ENGLISH VOWEL SOUND MISPRONUNCIATIONS … · Hal tersebut terjadi karena kata-kata dalam Bahasa Inggris dilafalkan berbeda dari ejaan mereka. Oleh karena itu, peneliti melakukan penelitian

i

ENGLISH VOWEL SOUND MISPRONUNCIATIONS

PRODUCED BY INDONESIAN NATIVE SPEAKERS

IN SMP KRISTEN KALAM KUDUS YOGYAKARTA

A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

By

Audy Kristian Susanto

121214059

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

DEPARTEMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION

FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

2017

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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iii


iv

STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY

I honestlty declare that this thesis, which I have written, does not contain the work

or parts of the work of other people, except those cited in the quotations and the

references, as a scientific paper should.

Yogyakarta, 11 July 2017

The Writer


121214059


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LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN

PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:

Nama : Audy Kristian Susanto

Nomor Mahasiswa : 121214059

Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan

Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:

ENGLISH VOWEL SOUND MISPRONUNCIATIONS

PRODUCED BY INDONESIAN NATIVE SPEAKERS

IN SMP KRISTEN KALAM KUDUS YOGYAKARTA

beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian, saya memberikan

kepada Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam

bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan

secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di internet atau media lain untuk

kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu minta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan

royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.

Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya.

Dibuat di Yogyakarta

Pada tanggal: 11 Juli 2017

Yang menyatakan,



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ABSTRACT

Susanto, Audy Kristian. (2017). English Vowel Sound Mispronunciations

Produced By Indonesian Native Speakers in SMP Kristen Kalam Kudus

Yogyakarta. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program,

Department of Language and Arts Education, Faculty of Teachers and Education,

Sanata Dharma University.

In Indonesia, English is one of the subjects taught at school. As non-native

English speaker who learns English as foreign language, Indonesian native

speakers often find a difficulty in pronunciation. The reason is mostly because

English words are pronounced differently from their spelling. Therefore, the

researcher conducted this study to help Indonesian native speakers understand

more about the problem that occurs when Indonesian native speakers try to

pronounce English words.

The research was conducted in SMP Kristen Kalam Kudus Yogyakarta. There

were two formulated problems for this research. The first formulated problem

asked about the of vowel sound errors made by Indonesian native speakers in

SMP Kristen Kalam Kudus Yogyakarta. The second formulated problem asked

about the causes of those pronunciation errors.

This research was conducted by using qualitative research. For the purpose of

this study, this research was conducted by interviewing 22 students from SMP

Kristen Kalam Kudus Yogyakarta. Interview was used as an instrument for this

research. The interview consisted of two sessions. The first session was used to

answer the first formulated problem. The second session was used to answer the

second formulated problem.

Based on the data analysis, the researcher found that most of the students‟

vowel sound errors were made because they used the wrong vowel sound. Other

students‟ vowel sound errors are leaving sound out and putting the stress in the

wrong syllable. Meanwhile, the causes for the pronunciation errors can be linked

towards the students‟ native language, amount of exposure, phonetic ability, and

motivation and concern for good pronunciation.

Keywords: vowel sound, native speaker, pronunciation, mispronunciation.


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ABSTRAK

Susanto, Audy Kristian. (2017). English Vowel Sound Mispronunciations

Produced By Indonesian Native Speakers in SMP Kristen Kalam Kudus

Yogyakarta. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Jurusan

Pendidikan, Bahasa, dan Seni, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan,

Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Di Indonesia, bahasa Inggris adalah salah satu mata pelajaran yang diajarkan

di sekolah. Sebagai seseorang yang belajar Bahasa Inggris sebagai bahasa asing,

orang Indonesia sering mengalami kesulitan dalam melafalkan Bahasa Inggris.

Hal tersebut terjadi karena kata-kata dalam Bahasa Inggris dilafalkan berbeda dari

ejaan mereka. Oleh karena itu, peneliti melakukan penelitian ini untuk membantu

orang Indonesia memahami masalah yang terjadi ketika mereka mencoba

melafalkan kata-kata dalam Bahasa Inggris.

Penelitian ini dilakukan di SMP Kristen Kalam Kudus Yogyakarta. Ada dua

masalah yang dirumuskan dalam penelitian ini. Permasalahan pertama yang

dirumuskan menanyakan tentang kesalahan suara vokal yang dilakukan oleh siswa

di SMP Kristen Kalam Kudus Yogyakarta. Rumusan masalah yang kedua

menanyakan penyebab kesalahan pengucapan tersebut.

Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan menggunakan penelitian kualitatif. Penelitian

ini dilakukan dengan mewawancarai 22 siswa SMP Kristen Kalam Kudus

Yogyakarta. Wawancara digunakan sebagai instrumen untuk penelitian ini.

Wawancara terdiri dari dua sesi. Sesi pertama digunakan untuk menjawab

rumusan masalah pertama. Sesi kedua digunakan untuk menjawab rumusan

masalah kedua.

Berdasarkan analisis data, peneliti menemukan bahwa sebagian besar

kesalahan suara vocal terjadi karena siswa menggunakan suara vokal yang salah.

Ciri lain dalam kesalahan pelafalan yaitu siswa meninggalkan suara dan

menempatkan tekanan pada suku kata yang salah. Sementara itu, penyebab

kesalahan pengucapan dapat dikaitkan ke bahasa ibu siswa, intensitas siswa

menggunakan Bahasa Inggris, kemampuan pendengaran siswa, dan motivasi

siswa.

Kata Kunci: vowel sound, native speaker, pronunciation, mispronunciation.


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to thank the Almighty who has given me strength and

patience every time. His unending kindness has guided me into the end of my

thesis.

I would also express my countless thanks to my mother for the material and

immaterial support. Without her this undergraduate thesis would never be done.

Her love and patience are the biggest reasons why I am still alive to this day.

I would like to express my gratitude to my thesis advisor Barli Bram, M.Ed.,

Ph.D. His attention, patience, guidance, advice, criticism, and encouragement,

finally has led me into the very end of my thesis. I also want to say thanks to my

co-advisor, Veronica Triprihatmini, S.Pd., M.Hum., M.A. She provided her

time to help me find the appropriate theory for my thesis. I also send my gratitude

to all of PBI lecturers for the meaningful guidance during my study. I also thank

all the staff of PBI and Sanata Dharma University library for the help and

cooperation.

I would extend my gratitude to Astuti Triasmani, S.Pd. as the headmaster of

SMP Kristen Kalam Kudus Yogyakarta for the permission given to do the

research at the school. I would also like to thank Sutopo Martinus, S.Pd. as the

English teacher of SMP Kristen Kalam Kudus Yogyakarta, for providing time and

guidance during the data collection. I do not forget to express my gratitude to the

students of class VII-A whose names cannot be mentioned here one by one for the

willingness and time to have their speech recorded.


ix

I would like to thank Tessa Murena Paramita, Hari Krismawan, Anchieta

Ave, Fransiska Neny, and Uli Sihombing. I thank them for supporting me,

comforting me during a hard time, and especially for willing to be my friends.

Last but not least, I would like to thank all of my colleagues in PBI 2012 class

A-b for their support, patience, and time. I would like to thank anyone whom I

have not mentioned here but have given the hand. Nothing can express my

gratitude.



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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITTLE PAGE ....................................................................................................... i

APROVAL PAGES ............................................................................................... ii

STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY .................................................. iv

PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ................................................ v

ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................... vi

ABSTRAK ............................................................................................................. vii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................... viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ...................................................................................... x

LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................. xiii

LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................... xiv

LIST OF APPENDICES .................................................................................... xv

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................ 1

A. Research Background................................................................................... 1

B. Research Problems ....................................................................................... 4

C. Problem Limitation ...................................................................................... 4

D. Research Objectives ..................................................................................... 5

E. Research Benefits ......................................................................................... 5

F. Definition of Terms ...................................................................................... 6

CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ................................ 8

A. Theoretical Description ................................................................................ 8

1. Pronunciation and Mispronunciation ....................................................... 8

2. Problems in Pronunciation ....................................................................... 9

3. Factors That Affect Pronunciation ......................................................... 11

4. Phonetic .................................................................................................. 14

5. Phonology ............................................................................................... 15

6. English Vowel ........................................................................................ 15


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7. Indonesian Vowel ................................................................................... 21

B. Theoretical Framework .............................................................................. 24

CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ........................................... 26

A. Research Method ........................................................................................ 26

B. Research Setting ......................................................................................... 27

C. Research Participant ................................................................................... 28

D. Instrument and Data Gathering Technique ................................................ 28

E. Data Analysis Technique ........................................................................... 30

F. Research Procedure .................................................................................... 31

CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ....................... 33

A. Vowel Sound Errors ................................................................................... 33

1. English Vowel Sound [i] ........................................................................ 34

2. English Vowel Sound [ɪ] ........................................................................ 35

3. English Vowel Sound [e] ....................................................................... 37

4. English Vowel Sound [ɛ] ....................................................................... 39

5. English Vowel Sound [æ] ....................................................................... 39

6. English Vowel Sound [ə] ....................................................................... 41

7. English Vowel Sound [ʌ] ....................................................................... 42

8. English Vowel Sound [u] ....................................................................... 44

9. English Vowel Sound [ʊ] ....................................................................... 45

10. English Vowel Sound [o] .................................................................... 46

11. English Vowel Sound [ɔ] .................................................................... 46

12. English Vowel Sound [ɑ] ................................................................... 47

B. The Causes of Students‟ Pronunciation Errors .......................................... 48

1. The Native Language ............................................................................. 48

2. The Age Factor ....................................................................................... 49


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3. Amount of Exposure .............................................................................. 50

4. Phonetic Ability ...................................................................................... 52

5. Motivation and Concern for Good Pronunciation .................................. 53

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS .................. 55

A. Conclusions ................................................................................................ 55

B. Recommendations ...................................................................................... 57

REFERENCES .................................................................................................... 59

APPENDICES ..................................................................................................... 61


xiii

LIST OF TABLES

Table Page

3.1 Example of Data Analysis Table……………................................... 30

4.1 General Summary of Participants‟ Result in Pronouncing

Words with Vowel Sound [i]………………………………………. 34


Words with Vowel Sound [ɪ]……………………………………….36


Words with Vowel Sound [e]……………………………………… 37


Words with Vowel Sound [ɛ]……………………………………… 39


Words with Vowel Sound [æ]……………………………………... 40


Words with Vowel Sound [ə]……………………………………… 41


Words with Vowel Sound [ʌ]……………………………………… 43


Words with Vowel Sound [u]……………………………………… 44


Words with Vowel Sound [ʊ]………………………………………45


Words with Vowel Sound [o]……………………………………… 46


Words with Vowel Sound [ɔ]……………………………………… 47


Words with Vowel Sound [ɑ]……………………………………… 48


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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Page

2.1 English Vowel Chart by Dardjowidjojo (2009) ………………... 16

2.2 Indonesian Vowel Chart by Dardjowidjojo (2009) ……………… 22

4.1 General Summary of Interview Question Number 3 ……………... 50

4.2 General Summary of Interview Question Number 4……………… 51




A1 Interview Session 2 Blueprint……………………………………… 63


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LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendices Page

A Interview Protocol & Blueprint …………..…………..………….. 61

B Result of Interview Session I …………..…………..…………….. 64

C Result of Interview Session II……………………………………… 88


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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter consists of six parts. The first part is the background of the

study which explains the rationale of choosing this study. The second part is the

problem formulation that addresses the problems of the study. The third part is the

problem limitations. The fourth part is the research objectives. The fifth part is the

research benefits and the sixth part provides the definition of terms used in this

study.

A. Research Background

In Indonesia, English is generally taught as a foreign language. Even

though English is not a primary language in Indonesia, the use of English

language has been rapidly grown in the recent years. A lot of new buildings and

places uses English words. The mass media, such as television or newspaper,

began to use English. In this digital and internet era, people in Indonesia get more

exposure towards English, a lot more than in the old days. Since English is

growing in Indonesia, mastering English can be a very good skill to have.

Some Indonesian has been introduced to English by their parents since

they were a child. However, for most Indonesian, English is a subject that is

taught formally at school. English is one of the subjects taught at every school in

Indonesia. English is taught from kindergarten up to university level. Some

international schools even use English as their primary language for teaching and


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learning process. There are four main aspects that are taught to the students. They

are reading, listening, writing, and speaking.

Despite the fact that people in Indonesia have been learning English, only

few can speak English fluently. Kenworthy (1987) believes that students‟ native

language is an important factor to correctly pronounce English words. The

students‟ native language can cause disadvantages to students when they want to

learn English as a second language. “The more differences there are, the more

difficulties the learner will have in pronouncing English” (Kenworthy, 1987).

Since Indonesia and English have a lot of differences, pronouncing English can be

a hard task for Indonesian native speakers.

Phonetics and phonology are close to the mastery of pronunciation.

Phonetics discusses “the speech sound that is utilized by human languages to

represent meanings”, while phonology focuses on the way sounds construct a kind

of conventional system and pattern of human language (Fromkin & Rodman,

1988). In short, phonetics discusses “acoustics and articulation”, while phonology

is on “the system and structure of speech” (Clark & Yallop, 1990, p. 4).

Pronunciation, according to Nunan (2003), is the sounds that we produce

when we speak. It is used as the media communication. For non-native English

speakers, producing a correct pronunciation is a tough challenge. Making an error

in pronunciation can cause the word to be hard to understand and even have a

completely different meaning. This error in pronunciation is what we call

mispronunciation. Mispronunciation is the performance errors or mistakes of


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pronunciation caused by fatigue and inattention, and also lack of knowledge of the

rules of the language (Krashen, 1982, p.139).

As a non-native English speaker who learns English as foreign language,

an Indonesian native speaker often finds a difficulty in pronunciation. The reason

is mostly because English words are pronounced differently from their spelling.

For example the word „goose‟ is pronounced [guːs] not [gɔːse]. On the contrary,

in Indonesia, most words are pronounced the same as its spelling. For example,

the word ‘emosi’ (emotion) is pronounced [emosɪ] not [ɪməsɪ].

Vowel sound plays a major role when Indonesian native speakers try to

pronounce English words. English and Indonesia have different vowel sound

libraries. They have different number of vowels and even different properties.

Indonesian people are accustomed to pronounce words the same as their spelling,

which create their own vowel sound. Meanwhile, English words have different

pronunciation from their spelling, which causes the vowel sounds that are used to

be different too. This issue becomes a major problem for Indonesian native

speakers when they are trying to pronounce English words. Mispronouncing

English words can cause miscommunication, or in a worst scenario, that

miscommunication can cause conflict.

Therefore, the researcher conducted this study to help Indonesian native

speakers understand more about the problem that occurs when Indonesian native

speakers try to pronounce English words. The researcher believes that this study

will be useful for Indonesian native speakers so that they can have good strategies

to overcome this problem.


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B. Research Problems

The research problems for this research are:

1. What vowel sound errors are made by Indonesian native speakers in SMP

Kristen Kalam Kudus Yogyakarta?

2. What causes the pronunciation errors?

C. Problem Limitation

In order to keep the research from going too broad, some limitations are

set. The first limitation is the topic of the research. The topic of the research is

limited to English and Indonesian vowel sounds. The researcher only focuses on

the use of vowel sound and does not discuss consonants and diphthongs. The

researcher only focuses on vowel sounds because the researcher believes that

Indonesia and English have more different features in their vowel sounds compare

to consonant or diphthong.

The second limitation is about the English and Indonesian vowel theories

that are used in this study. There are a lot of different theories that talk about the

distribution of vowel sounds. Different theories often have different International

Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbols. Different theories even have different example

of words for each vowel sound. For this study, the researcher limits the theories

only to Dardjowidjojo (2009) theories about English and Indonesian vowel

sounds. The details about these theories are discussed in the review of related

literature.


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Finally, in term of participant, this research has a limited number of

participants that contribute to this study. The participants are limited only for

students in SMP Kristen Kalam Kudus Yogyakarta. The class is limited only for

class VII-A. The numbers of participants are limited to 22 people. Then, the

details of the research participants are discussed later in the research

methodology.

D. Research Objectives

From the formulated problems above, there are two objectives in this

study. The first objective is to analyze the vowel sound errors that are made by

Indonesian native speakers in SMP Kristen Kalam Kudus Yogyakarta. The second

objective is to identify the possible causes of the vowel sound errors produced by

the Indonesian native speakers in SMP Kristen Kalam Kudus Yogyakarta.

E. Research Benefits

The researcher believes that this study is beneficial for Indonesian native

speakers to get an effective strategy in learning English by avoiding the common

mistakes in pronouncing English vowels. Besides, this study also discusses the

similarities and differences between Indonesian and English phonetics which help

Indonesian native speakers to understand the problems.

Moreover, this study helps English teachers or teacher candidates to be

able to make an effective learning strategy when facing the difference of

Indonesian and English vowels. Furthermore, this study helps English teacher or


6

teacher candidates to master one of the important English elements such as

pronunciation.

For future researchers, this study provides meaningful data related to

English and Indonesian mispronunciation of vowel phonemes. Moreover, the

future researchers can explore this research more and get more data by applying

different method of research. Therefore, there is more detailed information

regarding to the concept of Indonesian and English mispronunciation especially in

vowel sounds.

F. Definition of Terms

In order to avoid misunderstanding and to assist readers in understanding

this study, the terms used in this study are defined as follows.

1. Pronunciation

Pronunciation is the process of producing meaningful speech sound which

is articulated by the controlled friction of airstream through human‟s speech

organs (Kreidler, 2004, pp.22-23). Therefore, in pronouncing language, the sound

is produced consciously by controlling our speech organs such as lungs, vocal

tracts, tongue, teeth, and lips to get the precise friction of airstream from the

lungs. That is what differ the human speech from animal sound and infant speech.

2. Mispronunciation

Mispronunciation is the performance errors or mistakes of pronunciation

caused by fatigue and inattention, and also lack of knowledge of the rules of the

language (Krashen, 1982, p.139). According to Krashen (1982), we can say that


7

mispronunciation is the result of the stiffness of mature speech organs (fatigue),

the failure to imitate the sound (inattention), and poor abilities in producing the

sound during the learning process (lack of knowledge).

3. Native Speaker

According to Napoli (1996), native speaker is someone who learned the

language before the onset of puberty. A grammar of language is always based on

the linguistic behavior of a native speaker only, since language learned after

puberty is rarely of the same competence as native competence (Napoli, 1996,

p.40). It means that a native speaker is a person who speaks certain language from

childhood. It is different when someone learns and speaks certain language from

adult; they do not have equal abilities as a native speaker does.

4. SMP Kristen Kalam Kudus Yogyakarta

SMP Kristen Kalam Kudus Yogyakarta is a Junior High School located in

Yogyakarta. SMP Kristen Kalam Kudus Yogyakarta consists of six classes. Each

class consists of 25 to 30 students. All of the students in SMP Kristen Kalam

Kudus Yogyakarta are Indonesian native speakers, but they are also actively

learning English. Most of the students can understand and speak English well.

However, they still need to improve their grammar and pronunciation skill.


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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter consists of two parts, theoretical description and theoretical

framework. The theoretical description presents the theories and discussion about

the basic of this study. The second part, the theoretical framework, describes how

the supported theory can help to solve the research problems.

A. Theoretical Description

This section discusses five main theories that are used in this research.

Those theories are pronunciation and mispronunciation theory, problems in

pronunciation theory, factors that affect pronunciation theory, phonetics and

phonology theory, English vowels theory, and Indonesian vowels theory.

1. Pronunciation and Mispronunciation

a. Pronunciation

Pronunciation is the process of producing meaningful speech sound which

is articulated by the controlled friction of airstream through human‟s speech

organs (Kreidler, 2004, pp.22-23). Therefore, in pronouncing language, the sound

is produced consciously by controlling our speech organs such as lungs, vocal

tracts, tongue, teeth, and lips to get the precise friction of airstream from the

lungs. That is what differ the human speech from animal sound and infant speech.


9

b. Mispronunciation

Mispronunciation is the performance errors or mistakes of pronunciation

caused by fatigue and inattention, and also lack of knowledge of the rules of the

language (Krashen, 1982, p.139). According to Krashen, we can say that

mispronunciation is the result of the stiffness of mature speech organs (fatigue),

the failure to imitate the sound (inattention), and poor abilities in producing the

sound during the learning process (lack of knowledge).

2. Problems in Pronunciation

Poedjosoedarmo (2003) states that there are 7 features in pronunciation that

can cause confusion to the listener. They are: (1) using the wrong sound, (2)

leaving sounds out, (3) adding sounds, (4) putting stress on the wrong syllable in a

word, (5) putting stress on the wrong word in a sentence, (6) using the wrong

intonation pattern, or (7) combinations of these problems. These types of

misunderstanding can range from failing to get the message or misinterpreting the

meaning of the message to being insulted because the speaker appears to be

expressing an attitude that was actually not intended.

Here are the examples of each of these problems cited from Jenkins (2000):

a. Using the Wrong Sound

Example: the word ‘copy’ when ‘coffee’ was intended in ‘Do you want a

copy?’ The listener thought that the speaker was asking whether or not she wanted

a photocopy, rather than a cup of coffee.


10

b. Leaving Sound Out

The most frequent examples of this type involve simplifying consonant

cluster of even deleting a word consonant sound.

c. Adding Sounds

Japanese speakers often found adding some vowel sounds to break up the

consonant in a difficult cluster. Example: they pronounce „string‟ as /stər ɪŋ/

instead of /strɪŋ/.

d. Putting Stress on the Wrong Syllable in a Word

Example: „mature‟ with the stress on the first syllable rather than second

syllable can be misinterpret as „macho‟.

e. Putting Stress on the Wrong Word in a Sentence

Placing stress in one word rather than any other words within a sentence

has a very important function in English: to identify the element that is thought to

be the newest and the most important bit of information. Take a look at the

example from Singaporean TV announcer:

Every $20.00 of synergy fuel gives you a chance to win a two-year’s supply

of synergy fuel. We are giving away so much synergy fuel; you won’t be

able to finish it all.

From the example above, it stresses the word „synergy‟ every time. This is

a bad placement of stress because the listener will not gain any new information

from this. This example gives better stress placement:


11

Every $20.00 of synergy fuel gives you a chance to win a two-year’s supply

of synergy fuel. We are giving away so much synergy fuel; you won’t be

able to finish it all.

f. Using the Wrong Intonation Pattern

A rise and fall tone may be a bit rare in English, but when it occurs, it often

indicates suggestiveness. For example, in Singaporean English, rise and fall

intonation occurs very frequently, it slightly indicates a greater degree of

emphasis. However, to non-Singaporean English listener, this can be a little bit

confusing.

g. Combined Problems

Often mispronunciation is a result of combination from such errors above.

The less proficient the speaker, the more likely these problems will appear. An

Indonesian student once listens to the first line of a song “how much is that doggy

in the window?” as “Amatsutejo in the window,” where „Amatsutejo‟ is a

common Indonesian man‟s name. They heard „how much‟ as „amatsu‟ and „the

dog‟ as „tejo.‟

3. Factors That Affect Pronunciation

In the process of teaching English as a second language, pronunciation is a

very crucial subject to be mastered. Teaching pronunciation is a difficult task

because every student might have a different background. The students‟

background will affect how well the students will pronounce the second language

they are learning. There are some factors that will affect students‟ pronunciation.

Kenworthy (1987, p.4) mentions that there are five factors that will affect


12

students‟ pronunciation, (1) the native language, (2) the age factor, (3) amount of

exposure, (4) phonetic ability, and (5) motivation and concern for good

pronunciation.

a. The Native Language

Students‟ native language is an important factor to correctly pronounce

English words. This is proven by the fact that there are so many English accents

that exist in this world. The students‟ native language can cause disadvantages to

students when they want to learn English as a second language. “The more

differences there are, the more difficulties the learner will have in pronouncing

English” (Kenworthy, 1987, p.4). There will be a language that is more favored

and there will also be a language that is less favored. However, it is not

impossible for students to have a good pronunciation. People from different native

background will be able to produce a near-native English pronunciation.

b. The Age Factor

Most people commonly assume that if someone has a good second

language pronunciation, they probably started learning since they were a kid.

Some of us also believe that if someone started to learn second language during

adulthood, they will never have native-like accent, even though they have

mastered more vocabularies than those whose native language is English. These

beliefs are actually supported by many cases where adults speak second language

fluently, but still have a little bit of their native-accent.

Kenworthy (1987) cites two researches related to this issue. Those

researches are Oyama‟s research in Italia and the other research is from Snow and


13

Hoefnagel‟s (1975). Those researches have two different results. Some researches

state that age will affect pronunciation, while some other researches state that age

will not affect pronunciation. The evidence is contradictory and further research

might be needed. However, one thing seems clear, those researches show that we

do not yet have a simple and straightforward link between age and pronunciation

ability. This factor seems to be the weakest factor compare to the other factors.

c. Amount of Exposure

The other factor is the amount of exposure to English the student receives.

If the student is living among English-speaking people, the amount of exposure

time will increase. If the amount of time increases, it is more likely for the

students to have a better pronunciation. Kenworthy (1987, p.6) states that various

studies have compared pronunciation accuracy of people living in English-

speaking environment and those who are not, and it seems that even though the

amount of exposure is one of the contributory factors, but it is not necessarily the

factor for the development of pronunciation skills.

d. Phonetic Ability

Phonetic ability is the ability for someone to understand and distinguish

sounds. It is a common believe that some people have „better ears‟ when it comes

to foreign languages. Studies have shown that some people are able to distinguish

sounds better than others and he or she is able to mimic the sound much better.

Kenworthy (1987) believes that everyone, unless hearing impaired, has this basic

ability. This is one of the „basic equipment‟ that the students have, and provide

them with task that suit their ability is one of the teacher‟s jobs.


14

e. Motivation and Concern for a Good Pronunciation

Some students seem to have a better concern toward their pronunciation

skill than the others. This concern can be expressed in a statement of how bad

their pronunciation is and always request for correction. When they have a

concern toward their pronunciation, they will develop a better self-motivation.

When someone has a better motivation, it is more likely for them to learn more

thus resulting a better pronunciation.

4. Phonetic

Language and speech are so closely linked, that is why people begin to

study language by examining the inventory and structure of the sound of speech.

In a book titled “Practical Phonetics and Phonology: A resource book for student”

Collins and Mees (2003, p.7), described phonetics as the term used in the study of

sound in human language. Trask (1996) explained phonetics is the scientific study

of speech, conventionally divided into articulatory phonetics. From the

explanations above, it can be concluded that phonetics is the study of sounds,

especially focusing on how organs of speech produce speech sounds.

Efforts have been made to devise a universal system for transcribing the

sound of speech. One of the best known systems is International Phonetic

Alphabet (IPA). This system of transcription attempts to represent each sound of

human speech with a single symbol. These symbols are enclosed in brackets [ ] to

indicate that the transcription is phonetics and does not represent the spelling

system of particular language. For example, the sound spelled sh in English is

transcribed as [ʃ].


15

5. Phonology

While phonetics is primarily concerned with the concrete properties of

sounds, phonology investigates how sounds and meaning are connected.

(O‟Grady, Archibald, & Aranoff, 2010, p.59). Jay (2003) describes phonology as

the sound system of a language, which includes an inventory of sounds (phonetic

and phonemic units) and rules for how they can be combined. This way of

thinking also parallel with Ohala (1980) that states phonology as the study of the

logical structure and behavior of speech sound. Phonology is a subfield of

linguistics which studies the sound system of a specific language or set of

languages. Further, phoneme is the smallest meaningful unit of sound in a

language. A meaningful sound is one that will change one word into another

word. For example, the words cat and fat are two different words, but there is only

one sound that is different between the two words - the first sound. That means

that the “k” sound in cat and the „f‟ sound in fat are two different morphemes. In

conclusion, the goal of phonology is to study the sound systems which speaker

must learn or internalize in order to use their language for the purpose of

communication. (Hyman, 1975, p.1).

6. English Vowel

Vowels are sonorous, syllabic sounds made with the vocal tract more open

than it is for consonant or glides. (O‟Grady, Archibald, & Aranoff, 2010, p.34).

English vowels are divided into two major types, simple vowels and diphthongs.

Simple vowels do not show a noticeable change in quality during their

articulation. The vowels of pit, set, cat, dog, but, and put are all simple vowels.


16

Diphthongs are vowels that exhibit a change in quality within a single syllable.

English diphthongs show change in quality that are due to tongue movement away

for initial vowel articulation towards a glide position. This study will only focus

on simple vowels. Even though diphthongs are included as English vowels, this

study will only be limited to simple vowels.

Dardjowidjojo (2009) divided English vowel into twelve different sounds.

Figure 2.1 shows the distribution of English vowel sound by Dardjowidjojo

(2009).

Figure 2.1 English Vowel Chart by Dardjowidjojo (2009)

a. English Vowel Sound [i]

Based on the height of the tongue, the English vowel sound [i] is a high

vowel. If viewed from the position of the tongue, vowel sound [i] is a front vowel.

Vowel sound [i] is also an unrounded and tense vowel. Some dictionaries often

write vowel sound [i] as [i:]. The pronunciation is the same, it basically pronounce

as long i. Dardjowidjojo (2009) gives the words eat, beat, bee, seat, read, meat,


17

bee, me, and sea as the examples of words that contain the English vowel sound

[i].

b. English Vowel Sound [ɪ]

Based on the height of the tongue, the English vowel sound [ɪ] is a high

vowel. If viewed from the position of the tongue, vowel sound [ɪ] is a front vowel.

Vowel sound [ɪ] is also an unrounded and lax vowel. Since it is a lax vowel, the

english vowel sound [ɪ] is pronounced as short i. Dardjowidjojo (2009) gives the

words is, in, bit, mid, kin, sit, and it as the examples of words that contain the

English vowel sound [ɪ].

c. English Vowel Sound [e]

The English vowel sound [e] is a mid front vowel based on the English

vowel sound distribution by Dardjowidjojo (2009). This was because the height of

the tongue is in the middle and the position of the tongue is front. It was also

considered as unrounded vowel. Based on the tension of the muscle, English

vowel sound [e] was considered as a tense vowel. This sound is not purely vowel

as it is followed by a sound somewhat similar to [i]. Therefore, some dictionaries

might write is as [eɪ]. The sound [eɪ] might be considered as diphthong by other

theory. However, since the researcher set the limitation to only using the theory

from Dardjowidjojo (2009), the vowel sound [e] is considered as vowel, not

dipthong. Dardjowidjojo (2009) gives the words aid, ate, gave made, hate, rate,


18

paid, pay, ray and may as the examples of words that contain the English vowel

sound [e].

d. English Vowel Sound [ɛ]

Based on the English vowel sound distribution by Dardjowidjojo (2009),

the English vowel sound [ɛ] is a mid front vowels. This was because the height of

the tongue is in the middle and the position of the tongue is front. It was also

considered as unrounded vowel. Based on the tension of the muscle, English

vowel sound [ɛ] is considered as a lax vowel. Dardjowidjojo (2009) gives the

words egg, get, enter, get, enter, bet, and men as the examples of words that

contain the English vowel sound [ɛ].

e. English Vowel Sound [æ]

The English vowel sound [æ] is a low front vowel based on the English

vowel sound distribution by Dardjowidjojo (2009). It is made by lowering the

tongue further down from the position for the vowel [ɛ]. The muscle is lax when

making this sound. The sound is called the low front unrounded lax vowel.

Dardjowidjojo (2009) gives the words at, apple, ample, angle, sad, bat, man, and

bad as the examples of words that contain the English vowel sound [æ].

f. English Vowel Sound [ə]

The English vowel sound [ə] is a mid central vowel. The vowel is made by

having the central part of the tongue placed in the middle of the mouth cavity.


19

Dardjowidjojo (2009) gives the words along, ago, about, mountain, captain,

dungeon, and develop as the examples of words that contain the English vowel

sound [ə].

g. English Vowel Sound [ʌ]

The English vowel sound [ʌ] is a mid central vowel. The vowel is made by

having the central part of the tongue placed in the middle of the mouth cavity, but

lower than how we made vowel sound [ə]. Dardjowidjojo (2009) gives the words

love, come, sun, but, hut, trouble, and above as the examples of words that contain

the English vowel sound [ʌ].

h. English Vowel Sound [u]

The English vowel sound [u] is a high back vowel. When producing the

sound [u], we raise the back part of the tongue without touching any part of the

mouth. When making this sound, our lips are rounded and the musles are tense.

This vowel sound can be described as long u, some dictionaries write it as [u:].

Dardjowidjojo (2009) gives the words food, mood, rude, soup, pool, shoot, and

cool as the examples of words that contain the English vowel sound [u].

i. English Vowel Sound [ʊ]

The English vowel sound [ʊ] is a high back vowel. This sound is produced

by lowering a tongue a bit from the [u] position. The lips are rounded and the


20

muscles are lax when making this sound. Since it is a lax vowel, this sound is

pronounced as short u. Dardjowidjojo (2009) gives the words foot, look, good,

book, pull, wood, and should as the examples of words that contain the English

vowel sound [ʊ].

j. English Vowel Sound [o]

The vowel sound [o] is produced by putting the back of the tongue and

lower than the position of [ʊ]. This vowel is made by rounding the lips. For these

reasons, the sounds are called the mid back rounded vowels. The vowel sound [o]

is also a tense vowel. Some dictionaries, like Oxford, uses the symbol [ɒ] instead

of [o]. Dardjowidjojo (2009) also mentions that the vowel sound [o] can be

pronounced as [əʊ], which considered as dipthong by some other theories.

However, since the researcher set the limitation to only using the theory from

Dardjowidjojo (2009), the vowel sound [o] is considered as vowel, not dipthong.

Dardjowidjojo (2009) gives the words rod, hot, off, and got as the examples of

words that contain the English vowel sound [o].

k. English Vowel Sound [ɔ]

The vowel [ɔ] is made by lowering the tongue below the [o] sound. This

vowel is rounded vowel because it is made by rounding the lips. The muscle is lax

when making this vowel sound. That is why this sound is called mid back rounded


21

lax vowel. Dardjowidjojo (2009) gives the words saw, raw, call, law, draw, and

wall as the examples of words that contain the English vowel sound [ɔ].

l. English Vowel Sound [ɑ]

The sound [ɑ] is produced by having the tongue at the back of the mouth

and in low position, lowen than that for [ɔ] sound. When making the sound, our

musles are lax. The sound is called low back vowel. Some dictionaries often write

it using the symbol [ɑ:]. Dardjowidjojo (2009) gives the words part, card, heart,

garden, sergeant, and father as the examples of words that contain the English

vowel sound [ɑ].

7. Indonesian Vowel

The numbers of vowel sounds in Indonesia are always controversial. There

are many opinions regarding the amount of vowel sounds in Indonesia. Many

researchers have different theories when it comes to Indonesian vowel sounds.

One of the most famous theories is by Dardjowidjojo (2009). In his book,

Dardjowidjojo (2009, p.50) mention that Indonesian have eight-vowel system.

Due to the facts that English has at least eleven-vowel system, and there is no

consistency of pronunciation in Indonesia, there is a great problem for Indonesian

people to learn English vowels.


22

The figure 2.2 shows Indonesian vowel based on Dardjowidjojo (2009).

Figure 2.2 Indonesian Vowel Chart by Dardjowidjojo (2009)

a. The Indonesia High and Mid Front Vowels [i] - [ɪ]

Indonesia language has the high front vowel [i] as in isa „evening prayer‟

as well as the mid front vowel [ɪ] in esa „almighty‟. From this point, we can see

that these two sounds are two separate phonemes. In English learning, many

Indonesians tend to confuse about two English sounds, [i] and [ɪ], thus resulting

to pronounce seat and heat as sit and hit.

b. The Indonesia Mid and Low Front Vowels [ɪ] - [ɛ]

The Indonesian vowel [ɪ], as discussed above, is in contrast with the low

front vowel [ɛ]. Minimal pairs of these phonemes can be seen in the words

genting-genteng and banting-banteng. However, there are some Indonesian

people that mix the pronunciation of phonemes [ɪ] and [ɛ]. For example, in

Indonesia, besok „tommorow‟ can be pronounced either [bɪsɔk] or [bɛsɔk]. This


23

different pronunciation most likely occurs because the indirect impact of the local

language.

c. The Indonesia High and Mid Back Vowels [u] - [o]

The Indonesian high back vowel is made by having the back part of the

tongue raised toward the back of the mouth but without touching it. The lips are

rounded, although not as much as the English [u]. Due to these features, the sound

is called high back rounded vowel. The example of the words are bumi „earth‟,

bunyi „sound‟, or madu „honey‟.

The other back vowel [o] is almost made in similar way to [u]. However,

the tongue is not raised as high. The lips are also less rounded. Therefore, it is

called mid back rounded vowel. The example of the words are orang „person‟,

bola „ball‟, or obat „drug‟.

d. The Indonesia Mid and Low Back Vowels [o] - [ɔ]

Local languages play an important role when Indonesian people produce

[o] and [ɔ] vowel sounds. The same word may be pronounced using [o] by people

from certain regions and using [ɔ] by people from different region. Due to this

inconsistency, most Indonesians will find a dificulties distinguish [o] and [ɔ] as

English vowel sounds.

e. The Indonesia Mid Central Vowels [ə] - [a]

The Indonesian [ə] is always spelled and written with /e/ as example in the

word emas „gold‟, entah „don‟t know‟, or mentah „raw‟. For people from certain


24

region, [ə] can cause trouble because they often pronounce it with [ɪ]. For

example, they pronounce besar „big‟ as [bɪsar] not [bəsar]. This can make people

from that region have a harder time to pronounce English vowel sounds.

The low central vowel [a] is found in all local languages. It is always

spelled and written with the letter /a/ as in the words abu „ash‟, tahu „know‟, or

tiba „arrive‟. There is almost no trouble for Indonesia native speakers when they

pronounce [a] as English vowel sounds.

B. Theoretical Framework

There are two research problems in this study. The first research problem is

about the characteristics of pronunciation errors made by Indonesian native

speakers in SMP Kristen Kalam Kudus Yogyakarta, especially focusing on vowel

sounds. Parallel with the first formulated problem, the second research problem is

asking what causes the pronunciation errors. In order to address those two

research problems, the researcher uses the theories as follows.

The pronunciation and mispronunciation theories are used as the basic

foundation of this study. Phonetics and phonology theories are used as a basic

foundation for this study. Those theories are used as the basic knowledge to

understand more about the conducted study. By broaden the knowledge

concerning pronunciation and mispronunciation, as well as phonetics and

phonology, researcher and readers will have a better understanding regarding this

study.


25

The English vowel theories, as well as the Indonesian vowel theories, are

used as the basic theory to answer the first formulated problem, that is, to describe

the English and Indonesian vowel inventories. Since the first formulated problem

is talking about the characteristics of pronunciation, especially focusing on vowel

sounds, it is important to find out about the basic of those vowel sounds. By

understanding about the English and Indonesian vowel theories, the first

formulated problem can be resolved.

The first formulated problem is answered using the theories of problem in

pronunciation by Poedjosoedarmo (2003). Using this theory, the researcher can

determine the type of pronunciation errors made by the participants. The theories

about factors that will affect pronunciation by Kenworthy (1987) are used to

answer the second formulated problem. The researcher uses these theories to find

out the reasons why some problems in pronunciation appeared when Indonesian

native speakers in SMP Kristen Kalam Kudus Yogyakarta tried to pronounce

English words that contain vowel sounds.


26

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter consists of six parts. The first one is the description of the

research method that is used in this study. The second part is the research setting;

it is used to inform when the study is conducted. The third part is research

participants; it is informed who will be participating in the research and who

became the sources of data. The fourth part provides the description of research

instrument and the data gathering techniques. The fifth part is about the data

analysis techniques, and the last part is the research procedure which summarizes

the steps in conducting the study.

A. Research Method

This research was conducted by using qualitative research. Qualitative

researchers are interested in understanding the meaning that people have

constructed, that is, how people make sense of their world and the experiences

they have in the world (Merriam, 2002). This research aims to understand the

English vowel sound errors made by Indonesian native speakers in SMP Kristen

Kalam Kudus Yogyakarta. The purpose of the qualitative research is to gather the

data in depth understanding, rather than the numeric one. The researcher used

descriptive qualitative research to describe the data and characteristics of the issue

being researched.


27

B. Research Setting

The research was started by collecting data for the supporting theories.

Theories that related to pronunciation, phonetics, phonology, and all kinds of

linguistics properties were gathered. The theories were to support the research and

as a base for the research. The theories were mostly gathered at the library of

Sanata Dharma University. However, some theories also found through browsing

from the internet.

The data gathering was conducted in SMP Kristen Kalam Kudus

Yogyakarta, class VII A. SMP Kristen Kalam Kudus Yogyakarta is located in Jl.

Jambon IV RT/RW 01/01 Kricak, Tegalrejo,Yogyakarta. SMP Kristen Kalam

Kudus Yogyakarta was chosen because the researcher needed high school

students with Indonesian as their native language. Most of the students in SMP

Kristen Kalam Kudus Yogyakarta are from Chinese family. It is more likely for

Chinese family to talk using Indonesian than Javanese, which means most of the

students will have Indonesian as their native language. Moreover, SMP Kristen

Kalam Kudus Yogyakarta was a place where the researcher conducted his PPL

(Praktik Pengalaman Lapangan), which made it easier for the researcher to gather

the data. The research was held on Tuesday, April 12, 2016.

Following the data gathering, the analysis was done. It was conducted

since April 2016. The analysis was done at home and the library. The analysis was

later written into a discussion and then concluded into a conclusion for this

research.


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C. Research Participant

For the purpose of this study, this research was conducted by interviewing

22 students from SMP Kristen Kalam Kudus Yogyakarta. The students were

chosen from class VII-A, batch 2016. Class VII-A normally had 25 students,

however, during the interview session, 3 students could not attend the class due to

various reasons. Therefore, the interview was done with 22 participants. The

participants were taken from the same school so they had similar educational

background. Eleven students were male and another eleven were female. Since the

number of male and female students was the same, class VII-A was an ideal class

to conduct this research, this way the gender variable is consistent.

The total of 22 participants was chosen as the sample of students in SMP

Kristen Kalam Kudus Yogyakarta. In the year of 2016, SMP Kristen Kalam

Kudus Yogyakarta had 153 numbers of students, which made 22 students to be

equal as 14.4% of the population. This percentage was considered as sufficient to

make the data have a high validity. Those participants also spoke the same native

language, which is Bahasa Indonesia. It is crucial for the participants to have

Bahasa Indonesia as the native language because the research requires the data

from Indonesian native speakers.

D. Instrument and Data Gathering Technique

Researcher used oral test and interview to collect information about

English vowel mispronunciation by Indonesian native speakers in SMP Kristen

Kalam Kudus Yogyakarta. The advantage of conducting these methods is that


29

they provide data that cannot be obtained through observation. The purpose of this

data gathering is to know whether or not the students will mispronounce the

English vowel sounds and to know the reason of their mispronunciation.

The data gathering consisted of two sessions. The first session is oral test.

In the first session, the participants were asked to read 24 English words which

contain English vowel sounds based on the Dardjowidjojo (2009) theories about

English vowel sounds. The researcher used two words for each vowel sound.

Since there are 12 vowels sounds based on the Dardjowidjojo (2009) theories

about English vowel sounds, the researcher had a total of 24 English words to be

read by the participants. The first session was used to answer the first formulated

problem. After finishing the first session, the researcher continued to the second

session. The second session is interview. In the second session, the researcher

asked seven closed-ended questions to the participants. The questions were based

on Kenworthy‟s (1987) theory about what affect pronunciation. The result from

the second session was used to answer the second formulated problem. The detail

of the research instrument is displayed on the appendix A on page 61.

Before conducting the interview, the researcher prepared some equipment

that was needed to support the interview. The equipment was a laptop and a

headset that have microphone in it to record the interview. The software that used

to record the interview is Audacity. The other equipment was notebook and pen to

write down the answers for the second session of interview and some important

things from the interview.


30

E. Data Analysis Technique

After the data had been gathered, researcher analyzed the data. The first

step was to process the result of the first session. The result of the first session

was used to answer the first formulated problem. The researcher drew a

conclusion from the table, which vowel sound that most students were

mispronounced.

The researcher listened to the recorded sound data in order to analyze it.

Sound editing software, Audacity, was used to cut and edit the sounds if necessary

to make the process easier. Finished with the recorded data, the researcher made a

written result about it. The written result was displayed in the form of table. The

reason of using table was to make it easier to present and analyze the raw data.

Below is the example of table that was used.

Table 3.1 Example of Data Analysis Table

Vowel

Sounds Words

Pronunciation Result

(Correct/Wrong) Correct

Pronunciation

Student’s

Pronunciation

i beat [ˈbit]

procedure [prəˈsidʒə]

ɪ bit [ˈbɪt]

mid [ˈmɪd]

After writing the result on the table, the researcher continued to analyze it.

Using the theories of problem in pronunciation by Poedjosoedarmo (2003), the

researcher could determine the characteristics of pronunciation errors made by the

participants. Then, the researcher made a conclusion from the first session of the

interview. This conclusion was used to answer the first formulated problem.


31

After finished analyzing the first session, the researcher moved to the data

from second session. The second session was an interview with closed-ended

questions. First, the researcher had to make the transcript of the interview. After

finishing the transcript, the researcher compiled all the answers and made a

conclusion with the data. These answers then were used to answer the second

formulated problem.

F. Research Procedure

This part shows the procedure of conducting the research from the

beginning until the report of the data. Here are the procedures that used by the

researcher:

1. Literature Review

The researcher gathered the theories that would be used for this study.

Most theories would be related to pronunciation, phonetics, phonology, and some

linguistic properties. The theories would be used as a basic foundation of this

study and to answer the formulated problems of this study.

2. Developing an Instrument

After finishing the literature review, researcher must decide what kind of

method would be used for this study and what instrument would be used to gather

the data. Researcher decided to use qualitative research and interview as the

instrument. The next step was to make interview protocol and blueprint. The

interview protocol was used to show where the interview would be located, how

long the interview would be conducted, who would be the subject, and what the


32

questions were during the interview. The interview blueprint was used to decide

the purpose of each question in the interview.

3. Data Gathering

The next procedure was the data gathering. Researcher decided who would

be the participants, when it would be conducted, and how it would be done. Then,

researcher must ask the permission from the school where the study would be

conducted. After having permission, the data gathering was conducted by

following the protocol.

4. Data Analysis

After possessed the data, the researcher analyzed the data. The data from

the interview were transcribed into a table and written form. This way, the data

would be easier to be summarized. The data summary was used to answer the

formulated problems. Then, researcher started to make a conclusion about this

study.

5. Writing The Report

The writing of the report was done by following the thesis guideline for

ELESP students. The writing was done carefully since it must pass the minimum

requirement. Researcher often consulted with colleagues and lecturers so the

report could be as good as possible. The report that had been written would be

given to the University as a requirement to obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree.


33

CHAPTER IV

RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter is divided into two parts. The first part is students‟

pronunciation errors which discussed the data that the researcher has gathered

from interview session one. The first part is used to answer the first formulated

problem. The second part is the causes of students‟ pronunciation errors. The

second part is used to find out what causes the pronunciation errors using the data

from interview session two. The second part is used to answer the second

formulated problem.

A. Vowel Sound Errors

This part mainly discussed the data analysis related to the first formulated

problem. The first formulated problem asked about the vowel sound errors made

by Indonesian native speakers in SMP Kristen Kalam Kudus Yogyakarta. The

researcher used the result from the interview session 1 (appendix B, p. 64) to

answer the first formulated problem. The researcher divided this section into

twelve parts based on the English vowel sounds by Dardjowidjojo (2009). Later

on each part, by using the theories of problem in pronunciation from

Poedjosoedarmo (2003), the researcher could determine the characteristics of

pronunciation errors made by the participants.


34

1. English Vowel Sound [i]

In order to analyze the vowel sound [i], the researcher used two words,

which were ‘beat’ [ˈbit] and ‘procedure’ [prəˈsidʒə]. The researcher chose ‘beat’

because beat and bit, which is also used in this study, had an almost identical

pronunciation. Meanwhile, the researcher chose the word ‘procedure’ because the

students in Junior High School were very familiar with the word procedure since

they were learning about procedure text. Below is the table showing the general

summary of participants‟ pronunciation.

Table 4.1 General Summary of Participants’ Result in Pronouncing Words with

Vowel Sound [i]

Vowel

Sound Words Correct Answer Wrong Answer

i Beat 13 9

Procedure 4 18

Total 17 27

Table 4.1 shows that there were more wrong answers than the correct

answers. It was mostly caused by the word ‘procedure’ where there were 18

wrong answers and there were only 4 correct answers. Meanwhile, most

participants pronounced the word ‘beat’ correctly. From total of 22 participants,

13 participants were correct and 9 were wrong. This made a total of 17 correct

answers and 27 wrong answers for the words with vowel sound [i].

For the word ‘beat’, all of the participants who did not pronounce the word

correctly made a mistake by using the short i instead of long i. These mistakes

were made by the participant 1, 6, 8, 12, 13, 14, 16, 20, and 22. Instead of

pronouncing it as [ˈbit], these participants pronounced it as [ˈbɪt]. Based on the


35

theories of problem in pronunciation from Poedjosoedarmo (2003), these mistakes

were categorized as „using the wrong sound‟.

As for the word ‘procedure’, the participants who did not pronounce the

word correctly pronounced it either as [proˈsədʒə] or [proˈsedʒə]. Participant 1, 2,

3, 6, 8, 10, 12, 13, 15, 18, 19, and 22, also made double mistakes because they

pronounced the last syllable as [dʊr] instead of [dʒə]. Participants who made this

mistake was categorized as „using the wrong sound‟ based on the theories of

problem in pronunciation from Poedjosoedarmo (2003). However, the biggest

mistake was made by participant 5. Participant 5 made a mistake by pronouncing

it as [proˈdʒus]. This mistake was considered as „leaving sound out‟ based on the

theories of problem in pronunciation from Poedjosoedarmo (2003).

Based on the result above, it could be concluded that the most participants

could not differentiate long i and short i. Some participants also pronounced the

sound [i] as [e] or [ə]. Most of the mistakes were categorized as „using the wrong

sound‟ based on the theories of problem in pronunciation from Poedjosoedarmo

(2003). However, one participant also made mistake by „leaving sound out‟ on her

pronunciation of the word ‘procedure’.

2. English Vowel Sound [ɪ]

The researcher used the word ‘bit’ [ˈbɪt] and ‘mid’ [ˈmɪd] in order to

analyze the vowel sound [ɪ]. T researcher chose ‘bit’ because bit and beat, which

was also used in this study, had an almost identical pronunciation. Meanwhile, the


36

word ‘mid’ was chosen because it was a simple word that was very familiar to

junior high school students. Below is the table showing the general summary of

participants‟ pronunciation.


Vowel Sound [ɪ]

Vowel


ɪ Bit 17 5

Mid 15 7

Total 32 12

Table 4.2 shows that most participants pronounced the words correctly.

The word ‘bit’ had a total of 17 correct answers and only 5 wrong answers. The

word ‘mid’ had a total of 15 correct answers and 7 wrong answers. This made the

total of 32 correct answers, more than double the total of wrong answer, which

were only 12.

For the word ‘bit’, there were five mistakes made by participant 8, 15, 16,

18, and 21. Participant 8, 15, 16, and 18 pronounced it as [ˈbaɪt] instead of [ˈbɪt].

Meanwhile, participant 21 pronounced it using the long i so it became [ˈbit].

Based on the theories of problem in pronunciation from Poedjosoedarmo (2003),

these mistakes are categorized as „using the wrong sound‟.

For the word ‘mid’, participant 8 and 21 pronounced it using the long i, so

it became [ˈmid] instead of [ˈmɪd]. Meanwhile, participant 5, 9, 15, 16, and 18

pronounced it as [ˈmaɪd]. This mistake is considered as „using the wrong sound‟

based on the theories of problem in pronunciation from Poedjosoedarmo (2003).


37

In conclusion, when pronouncing the word with vowel sound [ɪ], most

mistakes were made because the participant used the wrong sound. The

participants got counfused the tense and lax vowels, which was short i and long i.

Some also made mistake by pronouncing it as [aɪ].

3. English Vowel Sound [e]

In order to analyze the vowel sound [e], the researcher used two words,

which were ‘made’ [ˈmeɪd] and ‘hate’ [ˈheɪt]. The reseracher chose these words

because both used vowel sound [e]. Besides, these words also had similar

pronounciation, which were [ˈmeɪd] and [ˈheɪt]. The summary for participant

pronunciations of the words with vowel sound [e] can be seen in table 4.3 below.


Vowel Sound [e]

Vowel


e Made 19 3

Hate 19 3

Total 38 6

Table 4.3 shows that that most participant could pronounce the words with

vowel sound [e]. From a total of 44 answers, the participants only made 6

mistakes which made a total of 38 correct answers. The word ‘made’ had a total

of 19 correct answers and 3 wrong answer. The word ‘hate’ had a total of 19

correct answers and 3 wrong answers.


38

For the word ‘made’, three mistakes were made by participant 1, 15, and

19. Participant 1 pronounced it as [ˈmæd], participant 15 pronounced it as [ˈmɛt],

and participant 19 pronounced it as [ˈmɪd]. These three mistakes were considered

as „using the wrong sound‟ based on the theories of problem in pronunciation

from Poedjosoedarmo (2003). This was because instead of using the vowel sound

[e], these participants used another incorrect vowel sounds.

The word ‘hate’ also had three mistakes. These mistakes were made by

participant 1, 6, and 15. Participant 1 pronounced it as [ˈhet], while participant 6

and 15 pronounce it as [ˈhɛt]. Based on the theories of problem in pronunciation

from Poedjosoedarmo (2003), these three mistakes were considered as „using the

wrong sound‟. This was because instead of using the vowel sound [e], these

participants used another incorrect vowel sounds.

From the analysis above, it can be concluded that most of the mistakes

were made because the participant used the wrong sound. Instead of using the

vowel sound [e], these participants use other incorrect vowel sounds. Most of

them often got consfused the vowel sound [e] as a vowel sound [ɛ]. Some also

confused it with the vowel sound [æ].


39

4. English Vowel Sound [ɛ]

In this study,the researcher used the word ‘men’ [ˈmɛn] and ‘bet’ [ˈbɛt] to

analyze the vowel sound [ɛ]. The researcher chose these words because both use

vowel sound [ɛ]. Besides, these words also have similar pronounciations, which

were [ˈmɛn] and [ˈbɛt]. Table 4.4 shows the summary for participant

pronunciations of the words with vowel sound [ɛ].


Vowel Sound [ɛ]

Vowel


ɛ Men 22 0

Bet 22 0

Total 44 0

Displayed in table 4.4, there was no mistake made by the participants. All

the participants could pronounce the words „men’ and ‘bet’ perfectly. From 44

answers, all of them were correct answers. Since there was no mistake, it could be

concluded that all the participants had no trouble pronouncing the words with

English vowel sound [ɛ].

5. English Vowel Sound [æ]

In order to analyze the vowel sound [æ], the researcher used the word ‘bat’

[ˈbæt] and ‘man’ [ˈmæn]. The reseracher chose these words because they both

used vowel sound [æ]. Besides, these words were simple words and the


40

participants must have been familiar with them. The summary for participant

pronunciations of the words with vowel sound [æ] is shown in table 4.5.


Vowel Sound [æ]

Vowel


æ Bat 16 6

Man 17 5

Total 33 11

The general summary above revealed that there was more correct

pronunciation than the wrong pronunciation. There were 33 correct answers and

11 wrong answers, which mean 75% of the answers were correct. The word ‘bat’

had 6 wrong answers, while the word ‘man’ had 5 wrong answers.

The word ‘bat’ had six mistakes made by participant 2, 6, 8, 15, 18, and

19. Instead of using vowel sound [æ], participant 8 used vowel sound [ʌ] thus

pronounced the word as [ˈbʌt]. The rest of the incorrect participants pronounced it

as [ˈbɛt]. Based on the theories of problem in pronunciation from Poedjosoedarmo

(2003), this mistake was categorized as „using the wrong sound‟.

For the word ‘man’, five mistakes were made by participant 2, 6, 15, 18,

and 19. All these participants pronounced it as [ˈmɛn] instead of [ˈmæn]. This

mistake was considered as „using the wrong sound‟ based on the theories of

problem in pronunciation from Poedjosoedarmo (2003).

For the analysis of those two words above, it can be concluded that all of

the mistakes were made because the participant use the wrong sound. Instead of


41

using the vowel sound [æ], these participants used another incorrect vowel

sounds. Most of them got confused vowel sound [æ] with [ɛ] because they were

similar.

6. English Vowel Sound [ə]

In order to analyze the vowel sound [ə] the researcher used the word

‘develop’ [dɪˈvɛləp] and ‘about’ [əˈbaʊt]. The reseracher chose these words

because they both used vowel sound [ə]. Below is the table showing the general

summary of participants‟ pronunciation.


Vowel Sound [ə]

Vowel


ə Develop 2 20

About 22 0

Total 24 20

Table 4.6 shows that a lot of participants made mistakes pronouncing the

word ‘develop’. From 22 participants, only 2 of them were correct. However,

when pronouncing the word ‘about’, all of the participants could pronounce it

correctly. This made a total of 24 correct answer and 20 wrong answers.

The word ‘develop’ seems to give a lot of trouble for the participants. The

only participants who could answer correctly were participant 11 and 14. The

other participants pronounced it using the vowel sound [o] thus it became

[dɪˈvɛlop]. This mistake was considered as „using the wrong sound‟. However,


42

participant 6 and 12 had different pronunciation. They pronounced it as [ˈdevlop].

Not only that they used the wrong sound, but they also put the stress in the wrong

syllable. Furthermore, they also omit a syllable in the middle, which is considered

as „leaving sound out‟ by Poedjosoedarmo (2003) in theories of problem in

pronunciation. Because there are more than one types of errors that occurred,

these problems can be classified as a „combined problems‟ based on

Poedjosoedarmo (2003) theories about problems in pronunciation. On the other

hand, the word ‘about’ did not seem to give trouble to the participants. It is

proven by the fact that none of the participants pronounced it with a wrong

pronunciation.

Based on the result above, it could be concluded that vowel sound [ə] was

a problem for the participants. Paticipants often read the word as it was writen, so

most of the participants read the word ‘develop’ with the sound [o] instead of [ə].

Some participants also omit a syllable and put a stress in the wrong syllable.

Because there were more than one types of errors, it could be concluded that the

participants had combined problems when they tried to pronounce a word with

vowel sound [ə].

7. English Vowel Sound [ʌ]

In order to analyze the vowel sound [ʌ] the researcher used the word

‘above’ [əˈbʌv] and ‘sun’ [ˈsʌn]. The reseracher chose these words because they


43

both used vowel sound [ʌ]. Table 4.7 shows the general summary of participants‟

pronunciations.


Vowel Sound [ʌ]

Vowel


ʌ Above 8 14

Sun 22 0

Total 30 14

Table 4.7 shows that there were total of 30 correct answers and 14 wrong

answers. The word ‘above’ seem to give the participants a hard time since it only

had 8 correct answers. On the other hand, the word ‘sun’ apparently was easy

enough that all the participants answered it correctly.

The word ‘above’ had a total of fourteen mistakes. All the incorrect

participants pronounced it either as [əˈbɔv] or [əˈbov]. Therefore, instead of using

vowel sound [ʌ], these participants used [ɔ] or [o]. Based on the theories of

problem in pronunciation from Poedjosoedarmo (2003), these mistakes were

categorized as „using the wrong sound‟. For the word ‘sun’, none of the

participants made a mistake. All the participants pronounced it as [ˈsʌn].

The result above shows that participants had trouble when the word was

written with letter o. Participants pronounced it as [ɔ] or [o] because that how

they were written. However, when the word was written with letter u, participants

did not seem to have any problem. In the end, we could conclude that participants

were using the wrong sounds.


44

8. English Vowel Sound [u]

The researcher used the word ‘food’ [ˈfud] and ‘pool’ [ˈpul] to analyze

vowel sound [u]. The researcher chose these words because both use vowel sound

[u]. Besides, these words also have similar pronounciation with the word ‘foot’

and ‘pull’, which were also used in this study. Below is the table showing the

general summary of participants‟ pronunciation.


Vowel Sound [u]

Vowel


u Food 15 7

Pool 15 7

Total 30 14

Table 4.8 shows that the number of correct and wrong answer was the

same between the words ‘food’ and ‘pool’. Both had 15 correct answers and 7

wrong answers. This made a total of 30 correct answer and 14 wrong answers.

The word ‘food’ had a total of seven mistakes made by participant 1, 5, 14,

15, 18, 19, and 20. They all pronounced it as [ˈfʊt]. The same mistakes happened

when they tried to pronounce the word ‘pool’. Those same participants

pronounced it as [ˈpʊl]. In conslusion, these participants used the sound [ʊ]

instead of [u]. Based on the theories of problem in pronunciation from

Poedjosoedarmo (2003), these mistakes were categorized as „using the wrong

sound‟.


45

9. English Vowel Sound [ʊ]

The words ‘foot’ [ˈfʊt] and ‘pull’ [ˈpʊl] were chosen by the researcher to

analyze the vowel sound [ʊ]. These words were chosen because they contain the

sound [ʊ]. Besides, these words also had similar pronounciation with the word

‘food’ and ‘pool’ , which were also used in this study. The summary for

participant pronunciations of the words with vowel sound [ʊ] is displayed in table

4.9 below.


Vowel Sound [ʊ]

Vowel


ʊ Foot 17 5

Pull 17 5

Total 34 10

According to table 4.9, the numbers of correct and wrong answers were the

same between the words ‘foot’ and ‘pull’. They both had 17 correct answers and 5

wrong answers. The word ‘foot’ had a total of five mistakes made by participant

2, 8, 12, 16, and 21. These participants pronounced it either as [ˈfut] or [ˈfud].

For the word ‘pull’, five mistakes were made by the same participants. They

pronounced it as [ˈpul]. From these result, it could be concluded that these

participants used the wrong sound. Intead of using the sound [ʊ], the participant

used the sound [u]. This mistake is considered as „using the wrong sound‟ based

on Poedjosoedarmo (2003) theories about problems in pronunciation.


46

10. English Vowel Sound [o]

In order to analyze the vowel sound [o] the researcher used the word ‘hot’

[ˈhot] and ‘rod’ [ˈrod]. The reseracher chose these words because they both used

vowel sound [o]. Table 4.10 below shows the general summary of participants‟

pronunciations.

Table 4.10 General Summary of Participants’ Result in Pronouncing Words

with Vowel Sound [o]

Vowel


o Hot 22 0

Rod 18 4

Total 40 4

Table 4.10 shows that for the word ‘hot’, all participants could answer it

correctly. All 22 participants pronounced it as [ˈhot]. However for the word ‘rod’,

there were four mistakes. The mistakes were made by participant 8, 14, 15, and

20. Participant 8 pronounced it as [ˈrəʊd], participant 15 pronounced it as [ˈrʊd],

while participants 14 and 20 pronounced it as [ˈrud]. Based on the theories of

problem in pronunciation from Poedjosoedarmo (2003), these mistakes were

categorized as „using the wrong sound‟.

11. English Vowel Sound [ɔ]

The words ‘wall’ [ˈwɔl] and ‘saw’ [ˈsɔ] were chosen by the researcher to

analyze the vowel sound [ɔ]. These words were chosen because they contain the


47

sound [ɔ]. Below is the table showing the general summary of participants‟

pronunciation.


with Vowel Sound [ɔ]

Vowel


ɔ Wall 21 1

Saw 8 14

Total 29 15

Displayed in table 4.11 above, for the word ‘wall’, there was only one

mistake. This mistake was made by the participant 1. She pronounced it as [ˈwʌl]

instead of [ˈwɔl]. On the contrary, there were a lot of mistakes for the word ‘saw’.

From the total of 22 participants, only eight of them could pronounce the word

‘saw’ correctly. Most of the incorrect participant pronounced it either as [ˈsʌw] or

[ˈʃʌw]. Both of these words had the same of mistake, which was using the wrong

sound. Instead of using the sound [ɔ], the incorrect participant used the sound [ʌ].

Based on the theories of problem in pronunciation from Poedjosoedarmo (2003),

this mistake was categorized as „using the wrong sound‟.

12. English Vowel Sound [ɑ]

The researcher used the word ‘garden’ [ˈɡɑdən ] and ‘father’ [ˈfɑðə] to

analyze vowel sound [ɑ]. The researcher chose these words because they both

used vowel sound [ɑ].


48


with Vowel Sound [ɑ]

Vowel


ɑ Garden 21 1

Father 21 1

Total 42 2

Table 4.12 shows that for the word ‘garden’, one participant made a

mistake. This mistake was made by participant 1. Participant 1 pronounced it as

[ˈɡʌrdən ] instead of [ˈɡɑdən ]. For the word „father‟, participant 1 also made the

same mistakes of using the vowel sound [ʌ] instead of [ɑ]. Based on the theories

of problem in pronunciation from Poedjosoedarmo (2003), this mistake was

categorized as „using the wrong sound‟.

B. The Causes of Students’ Pronunciation Errors

In this section, the researcher tried to answer the second formulated

problem, which was about the causes of students‟ pronunciation errors. The data

to answer the second formulated problem came from the second session of the

interview. The researcher divided this section into five parts. Each part represents

the theory of what affect pronunciation from Kenworthy (1987).

1. The Native Language

Students‟ native language is an important factor to correctly pronounce

English words. “The more differences there are the more difficulties the learner

will have in pronouncing English” (Kenworthy, 1987). This statement mean that


49

students who had English as their native language will have a better pronunciation

compared to those who have another language as their native language.

The researcher asked two questions in order to find out the students native

language. The first question is “What language was first taught to you?” and the

second question is “In everyday life at home, what language is most often used to

communicate?” For the first question, the data from the interview showed that all

participants had Bahasa Indonesia as the language that was first taught to them.

The same goes for the second question. All participants answered Bahasa

Indonesia for the language that was most often used at their home. Both of the

answers showed that every participant in this study have Bahasa Indonesia as

their native language. Since Bahasa Indonesia and English have a lot of different

features, this can be one of the causes for students‟ pronunciation errors. As stated

by Kenworthy (1987), students‟ native language could cause disadvantages to

students when they want to learn English as a second language.

2. The Age Factor

One of the factors that can affect pronunciation was the age when someone

started to learn a language. For this reason, the researcher asked the participants

about the age when they started to learn English. The figure 4.1 shows the

summary of participants answer toward this particular question.


50

Figure 4.1 General Summary of Interview Question Number 3

Displayed in figure 4.1 above, a total of six participants started to learn

English at very young age, which was around 0 to 3 years old. Most of the

participants, which were 14 participants, started to learn English at kindergarten

when they were around 4 to 5 years old. The rest of the participants started to

learn English around the age of 6 to 12 years old, which was during elementary

school. From this data, it can be concluded that most of the participants started to

learn English at a very young age. This means that students‟ age might not be the

causes of their pronunciation errors. Even Kenworthy (1987) agrees that further

research might be needed to support the connection between age and

pronunciation ability. He states that the age factor seems to be the weakest factor

compare to the other factors.

3. Amount of Exposure

Kenworthy (1987) states that higher exposure time to a language can have

effect toward a better pronunciation. This factor is called the amount of exposure.

In order to analyze this factor, the researcher used two questions, question 4 and 5.

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

0-3 years old Kindergarten(4-5 years old)

Elementary School(6-12 years old)


51

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

1 2 3 4 5

Question 4 is “From the scale of 1 to 5, how often do you use English?” Below is

the figure of data summary for question 4.


Figure 4.2 shows that five participants rarely use English. These five

participants only used English during the English class in school. Most of the

participants, which were 15 participants, sometimes used English for their daily

life. Meanwhile, only two participants who were often used English in their daily

life. These were participant 10 and 19. Both of the participants often use English

in their daily life. They usually used it either to watch movies or even talk to

someone.

The next is question 5. Question 5 is “Do you have any English private

lessons outside the school hours? If you do, how many times a week do you have

it?” The purpose of this question is still the same as question 4, which is to find

out about the amount of English exposure that the participants receive. The figure

4.3 below shows the data summary for question 5.


52

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

No Once a Week Twice a Week


Figure 4.3 show that most of the participants, which were 15, did not have

any English private lessons outside the school hours. One of the participants had

an English private lesson for once a week. The rest of the six participants had an

English private lesson for twice a week.

From the data in question 4 and 5, it can be concluded that most of the

students have a small amount of exposure toward English language. This was

because most of the students just sometimes used English and most of them did

not have any English private lessons outside the school hours. Since they have a

low English exposure, this might be the reason for their pronunciation errors to

occur.

4. Phonetic Ability

Kenworthy (1987) believes that when someone who has better phonetic

ability also has better pronunciation skill. Phonetic ability can be described as the

ability to distinguish sound, or to put it simple, they have a better listening skill.


53

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

1 2 3 4 5

The researcher asked participants to rate their listening skill from 1 to 5. Below is

the data summary.


In figure 4.4, it is visible that most of the students rate themselves as

average when it comes to listening skill. Seven of the students rate themselves as

above average. This data shows that the participants have an average phonetic

ability. Since the result is only average, their phonetic ability might be one of the

causes of their pronunciation errors.

5. Motivation and Concern for Good Pronunciation

Each student has different motivation when it comes to learn English.

Some may have higher motivation than the others. When someone has better

motivation, it is more likely for them to learn more thus resulting in better

pronunciation. To find out about students motivation and concern for good

pronunciation, the researcher asked the students with question “From the scale of

1 to 5, how motivated are you to speak English fluently?” Figure 4.5 below shows

the general summary for this question.


54

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

1 2 3 4 5


Figure 4.5 shows that there was only one participant who had low

motivation for better pronunciation. A total of 8 participants had moderate

motivation. Most of the participants, which were 10, had a high motivation to

speak English fluently. The rest of the participants, which were 3 participants,

have very high motivation to speak English fluently. This data shows that most of

the participants have a high motivation to speak English fluently. This means that

most of the participants want to have a good pronunciation. However, some

participants do have low motivation. For example, participant 1 only has low

motivation to speak English fluently. This result is in line with her result of

pronouncing English words. She has 12 mistakes, which is a high number. In

conclusion, the data from this question is supported by Kenworthy (1987) who

believes that motivation does have effect in students‟ pronunciation.


55

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This chapter consists of two parts, namely conclusions and

recommendations. Conclusions aim to summarize the research findings and

answer the two research questions that have been formulated. The second part,

which is recommendations, is used to give recommendations for Indonesian

native speakers, English teachers, and future researchers.

A. Conclusions

Based on the research results and discussion in Chapter IV, both of the

formulated problems could be answered. The first formulated problems had been

discussed in the first part of Chapter IV. The second formulated problem was

answered in the second part of Chapter IV.

The first formulated problem asked the of vowel sound errors made by

Indonesian native speakers in SMP Kristen Kalam Kudus Yogyakarta. The

English vowel sounds was based on the theory from Dardjowidjojo (2009). Later,

by using the theories of problem in pronunciation from Poedjosoedarmo (2003),

the researcher can determine the characteristics of pronunciation errors made by

the participants.

The findings from this study found out that the students made mistakes in

almost all of the vowel sounds. However, for vowel sound [ɛ], none of the

students made any mistake. Analyzing from the types of vowel sounds, most


56

students made the most mistakes in pronouncing the word with vowel sound [i].

From the total of 44 answers, 27 of them were wrong. Most participants seem to

have a hard time pronouncing the word ‘procedure’ [prəˈsidʒə].

When analyzing using the theories of problem in pronunciation from

Poedjosoedarmo (2003), the researcher found that most of the students‟

characteristic in their pronunciations errors was using the wrong sound. Most

students could not distinguish between tense vowel and lax vowel, for example

the sound [u] and [ʊ]. Most of the mistakes also were caused by students inability

to distinguish mimimum pair, for example in the word ‘food’ [ˈfud] and ‘foot’

[ˈfʊt].

The other characteristic in students‟ pronunciations errors was leaving

sound out. This happened when students pronounced the word ‘develop’. Some

pronounced it as [ˈdevlop] instead of [dɪˈvɛləp]. This was considered as leaving

sound out because they omited a syllable in the middle. Besides, they also put the

stress in the wrong syllable. Putting stress in the wrong syllable was considered as

one of the characteristic in students‟ pronunciations errors. Because there were

more than one types of errors that occurred, these problems could be classified as

a „combined problems‟ based on Poedjosoedarmo (2003) theories about problems

in pronunciation.

The second formulated problem asked about the causes of those

pronunciation errors. To answer this question, the researcher used the theory of

what affect pronunciation from Kenworthy (1987). Kenworthy (1987) mentions


57

that there are five factors that will affect students pronunciation, (1) the native

language, (2) the age factor, (3) amount of exposure, (4) phonetic ability, and (5)

motivation and concern for good pronunciation.

From the data and research findings, the only factor that does not seem to

be one of the causes of errors is the age factors. The data and findings show that

the students started to learn English at a very young age. Even Kenworthy (1987)

agrees that further research might be needed to support the connection between

age and pronunciation ability. He states that the age factor seems to be the

weakest factor compared to the other factors. Except for the age factors, the other

factor is a match with the data and research findings

B. Recommendations

Based on the findings of this study, the researcher wrote some

recommendations for Indonesian native speakers, English teachers, and future

researchers.

1. For Indonesian Native Speakers

Indonesian native speakers might have disadvantages when it comes to

speak English fluently, mostly because Bahasa Indonesia and English are

different languages with different features. Since that fact cannot be changed,

Indonesian native speakers must find another way to be better at English. First,

Indonesian native speakers must realize the importance of English as an

international language. When Indonesian native speakers realize that, they will be

more motivated to learn English. As stated by Kenworthy (1987), motivation is


58

one of the factors that affect pronunciation. When someone has better motivation,

it is more likely for them to learn more thus resulting in better pronunciation. The

other factor from Kenworthy (1987) that we can change is the amount of exposure

to English. Watch more English movies and listen to more English songs, through

this way Indonesian native speakers will have a higher exposure to English.

Through English language movies and songs, Indonesian native speakers will

indirectly learn the correct pronunciation through the process of imitation.

2. For English Teachers

First, teachers need explain to the students the importance of English

nowadays. Then, teachers must motivate each student so they have willingness to

learn more. English teachers should not design a material that only focus on

theories. English teachers can give students more time to practice their

pronunciation by giving their students more chances to read and to speak in

English. English teachers can give the positive and right feedback until the

students understand what their teachers mean.

3. For Future Researchers

The researcher recommends future researchers to use this study as an

example to analyze pronunciation errors made by Indonesian native speakers.

Future researcher can develop other methods to conduct the same study. Future

researcher can also change the main topic from vowel sounds to consonant or

maybe diphthongs.


59

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Ohala, J.J. (1980). There is no interface between phonology and phonetics: A

personal view. Retreieved on October 21, 2015 from:

http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~ohala/papers/no_interface.pdf

Poedjosoedarmo, G. (2003). Teaching pronunciation: Why, what, when, and how.

Singapore: SEAMEO Regional Language Centre.

Trask, R.L. (1996). A dictionary of phonetics and phonology. New York:

Routledge.


61

APPENDIX A

INTERVIEW PROTOCOL & BLUEPRINT

Interviewer : Audy Kristian Susanto

Location : SMP Kristen Kalam Kudus Yogyakarta

Date : Tuesday, April 12th

, 2016

Total Participant : 22

Interview Length : 80 minutes (±3 minutes for each participant)

The data gathering consisted of two sessions. The first session is oral test. In

the first session, the participants were asked to read 24 English words which

contain English vowel sounds based on the Dardjowidjojo (2009) theories about

English vowel sounds. The researcher used two words for each vowel sound.

Since there are 12 vowels sounds based on the Dardjowidjojo (2009) theories

about English vowel sounds, the researcher had a total of 24 English words to be

read by the participants. The first session was used to answer the first formulated

problem. After finishing the first session, the researcher continued to the second

session. The second session is interview. In the second session, the researcher

asked seven closed-ended questions to the participants. The questions will be

based on Kenworthy (1987) theory about what affect pronunciation. The result

from the second session will be used to answer the second formulated problem.


62

A. SESSION 1

The English words that were used are listed below.

1. Beat

2. Procedure

3. Bit

4. Mid

5. Made

6. Hate

7. Men

8. Bet

9. Bat

10. Man

11. Develop

12. About

13. Above

14. Sun

15. Food

16. Pool

17. Foot

18. Pull

19. Hot

20. Rod

21. Wall

22. Saw

23. Garden

24. Father

B. SESSION 2

Each participant was given a total of 7 closed-ended questions. Each question

represents the theory on what affect pronunciation from Kenworthy (1987). The

interview questions are listed below. The blueprint for session 2 will be displayed

on figure A1.


63

Interview Questions:

1. Apa bahasa yang pertama kali diajarkan kepada kalian?

2. Dalam keseharian di rumah, bahasa apa yang paling sering digunakan untuk

berkomunikasi?

3. Kapan kamu mulai belajar bahasa Inggris?

4. Dari skala 1 sampai 5, seberapa sering kamu menggunakan bahasa Inggris

dalam kehidupan sehari-hari?

5. Apakah kamu mengikuti les bahasa Inggris diluar jam sekolah?

6. Dari skala 1 sampai 5, seberapa baguskah kemampuan Listening

(mendengarkan) bahasa Inggris yang kamu miliki?

7. Dari skala 1 sampai 5, seberapa termotivasi kamu untuk dapat menggunakan

bahasa Inggris dengan baik?

Figure A1 Interview Session 2 Blueprint

SESSION

2

Native Language

The Age Factor

Amount of Exposure

Phonetic Ability

Motivation and

concern for good

pronunciation

Question 1 & 2

Question 3

Question 4 & 5

Question 6

Question 7


64

APPENDIX B

RESULT OF INTERVIEW SESSION I

Participant 1

Vowel

Sounds Words



Pronunciation

Student’s

Pronunciation

i beat [ˈbit] [ˈbɪt] Wrong

procedure [prəˈsidʒə] [proˈsedʊr] Wrong

ɪ bit [ˈbɪt] [ˈbɪt] Correct

mid [ˈmɪd] [ˈmɪd] Correct

e made [ˈmeɪd] [ˈmæd] Wrong

hate [ˈheɪt] [ˈhet] Wrong

ɛ men [ˈmɛn] [ˈmɛn] Correct

bet [ˈbɛt] [ˈbɛt] Correct

æ bat [ˈbæt] [ˈbæt] Correct

man [ˈmæn] [ˈmæn] Correct

ə develop [dɪˈvɛləp] [dɪˈvɛlop] Wrong

about [əˈbaʊt] [əˈbaʊt] Correct

ʌ above [əˈbʌv] [əˈbɔv] Wrong

sun [ˈsʌn] [ˈsʌn] Correct

u food [ˈfud] [ˈfʊt] Wrong

pool [ˈpul] [ˈpʊl] Wrong

ʊ foot [ˈfʊt] [ˈfʊt] Correct

pull [ˈpʊl] [ˈpʊl] Correct

o hot [ˈhot] [ˈhot] Correct

rod [ˈrod] [ˈrod] Correct

ɔ wall [ˈwɔl] [ˈwʌl] Wrong

saw [ˈsɔ] [ˈsʌw] Wrong

ɑ garden [ˈɡɑdən ] [ˈɡʌrdən ] Wrong

father [ˈfɑðə] [ˈfʌðər] Wrong


65

Participant 2

Vowel

Sounds Words



Pronunciation

Student’s

Pronunciation

i beat [ˈbit] [ˈbit] Correct




e made [ˈmeɪd] [ˈmeɪd] Correct

hate [ˈheɪt] [ˈheɪt] Correct



æ bat [ˈbæt] [ˈbɛt] Wrong

man [ˈmæn] [ˈmɛn] Wrong





u food [ˈfud] [ˈfud] Correct

pool [ˈpul] [ˈpul] Correct

ʊ foot [ˈfʊt] [ˈfud] Wrong

pull [ˈpʊl] [ˈpul] Wrong



ɔ wall [ˈwɔl] [ˈwɔl] Correct

saw [ˈsɔ] [ˈʃʌw] Wrong

ɑ garden [ˈɡɑdən ] [ˈɡɑrdən ] Correct

father [ˈfɑðə] [ˈfɑðər] Correct


66

Participant 3

Vowel

Sounds Words



Pronunciation

Student’s

Pronunciation











ə develop [dɪˈvɛləp] [deˈvɛlop] Wrong


ʌ above [əˈbʌv] [əˈbʌv] Correct










ɑ garden [ˈɡɑdən ] [ˈɡɑdən ] Correct

father [ˈfɑðə] [ˈfɑðə] Correct


67

Participant 4

Vowel

Sounds Words



Pronunciation

Student’s

Pronunciation


procedure [prəˈsidʒə] [prəˈsidʒə] Correct











ʌ above [əˈbʌv] [əˈbov] Wrong









saw [ˈsɔ] [ˈsɔ] Correct




68

Participant 5

Vowel

Sounds Words



Pronunciation

Student’s

Pronunciation


procedure [prəˈsidʒə] [proˈdʒus] Wrong


mid [ˈmɪd] [ˈmaɪd] Wrong






















69

Participant 6

Vowel

Sounds Words



Pronunciation

Student’s

Pronunciation






hate [ˈheɪt] [ˈhɛt] Wrong





ə develop [dɪˈvɛləp] [ˈdevlop] Wrong















70

Participant 7

Vowel

Sounds Words



Pronunciation

Student’s

Pronunciation


procedure [prəˈsidʒə] [prəˈsədʒə] Wrong
























71

Participant 8

Vowel

Sounds Words



Pronunciation

Student’s

Pronunciation



ɪ bit [ˈbɪt] [ˈbaɪt] Wrong

mid [ˈmɪd] [ˈmit] Wrong





æ bat [ˈbæt] [ˈbʌt] Wrong











rod [ˈrod] [ˈrəʊd] Wrong






72

Participant 9

Vowel

Sounds Words



Pronunciation

Student’s

Pronunciation




mid [ˈmɪd] [ˈmaɪd] Wrong








about [əˈbaʊt] [əˈbot] Correct














73

Participant 10

Vowel

Sounds Words



Pronunciation

Student’s

Pronunciation


























74

Participant 11

Vowel

Sounds Words



Pronunciation

Student’s

Pronunciation











ə develop [dɪˈvɛləp] [dəˈvɛləp] Correct















75

Participant 12

Vowel

Sounds Words



Pronunciation

Student’s

Pronunciation











ə develop [dɪˈvɛləp] [ˈdevlop] Wrong






ʊ foot [ˈfʊt] [ˈfut] Wrong









76

Participant 13

Vowel

Sounds Words



Pronunciation

Student’s

Pronunciation




mid [ˈmɪd] [ˈmɪt] Correct







ə develop [dɪˈvɛləp] [dəˈvɛlop] Wrong















77

Participant 14

Vowel

Sounds Words



Pronunciation

Student’s

Pronunciation











ə develop [dɪˈvɛləp] [dɪˈvɛləp] Correct









rod [ˈrod] [ˈrud] Wrong






78

Participant 15

Vowel

Sounds Words



Pronunciation

Student’s

Pronunciation




mid [ˈmɪd] [ˈmaɪt] Wrong

e made [ˈmeɪd] [ˈmɛt] Wrong

hate [ˈheɪt] [ˈhɛt] Wrong














rod [ˈrod] [ˈrʊd] Wrong






79

Participant 16

Vowel

Sounds Words



Pronunciation

Student’s

Pronunciation


procedure [prəˈsidʒə] [prɔsəˈdər] Wrong
























80

Participant 17

Vowel

Sounds Words



Pronunciation

Student’s

Pronunciation


procedure [prəˈsidʒə] [proˈsədʒə] Wrong
























81

Participant 18

Vowel

Sounds Words



Pronunciation

Student’s

Pronunciation


























82

Participant 19

Vowel

Sounds Words



Pronunciation

Student’s

Pronunciation





e made [ˈmeɪd] [ˈmɪd] Wrong






ə develop [dɪˈvɛləp] [deˈvelop] Wrong















83

Participant 20

Vowel

Sounds Words



Pronunciation

Student’s

Pronunciation




















rod [ˈrod] [ˈrud] Wrong


saw [ˈsɔ] [ˈʃʌw] Wrong




84

Participant 21

Vowel

Sounds Words



Pronunciation

Student’s

Pronunciation



ɪ bit [ˈbɪt] [ˈbit] Wrong

mid [ˈmɪd] [ˈmid] Wrong













ʊ foot [ˈfʊt] [ˈfut] Wrong









85

Participant 22

Vowel

Sounds Words



Pronunciation

Student’s

Pronunciation


























86

General Summary of the Data Based On Words

Vowel

Sounds Words Correct Answer Wrong Answer

i beat 13 9

procedure 4 18

ɪ bit 17 5

mid 15 7

e made 19 3

hate 19 3

ɛ men 22 0

bet 22 0

æ bat 16 6

man 17 5

ə develop 2 20

about 22 0

ʌ above 8 14

sun 22 0

u food 15 7

pool 15 7

ʊ foot 17 5

pull 17 5

o hot 22 0

rod 18 4

ɔ wall 21 1

saw 8 14

ɑ garden 21 1

father 21 1


87

General Summary of the Data Based On Participants

Participant Number Correct Answer Wrong Answer

P1 12 12

P2 16 8

P3 21 3

P4 22 2

P5 15 7

P6 16 8

P7 21 3

P8 15 10

P9 20 4

P10 22 2

P11 25 0

P12 17 7

P13 20 4

P14 19 5

P15 11 13

P16 16 8

P17 20 4

P18 14 10

P19 17 7

P20 17 7

P21 17 7

P22 20 4


88

APPENDIX C

RESULT OF INTERVIEW SESSION II

Participant Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7

1 Bahasa

Indonesia

Bahasa

Indonesia

TK

(4-5 tahun) 3 Tidak 3 2

2 Bahasa

Indonesia

Bahasa

Indonesia

TK


3 Bahasa

Indonesia

Bahasa

Indonesia 0-3 tahun 3

Ya, 2 kali

per minggu. 4 4

4 Bahasa

Indonesia

Bahasa

Indonesia 0-3 tahun 3 Tidak 4 4

5 Bahasa

Indonesia

Bahasa

Indonesia

TK

(4-5 tahun) 3

Ya, 2 kali

per minggu. 3 4

6 Bahasa

Indonesia

Bahasa

Indonesia

TK


7 Bahasa

Indonesia

Bahasa

Indonesia

TK


8 Bahasa

Indonesia

Bahasa

Indonesia

TK


9 Bahasa

Indonesia

Bahasa

Indonesia

TK


10 Bahasa

Indonesia

Bahasa


Ya, 2 kali

per minggu. 4 5


89

Participant Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7

11 Bahasa

Indonesia

Bahasa

Indonesia

SD

(6-11 tahun) 3

Ya, 1 kali

per minggu. 3 4

12 Bahasa

Indonesia

Bahasa

Indonesia

TK


13 Bahasa

Indonesia

Bahasa

Indonesia

TK


14 Bahasa

Indonesia

Bahasa

Indonesia

TK


15 Bahasa

Indonesia

Bahasa

Indonesia

TK


16 Bahasa

Indonesia

Bahasa

Indonesia

TK

(4-5 tahun) 3

Ya, 2 kali

per minggu. 3 4

17 Bahasa

Indonesia

Bahasa


Ya, 2 kali

per minggu. 4 5

18 Bahasa

Indonesia

Bahasa


19 Bahasa

Indonesia

Bahasa

Indonesia

TK

(4-5 tahun) 4

Ya, 2 kali

per minggu. 3 3

20 Bahasa

Indonesia

Bahasa

Indonesia

TK


21 Bahasa

Indonesia

Bahasa

Indonesia

SD


22 Bahasa

Indonesia

Bahasa



Documents

ENGLISH VOWEL SOUND MISPRONUNCIATIONS … · Hal tersebut terjadi karena kata-kata dalam Bahasa Inggris dilafalkan berbeda dari ejaan mereka. Oleh karena itu, peneliti melakukan penelitian