Electronic Theses and Dissertation

Researches on speaking skill development have suggested that teachers start to use minimal pair to improve sudents’ pronunciation. however, to use this technique requires motivation and creativity. therefore, this study attempted to improve the students’ pronunciation perfomance on expressing the idea on descriptive text specifically on describing animal. this study used speaking tests as the instrument, which are divided to pretest and post-test. the samples were the students from smpn 16 banda aceh, which consisted of 40 and divided into experimental class and control class. each classes consisted of 20 students that chosen randomly from three classrooms. the scores were tabulated statistically by using t-test. the result of hypothesis testing of this study showed that students’ pronunciation performance is significantly improved (8.28 t-count > 1.68 t-table). this technique improved students’ pronunciation in speaking the target language. it also improved students’ accuracy in speaking skill. furthermore, it could give positive reinforcement on listening skill by using audio repeatedly while learning within this technique. therefore, it is advised to use minimal pair as a technique in improving pronunciation. the study has demonstrated that the treatment activities have improved the students’ pronunciation and students’ interest to speak the target language.