An analysis of pronunciation materials and exercises in Rebecca M. Dauer’s Accurate English and its contribution for teaching pronunciation

The smallest unit of a language is the sound. Pronunciation is the way how sounds are produced. Pronunciation not only refers to the speech sounds in the mouth, but also stresses the way how sounds are noticed by hearing. In learning English, we must pay attention to pronunciation because it is an urgent aspect of each individuality. So, pronunciation in the second language curriculum is an integral part of oral communication. The objective of the research was to analyze in what aspects the pronunciation materials and exercises in Accurate English, A Complete Course in Pronunciation, written by Rebecca M. Dauer and published by Prentice Hall Regents, are appropriate in teaching pronunciation. In this research, the researcher used library research approach, which analyzed materials and exercises (textbook evaluation) or content analysis. The sources of data in this analysis were the pronunciation materials and exercises found in “Accurate English, a complete course in pronunciation written by Rebecca M. Dauer and published by Prentice Hall Regents.” The result of analysis shows that the aims of pronunciation materials in Accurate English are to support learning and teaching, as information for students, to support learning and teaching and to give influence on students’ understanding; the type of the pronunciation materials in Accurate English is published materials; there are several methods which the researcher considers should be used to teach the pronunciation materials in Accurate English text book. They are the silent way, audio lingual method, and communicative language teaching; there are clear teacher’s guides, and help on method activities, there are sufficient provision made for test and revision. It shows that the pronunciation materials in the text book are teachable; the levels of students’ understanding are various. They are elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels; the aims of pronunciation exercises in Accurate English are to follow-up of students' understanding, to measure students' skills, and to provide feedback and motivate students to study harder, especially in pronunciation; there are several exercises which apply the Controlled Exercise, while the other exercises which are apply the Guided Exercise; the characteristics of the pronunciation exercises in Accurate English are inputting material used in the task, roles of the participants, actions or what is to happen in the task, monitoring after actions, and outcomes as the goal of the task, feedback given as evaluation to participants; the language skills which are involved in Accurate English are all language skills; Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing; and most pronunciation exercises in Accurate English are appropriated with the pronunciation materials in the textboo