IMPROVING PRONUNCIATION BY USING READING ALOUD IN XI IPA 4 OF SMA NEGERI 2 BAE KUDUS IN ACADEMIC YEAR 2012/2013

Muflikhati, Sakinah. 2013. Improving Pronunciation by Using Reading Aloud in XI IPA 4 of SMA Negeri 2 Bae Kudus in Academic Year 2012/2013. Skripsi. English Education Department, Teacher Training and Education Faculty, Muria Kudus University. Advisor: (i) Fitri Budi Suryani, SS., M.Pd. (ii) Dr. Slamet Utomo, M.Pd. Keywords: Pronunciation, Reading Aloud Pronunciation is important in English as communication purpose. Because if we mispronounce a word, it will lead into misunderstanding. Unfortunately, some English learners think that basic vocabulary and grammar are enough to communicate with English native speakers. Therefore, the students of XI IPA 4 of SMA Negeri 2 Kudus in academic year 2012/2013 had problem in pronunciation. That was form the background of this research. Their pronunciation was not good but not very poor. That was shown from the pre-test result: 22.86% of the students got “Sufficient” score, while 77.14% of the students got “Fair” score. The purposes of this research are: (1) to find out if reading aloud can improve the pronunciation ability of the students of XI IPA 4 of SMA Negeri 2 Bae Kudus in academic year 2012/2013; (2) to describe the students’ response in reading aloud activities which are aimed to improve their pronunciation. This research is a Classroom Action Research (CAR). In 1 cycle of CAR consists of 4 steps: planning, acting, observing, and reflection. The subject of this research is the students of XI IPA 4 of SMA Negeri 2 Bae Kudus in academic year 2012/2013. And I use triangulation method as the data validity. Here I use 3 kinds of data collection methods: observation, test, and interview. After doing 2 cycles, I found that the students’ pronunciation improved in each cycle. In cycle 1, there were 2.86% of students who got “Sufficient” score, while in cycle 2 no one got “Sufficient” score (0%). The students who got “Fair” score also decreased from 57.14% in cycle 1 to 8.75% in cycle 2. On the other hand, the students who got “Good” score increased from 40% in cycle 1 became 48.57% in cycle 2. Also, no one of the students (0%) got “Excellent” score in cycle 1, but 42.86% of the students got “Excellent” score in cycle 2. Furthermore, from the observation result and the interview, there was improvement the students’ pronunciation in each cycle. So, from this research, I can conclude that reading aloud can help improving the pronunciation ability of the students of XI IPA 4 of SMA Negeri 2 Bae Kudus in academic year 2012/2013