The Effect of ELSA Speak Application on Elementary Students' English Pronunciation Proficiency

Abstract

Mastering English pronunciation is a significant challenge for elementary school students due to the differences between the English and Indonesian sound systems, as well as the limited availability of interactive learning media. This study aims to determine the effect of the ELSA Speak application on students' pronunciation proficiency in English learning at SDN 199/II Koto Jayo. The study used a quantitative pre-experimental approach with a one-group pre-test post-test design on 20 fifth-grade students. Data were collected through oral tests on the topic of “Clothes” and analyzed using the normality test, hypothesis test, and effect size test. The results showed that the ELSA Speak application had a significant effect on students’ pronunciation proficiency. The average score increased from 42.80 (in the very poor category) to 79.50 (in the good category), representing a 36.7-point increase. The Wilcoxon Signed Rank test showed a significance value of <0.001 (p<0.05), which means that H₀ was rejected and Hₐ was accepted. All students experienced an increase without any decrease. The effect size test yielded a value of r = 0.879 (considered a large effect according to Cohen), indicating that ELSA Speak has a substantial practical impact on improving the pronunciation proficiency of fifth-grade students.