Articulatory Phonetic Drills: Tools in Enhancing the

Pronunciation among High School Students

Aida M. Udto

ABSTRACT
This study focused on vowels particularly the front vowel, central
vowel, back vowels and the diphthongs. The study aimed to assess
the phonetic capacities of the students leading to the creation of an
articulatory phonetic drill on vowels and diphthongs. It sought to help
the Grade 8 students, as respondents of this study to improve their
oral communication and reading comprehension skills to become
competitive learners.
Findings revealed that the respondents should have enough
speech oral drills on English language for them to be able to know
the distinction of the sounds of both languages to avoid inaccuracy.
Aside from this, the language teachers should allocate time to
teach pronunciation lessons to help students be more exposed to
the language and diagnose the students’ oral language proficiency
level to know which aspects of speech sounds that the students need
to improve. The study recommends among others, that the school
head also has a role where he/she can implement and organize
pronunciation skills programs to enhance students’ oral proficiency
as this will also lead to improved reading ability and comprehension
among students. Another aid that a school can do is to let the students
be exposed to a speech laboratory since it is where the students
can model proper pronunciation of sounds. In case of unavailability
of a speech laboratory, the teachers may provide audio lessons on
the Standard English pronunciation. When these things are done,
the problem that most of the language teachers’ encounter can be
aided leading to the total development and improvement of each and
individual learner.

KEYWORDS
Articulatory phonetic drills, pronunciation, high school students,
enhancing communication, and oral language proficiency
LAMDAG Journal of the Graduate School 2016, Vol. 7 No. 1
©2016 by the Capitol University Press
 LAMDAG Journal oof the Graduate School 2016 | 79

Introduction
Language is a distinct piece of the biological makeup of our
brains. It is a complex, specialized skill which developed in the child
spontaneously without conscious effort or formal instruction. It is also
deployed without awareness of its underlying logic, qualitatively the
same in every individual and is distinct from more general abilities to
process information or behave intelligently. Pinker (1994) claimed that
language has five defining characteristics: language as a set of sounds,
the connection between the sounds, language is systematic, language
is complete and language is a set of symbols.
These ideas also support the view on the two fundamental facts
about language. Chomsky (1970) upholds the following fundamental
fact. First, virtually every sentence that a person utters or understands
is a brand new combination of words. Therefore, a language cannot be
a repertoire of responses; the brain must contain a recipe or program
that can build an unlimited set of mental grammar which is just guide to
the written prose. The second fundamental fact is that children develop
this complex grammar rapidly and without formal instruction and grow
up to give consistent interpretations to novel sentence constructions
that they had never been encountered. Therefore, Chomsky argued
that children must innately be equipped with a plan common to the
grammars of all languages, a universal grammar, that distils them how
to trickle the syntactic patterns out of the speech of their parents.
Moreover, Chomsky (1988) testified that children’s language has
a mental grammar which made them capable of oral communication.
However, this mental grammar does not follow standards. Thus he argued
that it should be equipped with universal grammar. Standard English is
considered as a universal language and since it is a universal language, it
also has standard grammar to be followed. With its standard grammar,
every English language teacher can check on each learner whether they
follow its standard or not. This will also give gauge to every teacher to
determine the inaccuracies of the students. The teacher must also be
knowledgeable enough on the contents and the proper pronunciation
of each English speech phones. Learning the English language involves
not only the writing skills but more importantly on the communication
skills.
80 | Udto

Meanwhile, Brigham and Castillo (1994) argued that good

communication skill is essential for every student to develop to be able
to communicate thoughts and ideas effectively. However, language
instruction in the Philippines, both English and Filipino, emphasizes
mechanics, structures and rules of language, and neglects the more
important functional, creative and communication skills. It is also
important that students are not only aware of the grammatical structure
of the language but also on the correct production of sounds that form
a word. According to August (2008), a well-developed oral proficiency
is associated with well-developed reading comprehension skills and
writing skills in English. The skills in learning the English language are
all interrelated. When one is incapable of pronouncing a speech sound,
the word that a student might want to say will also be affected. As a
result, miscommunication may occur.
Aside from the effects of phonetic incapability, the reading
and writing comprehension is also affected. The lack of English
proficiency skills impedes students’ ability to high levels in text level
skills (August, 2008). In simpler terms, the text level skills involve
students’ reading comprehension and writing skills. A well-developed
reading comprehension and writing skills are associated with a well-
developed oral proficiency in English. Also Boyle et. al., (2000) said that
proficient readers are sufficiently familiar with a variety of genres and
text structures to use this knowledge for predicting and confirming
meaning across sentences, paragraphs, passages that comprise a text.
They further contend that knowledge of text structures results from
reading a variety of texts in English, and from explicit instruction on text
structures.
On the other hand, Weaver (1994) believed that the educators
agree that children learning to read texts written in English need to
learn that there are relationships between letter patterns and sound
patterns in English, and they need to develop the ability to relate letter
patterns to sound patterns. This idea implied that knowing the sound
patterns in English well greatly contribute to the ability of children to
read. With continuous exposure to a language, a child can speak even
without the right education. Though a child can speak even without the
right education, the content or grammar of what the child is speaking
may not follow the correct grammar of Standard English. It is important
 LAMDAG Journal oof the Graduate School 2016 | 81

then that a learner should be exposed to the corresponding rules of

the English language since it is the universal language especially that
English is not their first language.
This study is anchored on Lev Vygotsky’s theory of social interaction
which also intertwines with Stephen Krashen’s input hypothesis.
Vygotsky’s theory of social interaction plays a fundamental role in the
development of cognition.
Vygotsky (1978) states that every function in the child’s cultural
development appears twice: first, on the social level, and later, on the
individual level; first, between people (interpsychological) and then
inside the child (intrapsychological).
In Stephen Krashen’s input hypothesis, language acquisition takes
place during human interaction in an environment of the foreign
language when the learner receives language ‘input’ that is one step
beyond his/her current stage of linguistic competence.
The study sought to provide important information in creating,
developing and implementing articulatory phonetic drills on vowels
and diphthongs in enhancing the English oral language proficiency level
of grade 8 students. Thus, this study would be very significant to the
following: First, the administrators who can help design and implement
better curriculum which would enhance the oral language proficiency
of students. Next, the teachers can already address the specific needs
of students leading to the development of each individual learner.
Third, the students will be helped to positively improve and become
effective in terms of oral language proficiency of the students. It will
also help the learners improve their learning ability especially in reading
comprehension and oral communication.
Finally the future researchers may use this as their basis for further
studies specifically in implementing the articulatory phonetics in
teaching with emphasis on the vowels and diphthongs to enhance the
English oral language proficiency skills among students.
The study primarily focused on finding the articulatory problems of
the students, particularly on:
1) What is the socio-demographic profile of the respondents?
2) What are the levels of oral language proficiency of the students
considering:
2.1 Front vowels;
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2.2 Central vowels;

2.3 Back vowels and
2.4 Diphthongs?
3) Is there a significant difference between the pre-test and the
post-test of the experimental and the controlled group?
4) What module can be developed to improve the pronunciation
skills of the respondents?

Methods
This study made use of the quasi-experimental design of research.
There were two groups of respondents in the study with 25 students in
each group --- the control group which was not given an intervention
and the experimental group which was given the intervention.
A language test tool was used in this study to assess the current
oral language proficiency level of students on their skills of pronouncing
the vowels and diphthongs. This language test was adapted by the
researcher from the individual performance survey on vowels and
diphthongs by books of Abrera (2015) and Hurtado. The articulatory
phonetic drill on vowels and diphthongs instrument was used to test
the effectiveness of the drill to the improvement of the respondents’
oral communication skills particularly the experimental group. It is
composed of drills and practices such as words, phrases, sentences and
minimal pairs which were orally conducted by the teachers.
Respondents were surveyed based on their socio-demographic
profile. The respondents’ responses were classified to find answer
to the socio-demographic profile of the respondents particularly the
gender, age, address, educational background of parents and their
economic status.
Second, a pre-test on the two groups – controlled and experimental
were done orally. Every response of the students in the language test
was classified according to the following scales and indicators which
are; below basic (1), below proficiency (2), proficient (3) and very
proficient (4).
Third, the result of each student’s response on every vowel and
diphthongs was computed using the weighted mean.
Fourth, an intervention in the experimental group was conducted
to improve students’ speaking skills particularly on the vowels and
 LAMDAG Journal oof the Graduate School 2016 | 83

diphthongs
And fifth, after the intervention in the experimental group, a post
test was conducted orally to the two groups using the same instruments
used during the pre-test.
To determine the oral language proficiency level of the respondents,
a pre-test and post-test were conducted. The assessment procedure on
the pre-test and post-test were the following: First, each respondent
was asked to read the words, phrases, sentences and minimal pairs
orally. Second, the assessment on the students’ oral performance was
based on the following indicators: below basic, below proficiency,
proficient and very proficient. Third, the indicators were classified and
determined based on the rubrics prepared for the oral language test
assessment on vowels and diphthongs. And fourth, the overall oral
language proficiency of the respondents was determined through the
weighted mean average.
Aside from the weighted mean average which was used to identify
the oral language proficiency of the students, a frequency distribution
was also utilized to know the socio-demographic profile of the
respondents. The t-test for equal group was also employed to know the
significant difference of the pretest and the posttest of the groups with
and without an intervention.

Distribution of the Respondents of the Study

No. of Students
Name of Section Group Treatment
per Section
Grade 8 – Charity 25 Experimental
Grade 8 - Humility 25 Controlled
Total 50

Discussion

On Socio-demographic Profile of the Respondents

Table 1 below shows the frequency distribution according to the
age of the respondents. It indicates that out of the 50 respondents,
19 or 38% is in age 13 which shows the highest percentage. With the
second to the highest percentage is the age 14 which is 16 or 32 % of
84 | Udto

the total respondents. Among the 50 respondents, only 2 or 4 % of the

students are at the age 16 which is already advance to the typical age
of Grade 8 students.

Table 1
Frequency Distribution According to Age
Age Frequency %
13 19 38 %
14 16 32 %
15 13 26 %
16 2 4%
Total 50 100%

The data implied that most of the respondents have started at the
right age for their schooling. According to Guasti (2002), acquiring a
language (native or foreign) is a natural achievement for children and
becomes more difficult as one becomes older and there is a critical
period during which the ability to acquire the language competence
reaches its peak, and after which this ability declines.
The relationship between age and pronunciation give advantage to
adults. Stern (1976), believes that adult cognitive ability to reason
is more important than advantages children appear to have in
pronunciation. Pinker (1994) stresses that language has five defining
characteristics: language as a set of sounds, the connection between the
sounds, language is systematic, language is complete and language is a
set of symbols. Language is also a distinct piece of the biological makeup
of our brains. It is a complex, specialized skill which developed in the
child spontaneously without conscious effort or formal instruction. It is
also deployed without awareness of its underlying logic, qualitatively
the same in every individual and is distinct from more general abilities
to process information or behave intelligently. There is an advantage for
adults believing that the hierarchical nature of process would be
more easily understood by mature adults rather than by children
(Asher and Price, 1967).
 LAMDAG Journal oof the Graduate School 2016 | 85

Table 2
Frequency Distribution According to Gender
Gender Frequency %
Male 19 38 %
Female 31 62 %
Total 50 100 %

Table 2 shows that 31 or 62% of the respondents were mostly

female. It had 11 or 22% higher in number over the male respondents.
There are 19 or 38% male respondents of the study. Gender is the
category of the respondents according to their perceived differences
and environments. This category does not directly contribute to the
students’ difficulties and inaccuracies in pronouncing the vowels and
consonants, but one of the important factors to consider for the profile
of the respondents.

Table 3
Frequency Distribution According to Ethnicity
Ethnicity Frequency %
Higaunon 42 84 %
Talaandig 4 8%
Boholano 2 4%
Cebuano 2 4%
Total 50 100 %

Table 3 presents the ethnicity of the respondents. Ethnicity is
the cultural group where every respondent belongs and practices
traditionally. Out of 50 respondents, 42 or 84% were from the Higaunon
tribe. It is the tribe that has a great number of respondents since the
locale of the study is dominated by the Higaunons. Only 4 or 8% of
the respondents belong to the Talaandig tribe, another local tribal
group in the province of Bukidnon. Coming from the neighboring
provinces are the Cebuano and Boholano group. It only has 2 or 4%
of the total population of the respondents. These respondents are
sons or daughters of migrants who chose to settle in the locality for
employment or economic development since there are a lots of manual
86 | Udto

labor opportunities in the locality.

These imply that learners are mostly native speakers of Higaunon
language. There are differences of the native language to the English
language particularly on sounding out the vowels and diphthongs.
There are a lot of sounds in the English language that a learner must
learn to be able to perfectly pronounce words well leading to a better
and well-developed reading comprehension skills.
Hakuta, Butler & Witt (2000) remarked that developing
proficiency in second language is a complex process, and one that
takes considerable time. Estimates vary, but some research suggests
that oral proficiency takes 3 to 5 years to develop and that academic
English proficiency may take 4 to 7 years. Genesee et. al., (2005) further
implied that what matters in the process depends upon the learner’s
stage of development, but experts agree that the nature and quality
of instruction provided to English language learners are significant
factors in their developing literacy. Jimenez 2005) states that every
language origin has its own sets of symbols, own way of pronouncing
these symbols and its own way of uttering the stress and intonation of
each language. It is empirical then that learners learning the English
language as their second language are having difficulty in enunciating
the sounds of the English language. Thus, drills and practices on the
target language of these students are very necessary to enable them to
improve their speaking skills.

Table 4
Frequency Distribution According to Parents’ Educational Background
Fathers Mothers
Educational Level
Frequency % Frequency %
College Graduate 0 0% 0 0%
College Level 2 4 % 4 8%
High School Graduate 7 14 % 10 20 %
High School Level 12 24 % 15 30 %
Elementary Graduate 9 18 % 8 16 %
Elementary Level 20 40 % 12 24 %
No Basic Education 0 0% 1 2 %
Total 50 100 % 50 100 %
 LAMDAG Journal oof the Graduate School 2016 | 87

Table 4 manifests the parents’ educational background of the

respondents. It presents that out of 50, 20 or 40 % of the respondents’
fathers had attained the elementary level of education. Only 9 or 18 %
had graduated from elementary and 12 or 24 % reached high school
level. There are 7 or 14 % of the respondents’ father graduated in
elementary and 2 or 4 % attained the college level. None was able to
graduate in college among the fathers of the respondents.
Furthermore, the mothers’ educational background with the
highest percentage showed that 15 or 30 % were able to attain the high
school level. It also showed that 10 or 20 % were able to graduate in
high school and 8 or 16 % graduated in elementary. None was able to
graduate in college, but there are 4 or 8 % were able to reach college
level. It further showed that 1 or 2 % had no basic education and 12 or
24 % were in the elementary level of education.
The table 4 presents a parallel result on the educational background
of the respondents’ parents. None among the parents were able to
graduate in college. The data imply that most of the parents are in the
category of high school or elementary level. This indicates the most of
the parents can acquire jobs as laborers or skilled workers. As supported
by the economic status survey among the respondents, majority among
the respondents are in the lower class. This further implies that the
parents’ financial support among their children is limited especially
in their children’s education. The result of the parents’ educational
background indicates that parents are less knowledgeable in the
lessons that their children are undertaking. As a result, the students
may not be able to ask for assistance to their parents when it comes to
their studies.
According to the study of Prozanto (2010), the more educated
parents are, the better educated children. He further reiterated that
the link between parental education and children’s education are huge.
Increasing education today would lead to an increase in the schooling
of the next generation and, in this way, to an improvement of later
life outcomes such as health, productivity and wealth.
Education plays a great role in the improvement on the lives of
every individual. It helps mitigate poverty which is the primary cause
of low income among families. The effect of parents’ low educational
88 | Udto

attainment towards their family particularly on the education of their

children is great that sometimes it can hinder their children’s education.
Sometimes, it also gives inspiration to every learner to pursue their
studies and later the dreams that they want to achieve in the future.

Table 5
Frequency Distribution of Respondents according to Economic Status
Economic Status Frequency Distribution %
High Class 0 0%
Middle Class 2 4 %
Lower Class 48 96 %
Total 50 100 %

Table 5 presents the frequency distribution of respondents’

according to their economic status as high, middle and lower class. It
presents that the respondents are highly classified under the lower
class with 48 or 96 % of the population and only 2 or 4 % belong to
the middle class. The middle classification of economic status is the
social class with average incomes. It is the section of society between
the poor and the wealthy which includes the business and professional
people and skilled workers. Only very few from the respondents belong
to this classification. It is very certain that their parents are skilled
workers and not the business or professional people as supported by
the educational background from the above table.
Given the highest percentage of 96 % is the lower classification of
economic status. This is considered to occupy the lowest hierarchical
society. These families are typically composed of manual workers. As
supported by the above table on the educational background of the
parents, most of their parents are in the elementary and high school
level in their education. Moreover, among the 50 respondents, 24 or 48
% are beneficiary of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or (4P’s).
The beneficiaries of this program are those families whose father and
mother do not have dependable income. There is also minimal support
to their children’s’ education, since most of the respondents’ families
has 3 to 6 siblings.
 LAMDAG Journal oof the Graduate School 2016 | 89

The Oral Language Proficiency Level

Table 6 exhibits the pre-test result of oral language proficiency of
the Grade 8 students in the controlled and experimental group. Each
classification has a total number of 30 items with a general sum of 120
items. The controlled front vowel classification on the pre-test reveals a
lowest score in all the criteria. It had a score of 18 or a mean average of
2.38 which was classified under below proficiency. It had a difference of
0.8 in the pre-test of experimental group on the same classification.
The central vowel sound which is composed of five vowels had
a mean average of 1.52 or a score of 46 classified under below basic
for the controlled and a score of 71 or a mean average of 2.36 for the
experimental. It shows that the experimental group for this specific
classification shows a higher score of 25 from the controlled group. The
back-vowel sound shows a score of 61 or mean of 2.05 for the controlled
group and a score of 74 or 2.47 mean from the experimental both are
interpreted as below proficiency. The diphthongs reveal a score of 68 or
2.27mean with a verbal interpretation of below proficiency and 76 or
2.55 in the experimental group interpreted as proficient.

Table 6
Levels of Oral Language Proficiency of the Controlled and
Experimental Group during Pre-test
No. Control Group Experimental Group
of Pre-test Pre-test
Classification
Items Verbal Verbal
Score Mean Score Mean
Description Description
Front Vowel Below Below
30 18 2.38 69 2.30
Sounds Proficiency Proficiency
Central Vowel Below
30 46 1.52 Below Basic 71 2.36
Sounds Proficiency
Back Vowel Below Below
30 61 2.05 74 2.47
Sounds Proficiency Proficiency
Below
Diphthongs 30 68 2.23 76 2.55 Proficient
Proficiency
Below Below
Total 120 193 2.05 239 2.42
Proficiency Proficiency

Generally, the weighted mean average of the controlled group during

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the pretest resulted to a verbal description of below proficiency which

is also the result of pretest in the experimental group. The experimental
group reveals a mean difference of .37 from the controlled group. The
controlled and experimental groups show the same result in the front
and back vowel sound which is below proficiency. The groups differ in
the central vowel which is below basic for the controlled and below
proficiency in the experimental group. They also vary in the diphthongs
which show that the controlled group is below proficiency and the
experimental group is proficient.
Every language origin has its own sets of symbols, own way of
pronouncing these symbols and its own way of uttering the stress and
intonation of each language. It is empirical then that learners learning
the English language as their second language are having difficulty in
enunciating the sounds of the English language. However, Jimenez
(2005) remarks that specific practices related to literacy include
actively valuing the students’ home language and culture, providing
multicultural and multilingual literature, and being aware of English
language learners’ different meanings and uses of literacy. He further
explains that effective literacy teachers of English language learners
must understand that their students want and need to be literate to
contribute to the needs of their families and communities.

Table 7
Levels of Oral Language Proficiency of the Controlled and Experimental
Group during Posttest
Controlled Group Experimental Group
No. Posttest Posttest
Criteria of
Items Verbal Verbal
Score Mean Description Score Mean Description
Front Vowel 30 19 2.55 Proficient 105 3.49 Proficient
Sounds
Central Vowel 30 65 2.16 Below 96 3.19 Proficient
Sounds Proficiency
Back Vowel 30 65 2.21 Below 107 3.55 Very
Sounds Proficiency Proficient

Diphthongs 30 68 2.27 Below 96 3.21 Proficient

Proficiency

Total 120 218 2.30 Below 325 3.36 Proficient

Proficiency
 LAMDAG Journal oof the Graduate School 2016 | 91

Table 7 manifests the levels of oral language proficiency of the

experimental group and the controlled group. The controlled group
receives the usual way of teaching pronunciation and the experimental
group was given an intensive articulatory phonetic drill for two weeks
given 2 hours per day. The posttest result in the front vowel sound of
the controlled group shows that a score of 19 or a mean of 2.55and a
score of 105 or 3.49 mean average both are classified under proficient
were attained by the experimental group.
The central vowel sound in the controlled group shows a score of 65
or 2.16 mean average classified as below proficiency and 96 or a mean
of 3.19 in the experimental group classified as proficient. The posttest
result of the experimental group in the back-vowel sound reveals a score
of 107 or a mean score of 3.55 classified as very proficient and a score
of 66 or a mean score of 2.21 for the controlled group still classified
under below proficiency. The diphthongs show no improvement in the
level of proficiency which is below proficiency during the posttest of
the controlled group, but the experimental group has maintained its
level of proficiency which is proficient. As an overall result, there is a
mean difference of 1.06 in the posttest of the experimental from the
controlled group.
The controlled group which was given the usual exposure of learning
the sounds of vowels and diphthongs has a very minimal progress in the
means and scores of the individual performance of every respondent.
This lack of improvement in the posttest gives an implication that the
deficiency of students in the target speech sounds was not addressed.
It is essential that the identified inaccuracies of students should be
addressed to be able to have improvements in the target area for
improvement.
In this light, Fraser (1999), learners are very unlikely to attain a
native-like accent - but their intelligibility can be greatly improved by
effective pronunciation teaching. An intensive teaching on pronunciation
contributes a lot to the improvement in pronunciation though students
are not expected to be native-like speakers, but at least they will be able
to pronounce and enunciate the sounds properly. He further added
that pronunciation is not just a cognitive ‘knowing-that’, it is also a
physical ‘knowing-how’, similar to playing a sport or musical instrument.
92 | Udto

Learners need motivation and time to practice pronunciation. It is also

very essential for the teachers to know the learners’ ideas on what is
involved in learning pronunciation. In this case, the teachers play a very
important role in the learning of the students especially in pronunciation
as this will lead to better and comprehensive communication and some
well-developed communicative skills.
The posttest result in the experimental group shows an increase
after the conduct of the articulatory phonetic drill intervention. The
two-week intensive articulatory phonetic intervention has enhanced
the proficiency level of the respondents. Given the result during the
pretest, the researcher has identified the precise English speech sounds
that the respondents find most difficult and mistakenly pronounced. As
a result, the researcher has developed a module which addresses the
sounds which students need to improve.
Fraser (1999) also suggested that a learner-centered approach
encourages the use of naturalistic exercises and practice of real
communicative situations. She added that classes must be learner-
centered in the sense that learners should be able to practice speech
that will be directly useful to them in their real lives. She further states
that the basis of all classroom exercises should be phrases and sentences
in the context of the larger structures of communicative language use.
Though learner-centered classroom is encouraged in teaching and
learning pronunciation, guidance from the teacher is still very essential.
For instance, a student who has just been corrected will probably be
able to imitate the teacher’s pronunciation of a word immediately
afterwards. However, the chances are that the next time the student
needs to use the word, they will produce it incorrectly, as they had
done before. Thus, constant practice and intensive training on the
English speech sounds is necessary to enable learners to learn and
remember the sounds.

Importance of Articulatory Phonetic Intervention

The two – tailed t-test statistical tool for equal groups shows the
results of the control and experimental group. Table 10 shows the
significant difference of the controlled and the experimental group.
The significant difference was tested using the t-test for equal groups
at 0.05 level of significance. It revealed that the control group with 25
 LAMDAG Journal oof the Graduate School 2016 | 93

respondents has a pretest mean score of 247. The pretest score differs
largely on the posttest result which is 276 and gives the difference
of 29. The t – test computation of pretest and posttest in the control
group resulted to 0.34 which is much lower than the t critical of 2.447
by 2.107 differences. This data result is interpreted as not significant
which means that the absence of intensive phonetic intervention lead
to a low or no improvement to the performance of the learners. The
experimental group shows a result of 290 mean score in the pretest and
404 in the posttest which gave a high difference of 114. The computed t
has a result of 8 which is much higher than the t critical value of 2.447.
The computed t result is interpreted as significant. Hence, there is a
significant difference on the pretest and the posttest of the controlled
and experimental group.

Table 8
Significant Difference of the Controlled and Experimental Group
Mean Scores Verbal
No. of Re- Computed
Group Interpre-
spondents Pre-test Post-test t 0.05
tation
Control Group Not Signifi-
25 247 276 0.34
(without intervention) cant
Experimental Group
25 290 404 8 Significant
(with intervention)
df= 8-1=6 0.05= 2.447

The result suggested that there is a great advantage and positive
improvement to the learning of the students when given the exact and
proper intervention to the target language to be learned. The phonetic
intervention is composed of words, phrases and sentences which
are uttered by the students. Given the result, it further implies that
students can acquire learning and model proper pronunciation through
drills and practices.
The pre-test result on the respondents’ oral language test shows low
level of proficiency. After determining the respondents’ oral language
proficiency, the researcher develops an enhanced module on vowels
and diphthongs. The module is developed to help learners in enhancing
their pronunciation skills especially on the sounds of English. It focuses
94 | Udto

on the vowels and diphthongs as these are the basic sounds that
embody the words in the English language. The module contains drills
on the vowels which are classified into front, central and back vowels
and the three basic sounds of diphthongs [aI], [ƆI] and [aƲ]. To enable
the learner to better pronounce each sound, a drill which composes
words, phrases, minimal pairs and sentences shall be presented.
Brigham and Castillo (1994) pointed out that good communication
skill is essential for every student to develop to be able to communicate
thoughts and ideas effectively. Good communication skill is essential
for every student to develop to be able to communicate thoughts and
ideas effectively. It is also important that students are not only aware
of the grammatical structure of the language but also on the correct
production of sounds that form a word. According to August (2008),
a well-developed oral proficiency is associated with well-developed
reading comprehension skills and writing skills in English. The skills in
learning the English language are all interrelated.

Conclusion and Implications

Generally, the results of the study show that the socio-demographic
profile of the respondents revealed that majority were female with
the highest percentage under the age of 13years old. Most of the
respondents were belong to the Higaunon tribe since the locale of the
study was dominated by the Higaunons. Majority of the respondents
belong to the Higaunon tribe who also speak the tribe’s native language
which has a distinct way of pronouncing the vowels and diphthongs so
does the stress and intonation. Almost all the respondents belong to the
lower class and only two belong to the middle class in their economic
status.
Moreover, the students’ level of oral language proficiency showed
that the controlled and experimental group have low oral language
proficiency level in pronouncing the vowels and diphthongs during
the pre-test. The post-test result showed that the controlled group has
remained under below proficiency in their oral language proficiency
and during the post-test, the experimental group with articulatory
phonetic intervention showed that there was an increase in the level of
proficiency after the conduct of the intervention program.
The significant difference of the controlled and experimental group
 LAMDAG Journal oof the Graduate School 2016 | 95

during the pre-test and the post-test was also tested using the t-test for
equal groups. Findings disclosed that there was a significant difference
to the two groups during the pre-test and the post-test. To support the
importance and effects of articulatory phonetic drills, a module was
developed to improve and be given intent focus on the pronunciation
skills of the students. The enhanced module on articulatory phonetic
drills was developed by the researcher which focused on vowels and
diphthongs. The module was developed to help learners in enhancing
their pronunciation skills especially on the sounds of English. The module
contained drills on the vowels which were classified into front, central
and back vowels and the three basic sounds of diphthongs. To enable
the learner to better pronounce each sound, a drill which composes
words, phrases, minimal pairs and sentences shall be presented. It
is further concluded that the Articulatory phonetic drills on vowels
and diphthongs help improved the students’ pronunciation skills and
increased their oral language proficiency level. Thus, the Articulatory
phonetic drills on vowels and diphthongs help improved the students’
pronunciation skills and increased their oral language proficiency level.
It is then concluded that most of the students belong to the
Higaunon tribe who use the native language, they must also practice
the English language and know the distinction of the sounds of both
languages to avoid inaccuracy. Aside from this, the language teachers
should allocate time to teach pronunciation lessons to help students
be more exposed to the language and diagnose the students’ oral
language proficiency level to know which aspects of speech sounds that
the students need to improve.
The school head also has a role where he/she can implement
and organize pronunciation skills programs to enhance students’
oral proficiency as this will also lead to improved reading ability and
comprehension among students. Another aid that a school can do is
to let the students be exposed to a speech laboratory since it is where
the students can model proper pronunciation of sounds. In case of
unavailability of a speech laboratory, the teachers may provide audio
lessons on the Standard English pronunciation. When these things are
done, the problem that most of the language teachers’ encounter can
be aided leading to the total development and improvement of each
and individual learner.
96 | Udto

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