
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The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
According to James (2010), cited Gilakjani (2012), a learner's
pronunciation has three basic levels: Level 1: People often do not understand what
the speaker is saying because of the wrong sounds. Level 2: People understand
what the speaker is saying, but the speaker's pronunciation is not pleasant to listen
to because he/she has a distracting and/or heavy accent. Level 3: People
understand the speaker, and the speaker's English is pleasant to listen to. Scovel
(1988) refers to this as comfortable intelligibility, and he suggests that this, rather
than native-like accuracy, should be the goal of pronunciation.
A learner will have acceptable pronunciation when other people can
understand what he/she says and the sounds are pleasant to be listened to. In other
words, the speaker is comfortably intelligible. Acceptable pronunciation is not the
same as having American or British accents. The learners' accents should be close
to a standard variety, because an accent that deviates too far from a recognized
standard has the risk of becoming distracting and unpleasant. Thus, learners do
not need to aim for a particular accent, but they do need to develop their own
accent as close as possible to the standard variety. If learners are far from the
standard, they sometimes will not communicate successfully. If they communicate
successfully, they will be judged negatively (James, 2010, cited Gilakjani, 2012).
In addition, Morley (1991) in Gilakjani (2012) states that the goal of
pronunciation should be changed from achieving perfect pronunciation to the
more realistic goals of developing functional intelligibility, communicability,
increased self-confidence. In other words, students need to master “good
pronunciation”, not perfect accents.
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The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
Based on some definition states by some experts above, it means that
pronunciation is a set of habits of producing sounds which can be achieved by
repeating and correcting if it is pronounced inaccurately. The main aim of
pronunciation is not having perfect pronunciation or being native-like
pronunciation, but having acceptable pronunciation which can be understood by
the listeners. To sum up, the purpose of pronunciation is to develop clear and
good pronunciation.
Teaching Pronunciation Using English Video to Young Learners
Considering the importance of pronunciation, teaching pronunciation
should be a priority because language is primarily a means of communication and
this communication should be understood by all. Teaching pronunciation becomes
crucial since this is the most important source of understanding.
To
gain
good
pronunciation
and
comfortable
intelligibility
of
pronunciation, EFL pronunciation teaching should cover both the segmental (the
English vowel and the English consonant sounds) and the supra-segmental as well
as the training of the speech organs, such as lips, teeth, alveolar ridge, palate,
tongue, vocal folds, ears, etc. The segmental includes vowel and consonant
sounds, preferably phonemes, as well as syllables. The treatment of the segmental
basically includes sound contrast in words, pronunciation of vowel, and consonant
phonemes. The supra-segmental covers stress in words and connected speech,
rhythm, pitch, loudness, length, quality, tone and intonation that play an essential
and natural role in English speech production and perception (Thompson &
Gaddes, 2005). Other than that, EFL pronunciation teaching should aim at
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The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
intelligible pronunciation, which is considered as the essential component of
communicative competence (Morley, 1991 in Thompson & Gaddes, 2005).
Therefore, having intelligible pronunciation which means that the pronunciation
can be clearly and easily understood by the listeners would be emphasized in this
study after the participants watched Sesame Street video several times.
One method to cover and gain the segmental and the supra-segmental, and
also comfortable intelligibility in pronunciation is by using English pronunciation
models in EFL teaching pronunciation. (James, 2010, in Gilakjani, 2012).
Exposure to real English pronunciation models, such as by watching English
video, can be a suitable and effective technique to help the learners acquire
intelligible pronunciation as well as watching CNN International or BBC. Using
English videos will be effective since it belongs to authentic audio-visual material
which refers to texts we encounter every day. In addition, English video will give
the students and teachers a very handy way of accessing English real life in the
classroom. For that reason, Sesame Street video was chosen to facilitate the
students have intelligible pronunciation by using English pronunciation models
and bring them into English real life in the classroom as well as to make the
students be familiar with the texts they come across every day.
According to Allan (1985, pp.48 – 49), in the context of EFL teaching,
English video can present realistic ‘slices of life’ which means video is a good
means of bringing ‘a slice of living language’ into the classroom, get students
talking, provide visual support, and offer variety and entertainment. With real
people and real setting in the production process, examples of language use in
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The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
videos are life-like. Audiences can see and listen to the communication between
people in videos which resembles actual communication processes in the real
world.
Furthermore, the benefit of using English video to teach pronunciation is
in the variety of voices and intonation since in a video there usually are a number
of actors, all with different voices, speaking with different dialects, or using
different intonation, which is always good for the learners to distinguish such
phenomena and be to able to understand it in order to master the language (Hrubý,
2010). Teaching and learning English pronunciation using English video will
benefit the students, especially primary students, in two ways. First, it re-affirms
to students that what they are learning in the classroom is actually used in the real
world, and it helps the students to gain confidence in using English when dealing
with real world situations as they have already been exposed to real English in the
classroom.
The video will provide young learners with real-life situation where
learners can really observe real native communication which covers the
pronunciation components, such as word stress, intonation, and even gestures
which will make great effect in learners’ pronunciation. The use of English video
with English subtitles is also a great help to students. Students will have the
opportunity to match speaking with the written language if they have problems
following fast native speakers’ speaking pace. Thus, English video, in this case
Sesame Street video, in drilling the beginner learners’ pronunciation will be used
to find out and prove whether videos can be really effective for primary students.
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The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
Previous Research on Teaching Pronunciation
Watching English video has been proven to improve the students’
pronunciation skill. A previous research done by Cenoz and Lecumberri (1996)
shows that listening to radio and TV, including ear training, was proven to
improve students’ pronunciation. De Bot’s finding (1983) also shows that learners
instructed with audio-visual feedback did significantly better. In addition,
Wijayanti (2010), in her case study toward two students of English Department in
Satya Wacana Christian University, also found that English movies help learners
pronounce English better. The score results of her case studies proved that after
the subjects watching English movie, their pronunciation significantly improved.
James (1976, pp. 227-243) mentioned that the best way to drill on
pronunciation – especially intonation, is by using an audiovisual representation of
the target speech (videos), including a feedback of the speakers’ imitations.
Teaching pronunciation by watching English video will help the students a lot
since it will provide paralinguistic information such as gestures, facial expression,
and mouth shape, videos rather than audio tapes give a timing framework for
speaking. (Kumai, 1996). Thus, by watching English videos, the learners will be
able to observe native speakers’ communication in a real-life language situation,
as well as imitating their pronunciation. This also belongs to the reason why the
writer was interested in seeing whether this phenomenon happens in the context of
the study.
Moreover, watching English video will help young learners to have nativelike accent and intelligible pronunciation since having the native-like accent and
9
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
intelligible pronunciation could still possible to the learners who acquire a second
language in early childhood than to individuals who start acquiring a second
language after early childhood (Derwing & Munro, 2005; Busà, 2008). However,
a native-like pronunciation is not necessarily to be obtained, as proposed by
Jenkins (2000, 2002), cited in Derwing & Munro (2005), still intelligible
pronunciation is needed to comprehend the meaning conveyed by the speaker.
Therefore, a drill on pronunciation is done by many researchers and would be
done in this study as well.
The Study
This study used a descriptive method which describes the students’
pronunciation development after watching Sesame Street video and was based on
case study held to seven students in grade five of SDN Karangjati 1 Blora.
Participants
The participants in this study were seven students in grade five of SDN
Karangjati 1 Blora, whose ages ranged from 9 to 11. Only seven out of twenty
four students were chosen to ease data analysis. The students had learnt English
since they were in the first grade of elementary school. They were randomly
selected from the list given by the teacher. The students chosen came from
different ability level. Different ability level is decided by looking at the English
grade in raport book.
Research Instrument
In conducting this research, the video of Sesame Street program was used
as the research instrument. The video was taken from Sesame Street website
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The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
(www.sesamestreet.org), entitled Carrier. The video had conversations between
two characters of Sesame Street program, Abby Cadabby and Sonia Sotomayor.
The duration of this video was one minute and forty one seconds. Sesame Street
video was chosen because it is a well-known program. Moreover, based on
interview conducted to some children, most children love it due to its funny
characters. Relating to pronunciation, the main reason in choosing Sesame Street
was that English pronunciation spoken in the video was intelligible. Intelligible
pronunciation means that the pronunciation is clear and easy to be understood by
the listeners. Furthermore, the language used and the topic conveyed was
appropriate for young learners.
Data Collection
The study aimed at investigating the pronunciation development after
watching the same video of Sesame Street several times. Thus, an observation
technique was adopted for this case study. Observation was chosen to get more
valid data about the students’ pronunciation development.
The treatment was held outside the school lesson hour. The observation
started with a pre-test in which the students were required to read a script of
Sesame Street without watching the video beforehand which can be seen in
Appendix 1. The students had to read aloud the script in pairs to enable their
pronunciation to be recorded. To check the students’ understanding of the script,
they had an opportunity to ask if they had any difficult words or idioms.
The pre-test was followed by five treatments. The five treatments were the
same. In each treatment, the students were asked to read the script again after they
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The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
watched the video three times. After one treatment, there was oral feedback given
to each student about his/ her pronunciation. In addition, while watching the
video, the students were asked to read the script as well.
The pre-test and the first treatment were done in one day, on March 9,
2013. The second treatment was done on March 15, 2013. The third and fourth
treatments were done on March 18, 2013. The fifth treatment was done on March
19, 2013. The time interval of each treatment was not too long to ensure that the
students still remember what they had learned on the previous meeting and also to
see the development of the students’ pronunciation if they watched English video
to gain better pronunciation.
In order to know students’ pronunciation development, the recordings
were analyzed. The analysis was done quantitatively by giving a score for each
recording of each student in each treatment. The score results were put into a table
and presented in a line graph. Thus, a line graph based on the scores was used to
describe and display the students’ pronunciation development.
Findings and Discussion
This section reports the findings of the study and discusses the results of
the observation presented in table and line graphs/ figures. The pronunciation
score of each participant was obtained by dividing the number of correct
pronunciation by the number of total words read. Then, the result was multiplied
by one hundred. The formula was presented below:
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The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
The first following sections present each student’s pronunciation.
Rexy’s Pronunciation
He is nine years old. He read Sonia’s part. His pre-test score was the
lowest among the others. His pronunciation was difficult to be understood because
of the wrong sounds. Based on James theory (2010, cited Gilakjani, 2012), Rexy’s
pronunciation was in level 1.
On the pre-test, there were 97 out of 122 words mispronounced and could
not be understood, 90 out of 122 words mispronounced in test 1, 82 out of 122
words mispronounced in test 2, 48 out of 122 words mispronounced in test 3, 35
out of 122 words mispronounced in test 4, and 30 out of 122 words
mispronounced in test 5. Thus, it can be concluded that there were less
mispronunciation words in the following test. There were some words that were
commonly mispronounced, though. Those words were I’m, we’re, train, and, on,
time, but, that, for, train, state, I, studied, and became mispronounced five times
during the pre-test to test 5; here, all, about, a carrier, that, prepare, fun, train,
and, prepare, for, can, to, be, scientist, united, I, went, school, law, then, and
judge mispronounced four times; hi, tell, plan, doing, a long, pretending, be, a,
princess, is, definitely, remember, you, do, time, school, a teacher, a lawyer, a
doctor, and engineer, even, supreme, court, justice, think, and great which
mispronounced three times.
Table 1. below shows Rexy’s pronunciation scores of pre-test to test 5.
Table 1. Rexy’s Pronunciation Scores of Pre-test to Test 5
Pre-test
Test 1
Test 2
Test 3
Test 4
Rexy
20
26
33
13
61
71
Test 5
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The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
Figure 1. below shows Rexy’s pronunciation scores of pre-test to test 5.
The line graph shows the progress of pronunciation scores achieved by Rexy.
Figure 1. Rexy’s Pronunciation Scores of Pre-test to Test 5
Rexy
71
75
61
33
20
PRE-TEST
26
TEST 1
TEST 2
TEST 3
TEST 4
TEST 5
Overall, the increase of Rexy’s pronunciation scores from pre-test to test 5
were excessively high. He had the highest progress score among his friends. In
percentage, the increase pronunciation score of Rexy’s from pre-test to test 5,
after watching Sesame Street video several times, was 275%.
Valen’s Pronunciation
He is ten years old. He read Abby’s part. His pre-test score was quite
good. Even though there were some mispronunciation, his pronunciation was
understandable. On the pre-test, there were 17 out of 67 words mispronounced
and could not be understood, 11 out of 67 words mispronounced in test 1, 6 out of
67 words mispronounced in test 2, 5 out of 67 words mispronounced in test 3, 3
out of 67 words mispronounced in test 4, and 2 out of 67 words mispronounced in
test 5. Thus, it can be concluded that there were less mispronunciation words in
the following test. However, there were some words that were commonly
mispronounced. Those words were princess and you’re which five times
14
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
mispronounced; kind which four times mispronounced; and right and guess which
three times mispronounced.
Table 2. below shows Valen’s pronunciation scores of pre-test to test 5.
Table 2. Valen’s Pronunciation Scores of Pre-test to Test 5
Pre-test
Test 1
Test 2
Test 3
Test 4
Valen
75
84
91
93
Test 5
96
97
Figure 2. below shows Valen’s pronunciation scores of pre-test to test 5.
The line graph shows the progress of pronunciation scores achieved by Valen.
Figure 2. Valen’s Pronunciation Scores of Pre-test to Test 5
Valen
93
96
97
84
91
75
PRE-TEST
TEST 1
TEST 2
TEST 3
TEST 4
TEST 5
In percentage, the increase pronunciation score of Valen’s from pre-test to
test 5, after watching Sesame Street video several times, was 29%.
Nadila’s Pronunciation
She is ten years old. She read Sonia’s part. She got the second lowest pretest score. On the pre-test, there were 51 out of 122 words mispronounced and
could not be understood, 42 out of 122 words mispronounced in test 1, 36 out of
122 words mispronounced in test 2, 15 out of 122 words mispronounced in test 3,
10 out of 122 words mispronounced in test 4, and 9 out of 122 words
mispronounced in test 5. Therefore, it can be inferred that there were less
15
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
mispronunciation words in the following test. There were some words that were
commonly mispronounced, though. Those words were were, here, that, I, united,
studied, and became which mispronounced five times during the pre-test to test 5;
prepare, time, a teacher, state, supreme, and then which mispronounced four
times; plan, what’s, be, fun, but, definitely, job, an engineer, even, justice, a judge,
think, and great which mispronounced three times.
Table 3. below shows Nadila’s pronunciation scores of pre-test to test 5.
Table 3. Nadila’s Pronunciation Scores of Pre-test to Test 5
Pre-test
Test 1
Test 2
Test 3
Test 4
Nadila
58
66
70
88
Test 5
92
93
Figure 3. below shows Nadila’s pronunciation scores of pre-test to test 5.
The line graph shows the progress of pronunciation scores achieved by Nadila.
Figure 3. Nadila’s Pronunciation Scores of Pre-test to Test 5
Nadila
66
70
TEST 1
TEST 2
88
92
93
TEST 3
TEST 4
TEST 5
58
PRE-TEST
The raising pronunciation score of Nadila’s from pre-test to test 5 were
quite significant. In percentage, the increase pronunciation score of Nadila’s from
pre-test to test 5, after watching Sesame Street video several times, was 60%.
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The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
Fian’s Pronunciation
He is ten years old. He read Abby’s part. His pre-test score was quite good
in which his pronunciation was understandable.
On the pre-test, there were 12 out of 67 words mispronounced and could
not be understood, 9 out of 67 words mispronounced in test 1, 6 out of 67 words
mispronounced in test 2, 5 out of 67 words mispronounced in test 3, 6 out of 67
words mispronounced in test 4, and 2 out of 67 words mispronounced in test 5.
From those facts, it can be assumed that there were less mispronunciation
words in the following test. However, in the fourth test, Fian’s mispronunciation
was increased. He just realized his mispronunciation after his voice was recorded.
Yet, after he got oral feedback about his wrong pronunciation words and watched
Sesame Street video again, his pronunciation was improved and his
mispronunciations were smaller in test 5.
Some words that were commonly mispronounced by Fian were right and
isn’t, which five times mispronounced; you're which four times mispronounced;
and have, guess, and kind which three times mispronounced.
Table 4. below shows Fian’s pronunciation scores of pre-test to test 5.
Table 4. Fian’s Pronunciation Scores of Pre-test to Test 5
Pre-test
Test 1
Test 2
Test 3
Test 4
Fian
82
87
91
93
91
Test 5
97
Figure 4. below shows Fian’s pronunciation scores of pre-test to test 5.
The line graph shows the progress of pronunciation scores achieved by Fian.
17
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
Figure 4. Fian’s Pronunciation Scores of Pre-test to Test 5
Fian
97
93
91
91
87
82
PRE-TEST
TEST 1
TEST 2
TEST 3
TEST 4
TEST 5
In percentage, the increase pronunciation score of Fian’s from pre-test to
test 5, after watching Sesame Street video several times, was 18%.
Ari’s Pronunciation
She is eleven years old. She read Sonia’s part. Her pre-test score was the
highest among the others. From the pre-test to test 5, Ari’s pronunciation score
was better. On the pre-test, there were 16 out of 122 words mispronounced and
could not be understood, 14 out of 122 words mispronounced in test 1, 11 out of
122 words mispronounced in test 2, 7 out of 122 words mispronounced in test 3, 4
out of 122 words mispronounced in test 4, and 1 out of 122 words mispronounced.
In test 5, Ari’s score was almost perfect. There was only one mispronunciation for
word became.
Some words that were commonly mispronounced were I’m and became
which mispronounced five times during the pre-test to test 5; even and a united
which mispronounced four times; here, pretending, definitely, think, and great
which mispronounced three times.
18
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
Table 5. below shows Ari’s pronunciation scores of pre-test to test 5.
Table 5. Ari’s Pronunciation Scores of Pre-test score to Test 5
Pre-test
Test 1
Test 2
Test 3
Test 4
Ari
87
89
91
94
Test 5
97
99
Figure 5. below shows Ari’s pronunciation score of pre-test to test 5 The
line graph shows the progress of pronunciation scores achieved by Ari.
Figure 5. Ari’s Pronunciation Scores of Pre-test to Test 5
Ari
99
97
94
91
89
87
PRE-TEST
TEST 1
TEST 2
TEST 3
TEST 4
TEST 5
In percentage, the increase pronunciation score of of Ari’s from pre-test to
test 5, after watching Sesame Street video several times, was 14%.
Adelia’s Pronunciation
She is nine years old. She read Abby’s part. Her pre-test score was quite
good. On the pre-test, there were 14 out of 67 words mispronounced and could not
be understood, 9 out of 67 words mispronounced in test 1, 11 out of 67 words
mispronounced in test 2, 5 out of 67 words mispronounced in test 3, 6 out of 67
words mispronounced in test 4, and 2 out of 67 words mispronounced in test 5.
From those facts, it can be assumed that there were less mispronunciation
words in the following test. However, in the second test, Adelia’s
mispronunciation was increased. As Fian, she just realized her mispronunciation
19
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
after her voice was recorded. Yet, after getting oral feedback about her wrong
pronunciation words and watched Sesame Street video again, Adelia’s
pronunciation was improved and there were less mispronunciation in test 3.
Some words that were commonly mispronounced were kind and which
mispronounced four times during the pre-test to test 5; I’m, you’re, right, guess,
really, isn’t, and I which mispronounced three times.
Table 6. below shows Adelia’s pronunciation scores of pre-test to test 5.
Table 6. Adelia’s Pronunciation Scores of Pre-test to Test 5
Pre-test
Test 1
Test 2
Test 3
Test 4
Adelia
79
87
84
94
Test 5
97
97
Figure 6. below shows Adelia’s pronunciation scores of pre-test to test 5.
The line graph shows the progress of pronunciation scores achieved by Adelia.
Figure 6. Adelia’s Pronunciation Scores of Pre-test to Test 5
Adelia
79
PRE-TEST
87
84
TEST 1
TEST 2
94
97
97
TEST 3
TEST 4
TEST 5
In percentage, the increase pronunciation score of Adelia’s from pre-test to
test 5, after watching Sesame Street video several times, was 23%.
Adela’s Pronunciation
She is ten years old. She read Abby’s part. Her pre-test score was quite
good. As Abby, Adela had the lowest mispronunciation than others during pre-
20
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
test, test 1, test 2, and test 5. On the pre-test, there were 10 out of 67 words
mispronounced and could not be understood, 6 out of 67 words mispronounced in
test 1, 2 out of 67 words mispronounced in test 2, and 1 out of 67 words
mispronounced in test 5.
Adela did not join the third and fourth test. However, when she joined the
last meeting, got oral feedback about her mispronunciation words in the previous
test, watched Sesame Street video, and did the last test, her pronunciation score
was better than test 2.
Table 7. below shows Adela’s pronunciation scores of pre-test to test 5.
Table 7. Adela’s Pronunciation Scores of Pre-test to Test 5
Pre-test
Test 1
Test 2
Test 3
Test 4
Adela
85
91
Test 5
97
99
Figure 7. below shows Adela’s pronunciation scores of pre-test to test 5.
The line graph shows the progress of pronunciation scores achieved by Adela
Figure 7. Adela’s Pronunciation Scores of Pre-test to Test 5
Adela
97
99
TEST 2
TEST 5
91
85
PRE-TEST
TEST 1
In percentage, the increase pronunciation score of Adela’s from pre-test to
test 5, after watching Sesame Street video several times, was 16%.
21
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
Discussion
After the participants’ pronunciation scores were obtained, the average
score from each test was calculated. By counting the averages of pre-test, test 1,
test 2, test 3, test 4, and test 5, it can be seen that the average score in each test
was getting better. From the average score of pre-test that was 69.43 increased to
75.71 in test 1, 79.57 in test 2, 87.17 in test 3, 90.67 in test 4 and 93.86 in test 5.
In percentage, the increase score from pre-test to test 5 was 35%. Table 8. below
shows the average pronunciation scores of pre-test to test 5.
Table 8. The Average Pronunciation Scores of Pre-test to Test 5
Pre-test
Test 1
Test 2
Test 3
Test 4
Average Score
69.43
75.71
79.57
87.17
90.67
Test 5
93.86
For better visualization, the progress of students’ pronunciation score is
presented in Figure 8. below. The line graph shows the progress of pronunciation
scores achieved by the students.
Figure 8. The Average Pronunciation Scores of Pre-test to Test 5
100
90
87.17
80
90.67
93.86
79.57
75.71
70
69.43
60
S
C
O
R
E
50
40
30
20
10
0
PRE-TEST
TEST 1
TEST 2
22
TEST 3
TEST 4
TEST 5
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
The line graph clearly shows the progress of students’ pronunciation
scores. It shows that the participants’ pronunciation increased from pre-test to test
5. It means that the students in this study appeared to gain better pronunciation
after they watched Sesame Street video. Even Rexy and Nadila’s pronunciation
scores increased significantly after watching Sesame Street video. Even though
there were some words mispronounced by the students, such as I’m, we’re, here, a
united, state, studied and became by Sonia, and you’re, right, guess, isn’t, and
kind by Abby, it can be interpreted that Sesame Street video helped primary
students to develop their pronunciation.
Conclusion and Recommendation
The aim of this research was to find out whether Sesame Street video
helped children to develop their pronunciation in English. In other words, this
research tried to answer the following question, Does Sesame Street video help to
develop the primary students’ pronunciation in learning English? Aside from the
number of mispronouncing words which still appeared in the last test, the analysis
of students’ pronunciation score shows that their pronunciation increased from
pre-test to test 5. Therefore, the answer is: yes, Sesame Street video helped to
develop primary student’s pronunciation in learning English.
Since this research is a case study which only consisted of small number of
the participants, the result cannot be over generalized. For other researchers who
are interested in similar topic, I would suggest to have more participants in the
23
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
research. They could also use group samples, e.g. one group of advance learners,
intermediate learners, and one group of beginner learners.
In addition, some recommendations are proposed to English teachers for
primary students. Teaching pronunciation to primary students using English
videos such as Sesame Street video can help students have clear and correct
pronunciation. If students still find difficulties in pronouncing words, the teacher
can ask the students to watch the video again and give them some feedback.
Watching English videos and giving feedback on students’ pronunciation will
help students to gain better pronunciation. To make the lesson more interesting,
the use of videos can be combined with other activities such as matching words
and pictures, doing crossword puzzles, filling missing letters of words, and so on.
24
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
References
Busà, M. G. (2008). New Perspectives in Teaching Pronunciation. Pp. 165 – 182.
Retrieved November 6, 2012, from http://www.openstarts.units.it/dspace/
bitstream/10077/2850/1/bus%C3%A0.pdf Publisher: EUT - Edizioni
Università di Trieste.
Cook, V. ( 1996). Second Language Learning and Language Teaching. London :
Arnold.
Dalton, C., & Seidlholfer, B. (2001). Language Teaching: A Scheme for Teacher
Education. Retrieved December 5, 2012 from http://books.google.
co.id/books?id=rDp7SlTbwHEC&printsec=frontcover &dq=pronunciation
&hl=id&sa=X&ei=GNi-UO-CLqXwmAWypoDYCA&ved=0CDYQ6AE
wAw#v=onepage&q=pronunciation&f=false
De Bot, K. (1983). Visual feedback of intonation I: Effectiveness and induced
practiced behavior. Language and Speech, 26, 331-350.
Derwing, T. M., & Munro, M. J. (2005). Second Language Accent and
Pronunciation Teaching: A Research-Based Approach. TESOL Quarterly,
39(3), 379–397.
Gilakjani, A. P. (2012).The Significance of Pronunciation in English Language
Teaching. English Language Teaching, Vol. 5, No. 4, 96-107.
Gilbert, J. B. (2008). Teaching Pronunciation Using the Prosody Pyramid.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Goodwin, J. (2004). A technique for improving intelligibility Using Film Clips to
Teach Pronunciation. Retrieved November 2, 2012 from http://
www.international.ucla.edu/languages/lab/profiles/janetgoodwin/Goodwin
-usingfilmclips. pdf
Jenkins, J. (2000). The phonology of English as an international language.
Retrieved December 6, 2012 from http://books.google.co.id/books?id=
0TvHACfrUjEC&printsec=frontcover&hl=id#v=onepage&q&f=false
Jenkins, J. (2002). A Sociolinguistically–based, empirically–researched
pronunciation syllabus for English as an international language. Applied
Linguistics, 23, 83-103.
Kumai, W. N. (1996). Karaoke Movies: Dubbing Movies for Pronunciation.
Retrieved October 29, 2012 from http://www.jalt-publications.org/
25
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
Mitra et.al, (2003). Improving English Pronunciation: An Automated Instructional
Approach. Information Technologies and International Development,
Volume 1, No. 1, 75–84.
Syafei, Anas. (1988). English pronunciation: theory and practice. Jakarta:
Depdikbud
Thompson, T. & Gaddes, M. (2005). Teaching Efl Pronunciation: Why, What and
How? Retrieved November 6, 2012 from http://www.articlesbase.com/
languages-articles/ teaching-efl-pronunciation-why-what-and-how-263199
.html
Wijayanti, D. A. L. (2010). Acquiring Pronunciation through English Videos.
Thesis, Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga, Indonesia.
N.D. Using authentic audio-visual materials in primary school English language
classrooms. Retrieved November 14, 2012, from http://www.edb.gov.hk/
FileManager/EN/Content_3853/engartifactevejune05.pdf
26
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
Acknowledgment
“And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”
(Matthew 21:22)
First and foremost, I wish to express my sincerest gratefulness to Jesus
Christ who gives me strength and answer to my prayer. My gratitude is expressed
to my supervisor, Prof. I. G. Gusti Astika, M.A., for all his comments, advice,
and correction for my thesis. My gratitude is also expressed to my examiner,
Sesilia Rani Setyo Sari, M.Hum., who spent her time to read and correct my
thesis. I would like to dedicate this thesis for my beloved family, my mother,
father, and my young sisters, for their love, prayers, and supports. My gratitude
also goes to all the participants for their time and cooperation. To Kak Lindung,
Ati, Kardia, Debora, Rista, Ani, Kak Debby, Inda, Lisa, Kak Dina, Murny,
and Mela thank you for the psychological support, friendship, and
kindheartedness during the time of writing this thesis and my study in this
university. Last but not least, my special gratefulness goes to Daniel, for being the
one who loves me, who supports me as always to finish this thesis, Thank you for
always motivating me “You can do and finish it!” God Bless You.
27
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
APPENDIX 1
The Script of Sesame Street Video
“Carrier”
Sonia
Abby
Sonia
Abby
Sonia
:
:
:
:
:
Abby
Sonia
Abby
Sonia
:
:
:
:
Abby
Sonia
:
:
Abby
Sonia
Abby
Sonia
:
:
:
:
Abby
Sonia
:
:
Abby
Sonia
Abby
Sonia
Abby
Sonia
Abby
Abby and Sonia
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
Hi… I’m Sonia Sotomayor. (Rexy, Nadila, Ari)
And I’m Abby Cadabby. (Valen, Fian, Adelia, Adela)
And we’re here to tell you all about the word: “CARRIER”.
Yeach… “CARRIER”.
A carrier is a job that you train for and prepare for and plan
on doing for a long time.
Oooo….. I know what a carrier that I wanna have.
What’s that?
I wanna a carrier as a princess. CA…RRI….ER.
Abby, pretending to be a princess is fun. But it is definitely
not a carrier.
It’s not?
No. Remember, a carrier is a job that you train and prepare
for and that you plan to do for a long time.
Oo… You’re right. I guess a princess really isn’t a job.
No, it’s not.
Then what kind of carrier can a girl like me have?
Well, you can go to school and train to be: a teacher, a
lawyer, a doctor, an engineer, and even a scientist.
Wow! Do you have a carrier?
Yes, I do. I am a United State Supreme Court Justice. I
went to school and studied law and then became a judge.
Wow! That sounds important!
It is.
Okay. Then I know what carrier that I wanna have.
What’s that?
CA…RRI….ER. Order in that court.
O Abby, I think you make a great great judge
O, thank you.
CARRIER
28
PRONUNCIATION FOR PRIMARY STUDENTS
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Maria Eka Wijayanti
112009049
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
2013
THE USE OF SESAME STREET PROGRAM TO DEVELOP
PRONUNCIATION FOR PRIMARY STUDENTS
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Maria Eka Wijayanti
112009049
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
2013
ii
iii
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in any
course or accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university.
To the best of my knowledge and my belief, this contains no material previously
published or written by other any person except where due reference is made in
the text.
Copyright © 2013. Maria Eka Wijayanti and Prof. Dr. I. G. Gusti Astika, M.A.
All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means
without the permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English
Department, Faculty of Language and Literature, Satya Wacana Christian
University, Salatiga.
Maria Eka Wijayanti:
iv
PUBLICATION AGREEMENT DECLARATION
As a member of the (SWCU) Satya Wacana Christian Univerity academic
community, I verify that:
Name
Student ID Number
Study Program
Faculty
Kind of Work
:
:
:
:
:
Maria Eka Wijayanti
112009049
English Department
Faculty of Language and Literature
Undergraduate Thesis
In developing my knowledge, I agree to provide SWCU with a non-exclusive
royalty free right for my intellectual property and the contents therein entitled:
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation
for Primary Students
along with any pertinent equipment.
With this non-exclusive royalty free right, SWCU maintains the right to copy,
reproduce, print, publish, post, display, incorporate, store in or scan into a
retrieval system database, transmit, broadcast, barter or sell my intellectual
property, in whole or in part without my express written permission, as long as my
name is still included as the writer.
This declaration is made according to the best of my knowledge.
Made in
: Salatiga
Date
:
Verified by signee,
2013
Maria Eka Wijayanti
Approved by
Thesis Supervisor
Thesis Examiner
Prof. Dr. I. G. Gusti Astika, M.A.
Sesilia Rani Setyo Sari, M.Hum.
v
THE USE OF SESAME STREET PROGRAM TO DEVELOP
PRONUNCIATION FOR PRIMARY STUDENTS
Maria Eka Wijayanti
Abstract
The focus of this study is to find out whether Sesame Street video helped
children to develop their pronunciation in English. In this study, a descriptive
method was used to study the pronunciation development of seven primary
students. The students were asked to watch Sesame Street video several times, and
then their voice was recorded as they were reading the script. The average scores
of correct pronunciation in each treatment were made into a line graph to show the
pronunciation development. It was found that the average score increased 35%
from pre-test to test 5. The findings show that the more students watch and listen
to the video, the better their pronunciation was. This study could be very useful to
teachers in teaching pronunciation to primary school students and to students to
gain better English pronunciation by using Sesame Street video.
Keywords: Sesame Street video, pronunciation, primary students.
Introduction
Pronunciation is a prominent aspect in foreign language learning. It
becomes one of the main elements in speaking no matter what the language is.
Clear and correct pronunciation is important since it will establish the meaning
and make the words understandable. Pronunciation is defined as “the production
of significant sound in two senses: (1) as part of code of a particular language, and
(2) to achieve meaning in contexts of use” (Dalton & Seidlhofer, 2001, p.3). As
part of code of a particular language, pronunciation can distinguish English
sounds to Indonesian, French, and other languages. Besides, pronunciation to
achieve meaning in contexts of use means that pronunciation makes
1
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
communication possible. In short, the definition denotes that pronunciation can
identify English sounds to other languages and make communication achievable.
For years, many English learners, including young learners, have been
struggling, but many times they fail to pronounce English words correctly. In
some cases, the difficulties are due to the fact that irregular spelling of the
language offers poor guidance to its pronunciation (Syafei, 1988). Different L1
may also be one of the causes why many learners fail. English may be strange to
the learners because they stick to their L1, which may be completely different
from English. The L1 pronunciation, sound, or intonation and rhythm were
learned very early in life and are rooted deeply in students’ mind (Gilbert, 2008).
Even though there are many techniques used to teach pronunciation, many
learners still find difficulties in pronouncing English words correctly. One method
that can be used to drill English pronunciation is by using English video (Kumai,
1996 in Wijayanti, 2010).
By using English video, learners will find speeches that are mostly used in
daily activities and obviously tend not to occur in their handouts (Louw, 2006, in
Wijayanti 2010). He adds that videos can attract learners more due to the
visualization that can reduce or prevent boredom. Indeed, using English videos to
teach pronunciation for young learners is a good choice since young learners are
interested in visualization. Young learners, particularly primary students, may be
able to improve their pronunciation on their own such as using an English video
program rather than requiring a human teacher (Mitra et.al, 2003). Watching an
English video, such as Sesame Street program, may help primary students to
2
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
improve their pronunciation skill. Gilbert (2008) claimed that by watching English
video, people will recognize the rhythmic and melody patterns and learn
pronunciation: word stress, intonation, and rhythm. In addition, learning
pronunciation through watching English video provides a rich context for
developing interactional skills and improving intelligibility (Goodwin, 2004).
Thus, it is believed that by watching an English video, primary students
will be familiar with English sounds and help them a lot better if they want to
deliver speeches in English later. This study aimed to provide information about
watching English video to improve pronunciation skill. With the above
consideration, the goal in this study was to find out whether Sesame Street video
helped children to develop their pronunciation in English. In other words, this
research tried to answer the following question, Does Sesame Street video help to
develop the primary students’ pronunciation in learning English? Sesame Street
was chosen because it is a famous program and the topics conveyed are mostly
daily topics which have clear pronunciation. Besides, based on interview
conducted to some children, many children like Sesame Street due to its funny
characters.
Research Question
Based on the discussion above, this study tried to answer the following
question, Does Sesame Street video help to develop the primary students’
pronunciation in learning English?
3
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
Purpose of the Research
It was expected that this study could provide information about watching
English video that could help primary students to improve their pronunciation
skill. With the above consideration, the goal in this study was to find out whether
Sesame Street video helped children to develop their pronunciation in English.
Benefits of the Research
The results of this study might help young learners to gain better English
pronunciation by using Sesame Street video and help the student teachers or
teachers to develop their lesson plans and curriculum in teaching pronunciation
skills, and to other students who might want to do further study about this later on.
Literature Review
Pronunciation
Pronunciation is a set of habits of producing sounds which can be acquired
by repeating it and being corrected when it is pronounced wrongly. Pronunciation
refers to the sounds production that is used to make meaning which includes
attention to the particular sounds of a language, aspects of speech such as
intonation, phrasing, stress, timing, rhythm, pitch levels, how the voice is
projected, and attention to gestures and expressions that are closely related to the
way we speak a language (Gilakjani, 2012). Learning to pronounce a second
language means building up new pronunciation habits and overcoming the bias of
the first language (Cook, 1996, cited Gilakjani, 2012).
4
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
According to James (2010), cited Gilakjani (2012), a learner's
pronunciation has three basic levels: Level 1: People often do not understand what
the speaker is saying because of the wrong sounds. Level 2: People understand
what the speaker is saying, but the speaker's pronunciation is not pleasant to listen
to because he/she has a distracting and/or heavy accent. Level 3: People
understand the speaker, and the speaker's English is pleasant to listen to. Scovel
(1988) refers to this as comfortable intelligibility, and he suggests that this, rather
than native-like accuracy, should be the goal of pronunciation.
A learner will have acceptable pronunciation when other people can
understand what he/she says and the sounds are pleasant to be listened to. In other
words, the speaker is comfortably intelligible. Acceptable pronunciation is not the
same as having American or British accents. The learners' accents should be close
to a standard variety, because an accent that deviates too far from a recognized
standard has the risk of becoming distracting and unpleasant. Thus, learners do
not need to aim for a particular accent, but they do need to develop their own
accent as close as possible to the standard variety. If learners are far from the
standard, they sometimes will not communicate successfully. If they communicate
successfully, they will be judged negatively (James, 2010, cited Gilakjani, 2012).
In addition, Morley (1991) in Gilakjani (2012) states that the goal of
pronunciation should be changed from achieving perfect pronunciation to the
more realistic goals of developing functional intelligibility, communicability,
increased self-confidence. In other words, students need to master “good
pronunciation”, not perfect accents.
5
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
Based on some definition states by some experts above, it means that
pronunciation is a set of habits of producing sounds which can be achieved by
repeating and correcting if it is pronounced inaccurately. The main aim of
pronunciation is not having perfect pronunciation or being native-like
pronunciation, but having acceptable pronunciation which can be understood by
the listeners. To sum up, the purpose of pronunciation is to develop clear and
good pronunciation.
Teaching Pronunciation Using English Video to Young Learners
Considering the importance of pronunciation, teaching pronunciation
should be a priority because language is primarily a means of communication and
this communication should be understood by all. Teaching pronunciation becomes
crucial since this is the most important source of understanding.
To
gain
good
pronunciation
and
comfortable
intelligibility
of
pronunciation, EFL pronunciation teaching should cover both the segmental (the
English vowel and the English consonant sounds) and the supra-segmental as well
as the training of the speech organs, such as lips, teeth, alveolar ridge, palate,
tongue, vocal folds, ears, etc. The segmental includes vowel and consonant
sounds, preferably phonemes, as well as syllables. The treatment of the segmental
basically includes sound contrast in words, pronunciation of vowel, and consonant
phonemes. The supra-segmental covers stress in words and connected speech,
rhythm, pitch, loudness, length, quality, tone and intonation that play an essential
and natural role in English speech production and perception (Thompson &
Gaddes, 2005). Other than that, EFL pronunciation teaching should aim at
6
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
intelligible pronunciation, which is considered as the essential component of
communicative competence (Morley, 1991 in Thompson & Gaddes, 2005).
Therefore, having intelligible pronunciation which means that the pronunciation
can be clearly and easily understood by the listeners would be emphasized in this
study after the participants watched Sesame Street video several times.
One method to cover and gain the segmental and the supra-segmental, and
also comfortable intelligibility in pronunciation is by using English pronunciation
models in EFL teaching pronunciation. (James, 2010, in Gilakjani, 2012).
Exposure to real English pronunciation models, such as by watching English
video, can be a suitable and effective technique to help the learners acquire
intelligible pronunciation as well as watching CNN International or BBC. Using
English videos will be effective since it belongs to authentic audio-visual material
which refers to texts we encounter every day. In addition, English video will give
the students and teachers a very handy way of accessing English real life in the
classroom. For that reason, Sesame Street video was chosen to facilitate the
students have intelligible pronunciation by using English pronunciation models
and bring them into English real life in the classroom as well as to make the
students be familiar with the texts they come across every day.
According to Allan (1985, pp.48 – 49), in the context of EFL teaching,
English video can present realistic ‘slices of life’ which means video is a good
means of bringing ‘a slice of living language’ into the classroom, get students
talking, provide visual support, and offer variety and entertainment. With real
people and real setting in the production process, examples of language use in
7
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
videos are life-like. Audiences can see and listen to the communication between
people in videos which resembles actual communication processes in the real
world.
Furthermore, the benefit of using English video to teach pronunciation is
in the variety of voices and intonation since in a video there usually are a number
of actors, all with different voices, speaking with different dialects, or using
different intonation, which is always good for the learners to distinguish such
phenomena and be to able to understand it in order to master the language (Hrubý,
2010). Teaching and learning English pronunciation using English video will
benefit the students, especially primary students, in two ways. First, it re-affirms
to students that what they are learning in the classroom is actually used in the real
world, and it helps the students to gain confidence in using English when dealing
with real world situations as they have already been exposed to real English in the
classroom.
The video will provide young learners with real-life situation where
learners can really observe real native communication which covers the
pronunciation components, such as word stress, intonation, and even gestures
which will make great effect in learners’ pronunciation. The use of English video
with English subtitles is also a great help to students. Students will have the
opportunity to match speaking with the written language if they have problems
following fast native speakers’ speaking pace. Thus, English video, in this case
Sesame Street video, in drilling the beginner learners’ pronunciation will be used
to find out and prove whether videos can be really effective for primary students.
8
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
Previous Research on Teaching Pronunciation
Watching English video has been proven to improve the students’
pronunciation skill. A previous research done by Cenoz and Lecumberri (1996)
shows that listening to radio and TV, including ear training, was proven to
improve students’ pronunciation. De Bot’s finding (1983) also shows that learners
instructed with audio-visual feedback did significantly better. In addition,
Wijayanti (2010), in her case study toward two students of English Department in
Satya Wacana Christian University, also found that English movies help learners
pronounce English better. The score results of her case studies proved that after
the subjects watching English movie, their pronunciation significantly improved.
James (1976, pp. 227-243) mentioned that the best way to drill on
pronunciation – especially intonation, is by using an audiovisual representation of
the target speech (videos), including a feedback of the speakers’ imitations.
Teaching pronunciation by watching English video will help the students a lot
since it will provide paralinguistic information such as gestures, facial expression,
and mouth shape, videos rather than audio tapes give a timing framework for
speaking. (Kumai, 1996). Thus, by watching English videos, the learners will be
able to observe native speakers’ communication in a real-life language situation,
as well as imitating their pronunciation. This also belongs to the reason why the
writer was interested in seeing whether this phenomenon happens in the context of
the study.
Moreover, watching English video will help young learners to have nativelike accent and intelligible pronunciation since having the native-like accent and
9
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
intelligible pronunciation could still possible to the learners who acquire a second
language in early childhood than to individuals who start acquiring a second
language after early childhood (Derwing & Munro, 2005; Busà, 2008). However,
a native-like pronunciation is not necessarily to be obtained, as proposed by
Jenkins (2000, 2002), cited in Derwing & Munro (2005), still intelligible
pronunciation is needed to comprehend the meaning conveyed by the speaker.
Therefore, a drill on pronunciation is done by many researchers and would be
done in this study as well.
The Study
This study used a descriptive method which describes the students’
pronunciation development after watching Sesame Street video and was based on
case study held to seven students in grade five of SDN Karangjati 1 Blora.
Participants
The participants in this study were seven students in grade five of SDN
Karangjati 1 Blora, whose ages ranged from 9 to 11. Only seven out of twenty
four students were chosen to ease data analysis. The students had learnt English
since they were in the first grade of elementary school. They were randomly
selected from the list given by the teacher. The students chosen came from
different ability level. Different ability level is decided by looking at the English
grade in raport book.
Research Instrument
In conducting this research, the video of Sesame Street program was used
as the research instrument. The video was taken from Sesame Street website
10
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
(www.sesamestreet.org), entitled Carrier. The video had conversations between
two characters of Sesame Street program, Abby Cadabby and Sonia Sotomayor.
The duration of this video was one minute and forty one seconds. Sesame Street
video was chosen because it is a well-known program. Moreover, based on
interview conducted to some children, most children love it due to its funny
characters. Relating to pronunciation, the main reason in choosing Sesame Street
was that English pronunciation spoken in the video was intelligible. Intelligible
pronunciation means that the pronunciation is clear and easy to be understood by
the listeners. Furthermore, the language used and the topic conveyed was
appropriate for young learners.
Data Collection
The study aimed at investigating the pronunciation development after
watching the same video of Sesame Street several times. Thus, an observation
technique was adopted for this case study. Observation was chosen to get more
valid data about the students’ pronunciation development.
The treatment was held outside the school lesson hour. The observation
started with a pre-test in which the students were required to read a script of
Sesame Street without watching the video beforehand which can be seen in
Appendix 1. The students had to read aloud the script in pairs to enable their
pronunciation to be recorded. To check the students’ understanding of the script,
they had an opportunity to ask if they had any difficult words or idioms.
The pre-test was followed by five treatments. The five treatments were the
same. In each treatment, the students were asked to read the script again after they
11
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
watched the video three times. After one treatment, there was oral feedback given
to each student about his/ her pronunciation. In addition, while watching the
video, the students were asked to read the script as well.
The pre-test and the first treatment were done in one day, on March 9,
2013. The second treatment was done on March 15, 2013. The third and fourth
treatments were done on March 18, 2013. The fifth treatment was done on March
19, 2013. The time interval of each treatment was not too long to ensure that the
students still remember what they had learned on the previous meeting and also to
see the development of the students’ pronunciation if they watched English video
to gain better pronunciation.
In order to know students’ pronunciation development, the recordings
were analyzed. The analysis was done quantitatively by giving a score for each
recording of each student in each treatment. The score results were put into a table
and presented in a line graph. Thus, a line graph based on the scores was used to
describe and display the students’ pronunciation development.
Findings and Discussion
This section reports the findings of the study and discusses the results of
the observation presented in table and line graphs/ figures. The pronunciation
score of each participant was obtained by dividing the number of correct
pronunciation by the number of total words read. Then, the result was multiplied
by one hundred. The formula was presented below:
12
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
The first following sections present each student’s pronunciation.
Rexy’s Pronunciation
He is nine years old. He read Sonia’s part. His pre-test score was the
lowest among the others. His pronunciation was difficult to be understood because
of the wrong sounds. Based on James theory (2010, cited Gilakjani, 2012), Rexy’s
pronunciation was in level 1.
On the pre-test, there were 97 out of 122 words mispronounced and could
not be understood, 90 out of 122 words mispronounced in test 1, 82 out of 122
words mispronounced in test 2, 48 out of 122 words mispronounced in test 3, 35
out of 122 words mispronounced in test 4, and 30 out of 122 words
mispronounced in test 5. Thus, it can be concluded that there were less
mispronunciation words in the following test. There were some words that were
commonly mispronounced, though. Those words were I’m, we’re, train, and, on,
time, but, that, for, train, state, I, studied, and became mispronounced five times
during the pre-test to test 5; here, all, about, a carrier, that, prepare, fun, train,
and, prepare, for, can, to, be, scientist, united, I, went, school, law, then, and
judge mispronounced four times; hi, tell, plan, doing, a long, pretending, be, a,
princess, is, definitely, remember, you, do, time, school, a teacher, a lawyer, a
doctor, and engineer, even, supreme, court, justice, think, and great which
mispronounced three times.
Table 1. below shows Rexy’s pronunciation scores of pre-test to test 5.
Table 1. Rexy’s Pronunciation Scores of Pre-test to Test 5
Pre-test
Test 1
Test 2
Test 3
Test 4
Rexy
20
26
33
13
61
71
Test 5
75
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
Figure 1. below shows Rexy’s pronunciation scores of pre-test to test 5.
The line graph shows the progress of pronunciation scores achieved by Rexy.
Figure 1. Rexy’s Pronunciation Scores of Pre-test to Test 5
Rexy
71
75
61
33
20
PRE-TEST
26
TEST 1
TEST 2
TEST 3
TEST 4
TEST 5
Overall, the increase of Rexy’s pronunciation scores from pre-test to test 5
were excessively high. He had the highest progress score among his friends. In
percentage, the increase pronunciation score of Rexy’s from pre-test to test 5,
after watching Sesame Street video several times, was 275%.
Valen’s Pronunciation
He is ten years old. He read Abby’s part. His pre-test score was quite
good. Even though there were some mispronunciation, his pronunciation was
understandable. On the pre-test, there were 17 out of 67 words mispronounced
and could not be understood, 11 out of 67 words mispronounced in test 1, 6 out of
67 words mispronounced in test 2, 5 out of 67 words mispronounced in test 3, 3
out of 67 words mispronounced in test 4, and 2 out of 67 words mispronounced in
test 5. Thus, it can be concluded that there were less mispronunciation words in
the following test. However, there were some words that were commonly
mispronounced. Those words were princess and you’re which five times
14
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
mispronounced; kind which four times mispronounced; and right and guess which
three times mispronounced.
Table 2. below shows Valen’s pronunciation scores of pre-test to test 5.
Table 2. Valen’s Pronunciation Scores of Pre-test to Test 5
Pre-test
Test 1
Test 2
Test 3
Test 4
Valen
75
84
91
93
Test 5
96
97
Figure 2. below shows Valen’s pronunciation scores of pre-test to test 5.
The line graph shows the progress of pronunciation scores achieved by Valen.
Figure 2. Valen’s Pronunciation Scores of Pre-test to Test 5
Valen
93
96
97
84
91
75
PRE-TEST
TEST 1
TEST 2
TEST 3
TEST 4
TEST 5
In percentage, the increase pronunciation score of Valen’s from pre-test to
test 5, after watching Sesame Street video several times, was 29%.
Nadila’s Pronunciation
She is ten years old. She read Sonia’s part. She got the second lowest pretest score. On the pre-test, there were 51 out of 122 words mispronounced and
could not be understood, 42 out of 122 words mispronounced in test 1, 36 out of
122 words mispronounced in test 2, 15 out of 122 words mispronounced in test 3,
10 out of 122 words mispronounced in test 4, and 9 out of 122 words
mispronounced in test 5. Therefore, it can be inferred that there were less
15
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
mispronunciation words in the following test. There were some words that were
commonly mispronounced, though. Those words were were, here, that, I, united,
studied, and became which mispronounced five times during the pre-test to test 5;
prepare, time, a teacher, state, supreme, and then which mispronounced four
times; plan, what’s, be, fun, but, definitely, job, an engineer, even, justice, a judge,
think, and great which mispronounced three times.
Table 3. below shows Nadila’s pronunciation scores of pre-test to test 5.
Table 3. Nadila’s Pronunciation Scores of Pre-test to Test 5
Pre-test
Test 1
Test 2
Test 3
Test 4
Nadila
58
66
70
88
Test 5
92
93
Figure 3. below shows Nadila’s pronunciation scores of pre-test to test 5.
The line graph shows the progress of pronunciation scores achieved by Nadila.
Figure 3. Nadila’s Pronunciation Scores of Pre-test to Test 5
Nadila
66
70
TEST 1
TEST 2
88
92
93
TEST 3
TEST 4
TEST 5
58
PRE-TEST
The raising pronunciation score of Nadila’s from pre-test to test 5 were
quite significant. In percentage, the increase pronunciation score of Nadila’s from
pre-test to test 5, after watching Sesame Street video several times, was 60%.
16
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
Fian’s Pronunciation
He is ten years old. He read Abby’s part. His pre-test score was quite good
in which his pronunciation was understandable.
On the pre-test, there were 12 out of 67 words mispronounced and could
not be understood, 9 out of 67 words mispronounced in test 1, 6 out of 67 words
mispronounced in test 2, 5 out of 67 words mispronounced in test 3, 6 out of 67
words mispronounced in test 4, and 2 out of 67 words mispronounced in test 5.
From those facts, it can be assumed that there were less mispronunciation
words in the following test. However, in the fourth test, Fian’s mispronunciation
was increased. He just realized his mispronunciation after his voice was recorded.
Yet, after he got oral feedback about his wrong pronunciation words and watched
Sesame Street video again, his pronunciation was improved and his
mispronunciations were smaller in test 5.
Some words that were commonly mispronounced by Fian were right and
isn’t, which five times mispronounced; you're which four times mispronounced;
and have, guess, and kind which three times mispronounced.
Table 4. below shows Fian’s pronunciation scores of pre-test to test 5.
Table 4. Fian’s Pronunciation Scores of Pre-test to Test 5
Pre-test
Test 1
Test 2
Test 3
Test 4
Fian
82
87
91
93
91
Test 5
97
Figure 4. below shows Fian’s pronunciation scores of pre-test to test 5.
The line graph shows the progress of pronunciation scores achieved by Fian.
17
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
Figure 4. Fian’s Pronunciation Scores of Pre-test to Test 5
Fian
97
93
91
91
87
82
PRE-TEST
TEST 1
TEST 2
TEST 3
TEST 4
TEST 5
In percentage, the increase pronunciation score of Fian’s from pre-test to
test 5, after watching Sesame Street video several times, was 18%.
Ari’s Pronunciation
She is eleven years old. She read Sonia’s part. Her pre-test score was the
highest among the others. From the pre-test to test 5, Ari’s pronunciation score
was better. On the pre-test, there were 16 out of 122 words mispronounced and
could not be understood, 14 out of 122 words mispronounced in test 1, 11 out of
122 words mispronounced in test 2, 7 out of 122 words mispronounced in test 3, 4
out of 122 words mispronounced in test 4, and 1 out of 122 words mispronounced.
In test 5, Ari’s score was almost perfect. There was only one mispronunciation for
word became.
Some words that were commonly mispronounced were I’m and became
which mispronounced five times during the pre-test to test 5; even and a united
which mispronounced four times; here, pretending, definitely, think, and great
which mispronounced three times.
18
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
Table 5. below shows Ari’s pronunciation scores of pre-test to test 5.
Table 5. Ari’s Pronunciation Scores of Pre-test score to Test 5
Pre-test
Test 1
Test 2
Test 3
Test 4
Ari
87
89
91
94
Test 5
97
99
Figure 5. below shows Ari’s pronunciation score of pre-test to test 5 The
line graph shows the progress of pronunciation scores achieved by Ari.
Figure 5. Ari’s Pronunciation Scores of Pre-test to Test 5
Ari
99
97
94
91
89
87
PRE-TEST
TEST 1
TEST 2
TEST 3
TEST 4
TEST 5
In percentage, the increase pronunciation score of of Ari’s from pre-test to
test 5, after watching Sesame Street video several times, was 14%.
Adelia’s Pronunciation
She is nine years old. She read Abby’s part. Her pre-test score was quite
good. On the pre-test, there were 14 out of 67 words mispronounced and could not
be understood, 9 out of 67 words mispronounced in test 1, 11 out of 67 words
mispronounced in test 2, 5 out of 67 words mispronounced in test 3, 6 out of 67
words mispronounced in test 4, and 2 out of 67 words mispronounced in test 5.
From those facts, it can be assumed that there were less mispronunciation
words in the following test. However, in the second test, Adelia’s
mispronunciation was increased. As Fian, she just realized her mispronunciation
19
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
after her voice was recorded. Yet, after getting oral feedback about her wrong
pronunciation words and watched Sesame Street video again, Adelia’s
pronunciation was improved and there were less mispronunciation in test 3.
Some words that were commonly mispronounced were kind and which
mispronounced four times during the pre-test to test 5; I’m, you’re, right, guess,
really, isn’t, and I which mispronounced three times.
Table 6. below shows Adelia’s pronunciation scores of pre-test to test 5.
Table 6. Adelia’s Pronunciation Scores of Pre-test to Test 5
Pre-test
Test 1
Test 2
Test 3
Test 4
Adelia
79
87
84
94
Test 5
97
97
Figure 6. below shows Adelia’s pronunciation scores of pre-test to test 5.
The line graph shows the progress of pronunciation scores achieved by Adelia.
Figure 6. Adelia’s Pronunciation Scores of Pre-test to Test 5
Adelia
79
PRE-TEST
87
84
TEST 1
TEST 2
94
97
97
TEST 3
TEST 4
TEST 5
In percentage, the increase pronunciation score of Adelia’s from pre-test to
test 5, after watching Sesame Street video several times, was 23%.
Adela’s Pronunciation
She is ten years old. She read Abby’s part. Her pre-test score was quite
good. As Abby, Adela had the lowest mispronunciation than others during pre-
20
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
test, test 1, test 2, and test 5. On the pre-test, there were 10 out of 67 words
mispronounced and could not be understood, 6 out of 67 words mispronounced in
test 1, 2 out of 67 words mispronounced in test 2, and 1 out of 67 words
mispronounced in test 5.
Adela did not join the third and fourth test. However, when she joined the
last meeting, got oral feedback about her mispronunciation words in the previous
test, watched Sesame Street video, and did the last test, her pronunciation score
was better than test 2.
Table 7. below shows Adela’s pronunciation scores of pre-test to test 5.
Table 7. Adela’s Pronunciation Scores of Pre-test to Test 5
Pre-test
Test 1
Test 2
Test 3
Test 4
Adela
85
91
Test 5
97
99
Figure 7. below shows Adela’s pronunciation scores of pre-test to test 5.
The line graph shows the progress of pronunciation scores achieved by Adela
Figure 7. Adela’s Pronunciation Scores of Pre-test to Test 5
Adela
97
99
TEST 2
TEST 5
91
85
PRE-TEST
TEST 1
In percentage, the increase pronunciation score of Adela’s from pre-test to
test 5, after watching Sesame Street video several times, was 16%.
21
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
Discussion
After the participants’ pronunciation scores were obtained, the average
score from each test was calculated. By counting the averages of pre-test, test 1,
test 2, test 3, test 4, and test 5, it can be seen that the average score in each test
was getting better. From the average score of pre-test that was 69.43 increased to
75.71 in test 1, 79.57 in test 2, 87.17 in test 3, 90.67 in test 4 and 93.86 in test 5.
In percentage, the increase score from pre-test to test 5 was 35%. Table 8. below
shows the average pronunciation scores of pre-test to test 5.
Table 8. The Average Pronunciation Scores of Pre-test to Test 5
Pre-test
Test 1
Test 2
Test 3
Test 4
Average Score
69.43
75.71
79.57
87.17
90.67
Test 5
93.86
For better visualization, the progress of students’ pronunciation score is
presented in Figure 8. below. The line graph shows the progress of pronunciation
scores achieved by the students.
Figure 8. The Average Pronunciation Scores of Pre-test to Test 5
100
90
87.17
80
90.67
93.86
79.57
75.71
70
69.43
60
S
C
O
R
E
50
40
30
20
10
0
PRE-TEST
TEST 1
TEST 2
22
TEST 3
TEST 4
TEST 5
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
The line graph clearly shows the progress of students’ pronunciation
scores. It shows that the participants’ pronunciation increased from pre-test to test
5. It means that the students in this study appeared to gain better pronunciation
after they watched Sesame Street video. Even Rexy and Nadila’s pronunciation
scores increased significantly after watching Sesame Street video. Even though
there were some words mispronounced by the students, such as I’m, we’re, here, a
united, state, studied and became by Sonia, and you’re, right, guess, isn’t, and
kind by Abby, it can be interpreted that Sesame Street video helped primary
students to develop their pronunciation.
Conclusion and Recommendation
The aim of this research was to find out whether Sesame Street video
helped children to develop their pronunciation in English. In other words, this
research tried to answer the following question, Does Sesame Street video help to
develop the primary students’ pronunciation in learning English? Aside from the
number of mispronouncing words which still appeared in the last test, the analysis
of students’ pronunciation score shows that their pronunciation increased from
pre-test to test 5. Therefore, the answer is: yes, Sesame Street video helped to
develop primary student’s pronunciation in learning English.
Since this research is a case study which only consisted of small number of
the participants, the result cannot be over generalized. For other researchers who
are interested in similar topic, I would suggest to have more participants in the
23
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
research. They could also use group samples, e.g. one group of advance learners,
intermediate learners, and one group of beginner learners.
In addition, some recommendations are proposed to English teachers for
primary students. Teaching pronunciation to primary students using English
videos such as Sesame Street video can help students have clear and correct
pronunciation. If students still find difficulties in pronouncing words, the teacher
can ask the students to watch the video again and give them some feedback.
Watching English videos and giving feedback on students’ pronunciation will
help students to gain better pronunciation. To make the lesson more interesting,
the use of videos can be combined with other activities such as matching words
and pictures, doing crossword puzzles, filling missing letters of words, and so on.
24
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
References
Busà, M. G. (2008). New Perspectives in Teaching Pronunciation. Pp. 165 – 182.
Retrieved November 6, 2012, from http://www.openstarts.units.it/dspace/
bitstream/10077/2850/1/bus%C3%A0.pdf Publisher: EUT - Edizioni
Università di Trieste.
Cook, V. ( 1996). Second Language Learning and Language Teaching. London :
Arnold.
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&hl=id&sa=X&ei=GNi-UO-CLqXwmAWypoDYCA&ved=0CDYQ6AE
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De Bot, K. (1983). Visual feedback of intonation I: Effectiveness and induced
practiced behavior. Language and Speech, 26, 331-350.
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Gilakjani, A. P. (2012).The Significance of Pronunciation in English Language
Teaching. English Language Teaching, Vol. 5, No. 4, 96-107.
Gilbert, J. B. (2008). Teaching Pronunciation Using the Prosody Pyramid.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Goodwin, J. (2004). A technique for improving intelligibility Using Film Clips to
Teach Pronunciation. Retrieved November 2, 2012 from http://
www.international.ucla.edu/languages/lab/profiles/janetgoodwin/Goodwin
-usingfilmclips. pdf
Jenkins, J. (2000). The phonology of English as an international language.
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0TvHACfrUjEC&printsec=frontcover&hl=id#v=onepage&q&f=false
Jenkins, J. (2002). A Sociolinguistically–based, empirically–researched
pronunciation syllabus for English as an international language. Applied
Linguistics, 23, 83-103.
Kumai, W. N. (1996). Karaoke Movies: Dubbing Movies for Pronunciation.
Retrieved October 29, 2012 from http://www.jalt-publications.org/
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Mitra et.al, (2003). Improving English Pronunciation: An Automated Instructional
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Volume 1, No. 1, 75–84.
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Thompson, T. & Gaddes, M. (2005). Teaching Efl Pronunciation: Why, What and
How? Retrieved November 6, 2012 from http://www.articlesbase.com/
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.html
Wijayanti, D. A. L. (2010). Acquiring Pronunciation through English Videos.
Thesis, Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga, Indonesia.
N.D. Using authentic audio-visual materials in primary school English language
classrooms. Retrieved November 14, 2012, from http://www.edb.gov.hk/
FileManager/EN/Content_3853/engartifactevejune05.pdf
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The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
Acknowledgment
“And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”
(Matthew 21:22)
First and foremost, I wish to express my sincerest gratefulness to Jesus
Christ who gives me strength and answer to my prayer. My gratitude is expressed
to my supervisor, Prof. I. G. Gusti Astika, M.A., for all his comments, advice,
and correction for my thesis. My gratitude is also expressed to my examiner,
Sesilia Rani Setyo Sari, M.Hum., who spent her time to read and correct my
thesis. I would like to dedicate this thesis for my beloved family, my mother,
father, and my young sisters, for their love, prayers, and supports. My gratitude
also goes to all the participants for their time and cooperation. To Kak Lindung,
Ati, Kardia, Debora, Rista, Ani, Kak Debby, Inda, Lisa, Kak Dina, Murny,
and Mela thank you for the psychological support, friendship, and
kindheartedness during the time of writing this thesis and my study in this
university. Last but not least, my special gratefulness goes to Daniel, for being the
one who loves me, who supports me as always to finish this thesis, Thank you for
always motivating me “You can do and finish it!” God Bless You.
27
The Use of Sesame Street Program to Develop Pronunciation for Primary Students
APPENDIX 1
The Script of Sesame Street Video
“Carrier”
Sonia
Abby
Sonia
Abby
Sonia
:
:
:
:
:
Abby
Sonia
Abby
Sonia
:
:
:
:
Abby
Sonia
:
:
Abby
Sonia
Abby
Sonia
:
:
:
:
Abby
Sonia
:
:
Abby
Sonia
Abby
Sonia
Abby
Sonia
Abby
Abby and Sonia
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
Hi… I’m Sonia Sotomayor. (Rexy, Nadila, Ari)
And I’m Abby Cadabby. (Valen, Fian, Adelia, Adela)
And we’re here to tell you all about the word: “CARRIER”.
Yeach… “CARRIER”.
A carrier is a job that you train for and prepare for and plan
on doing for a long time.
Oooo….. I know what a carrier that I wanna have.
What’s that?
I wanna a carrier as a princess. CA…RRI….ER.
Abby, pretending to be a princess is fun. But it is definitely
not a carrier.
It’s not?
No. Remember, a carrier is a job that you train and prepare
for and that you plan to do for a long time.
Oo… You’re right. I guess a princess really isn’t a job.
No, it’s not.
Then what kind of carrier can a girl like me have?
Well, you can go to school and train to be: a teacher, a
lawyer, a doctor, an engineer, and even a scientist.
Wow! Do you have a carrier?
Yes, I do. I am a United State Supreme Court Justice. I
went to school and studied law and then became a judge.
Wow! That sounds important!
It is.
Okay. Then I know what carrier that I wanna have.
What’s that?
CA…RRI….ER. Order in that court.
O Abby, I think you make a great great judge
O, thank you.
CARRIER
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