USING THE ZUM HEUTIGEN AUSSPRACHE TRAINING (ZHA) TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ GERMAN PRONUNCIATION IN CONVERSATION COURSES

Dr. Dewi Kartika Ardiyani, M.Pd.

 In learning a foreign language, pronunciation has a vital role in the process of language interaction. Pronunciation can affect the meaning and success of communication. Based on a survey conducted at the German Department of the State University of Malang, pronunciation is one of the main difficulties for students in speaking German skills. Students have difficulty pronouncing some words in German because the pronunciation is unique and different from the student’s mother tongue. For this reason, specific strategies are needed so that students are helped to pronounce German vocabulary properly and correctly, one of which is the Zum heutigen Aussprachetraining (ZHA) strategy.

      This study aims to describe (1) the difficulties of PSPBJ students in speaking German, (2) the ZHA strategy to hone students’ German pronunciation, and (3) find out students’ perceptions of the ZHA strategy. The ZHA is held at the end of every lesson in the Conversation 2 course for the 2020/2021 academic year. This study uses a qualitative approach with voice and video recordings and an open questionnaire as a data collection instrument. The data of this research are the results of recordings of ZHA from students and lecturers and the results of an open questionnaire by students (to find out difficulties in speaking and students’ perceptions of ZHA). The data sources for this research are students who take the Konversation 2 course and their lecturers. The problem analysis was carried out in the odd semester of 2020-2021, while the ZHA strategy was implemented in the even semester of 2020-2021.

      The results of this study can be empirical data regarding students’ difficulties in speaking German, and the ZHA strategy can add alternative innovative learning models to hone German pronunciation in online learning, as well as students’ perceptions of ZHA. In addition, the results of this study are expected to be a reference for German language teachers in Indonesia in practising their students’ pronunciation. This research output is in the form of research articles published in indexed national journals and ZHA strategy intellectual property rights.