A method of using a magnetostrictive material to achieve a high magnetomechanical coupling factor comprising building an internal anisotropy energy into the magnetostrictive material and applying a tensile or compressive stress to the magnetostrictive material with the built-in internal anisotropy energy. The internal anisotropy energy is built into the magnetostrictive material by annealing the magnetostrictive material under an annealing stress or a suitable magnetic field. For a positive magnetostrictive material, when the annealing stress is compressive, the stress applied to the annealed material under operation is tensile, and when the annealing stress is the tensile, the stress applied to the annealed material under operation is compressive. For a negative magnetostrictive material, when the annealing stress is compressive, the stress applied to the annealed material under operation is tensile, and when the annealing stress is tensile, the stress applied to the annealed material under operation is compressive.