THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING TED TALKS TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ PRONUNCIATION AT THE TWELFTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMK MUHAMMADIYAH WAY SULAN IN 2016-2017

Abstract

This research described the use of TED Talks to improve students’ pronunciation. Moreover, it was to find out
whether TED Talks is effective to improve students’ pronunciation at the twelfth grade students of SMK
Muhammadiyah Way Sulan. This research used experimental design in which attitudes were assessed both before
and after an experimental treatment. The subject of the research was consisted of 60 students, they were divided
into experimental and control group. The instruments used for collecting data were test which was consisted of
pretest and posttest. The data analysis of this research was attempted by using independent sample T-test which
was calculated through computing with Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20. The result
indicated that the students’ mean score of experimental and control group in posttest were significantly different.
It showed that t-count was higher than t-table (10,706 > 2,002) and the sig. 2-tailed value was lower than sig. level
(0.000 > 0.05). Therefore, the null hypothesis (Ho) was rejected and the alternative hypothesis (Ha) was accepted.
It meant that there was effective impact of using TED Talks towads students’ pronunciation. In conclusion, using
TED Talks as a media was effective to improve students’ pronunciation. Therefore, it was suggested the use of
TED Talks as a media in teaching English generally and teaching pronunciation particularly.