THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL LIFE ON THE DIFFERENCES
OF PRONUNCIATION IN “FREEDOM WRITER” MOVIE
THESIS
By:
Qulatul Maulidiyah
201010100311089
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF MUHAMMADIYAH MALANG
THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL LIFE ON THE DIFFERENCES
OF PRONUNCI
ATION IN “FREEDOM WRITER” MOVIE
THESIS
This thesis is submitted to meet one of the requirements to achieve
Sarjana Degree in English Language Education Department
By:
Qulatul Maulidiyah
201010100311089
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF MUHAMMADIYAH MALANG
ORIGINALITY DECLARATION
The undersigned:
Name : Qulatul Maulidiyah
Student ID number : 201010100311089
Program of Study : English Department
Faculty : Faculty of Teacher Training and Education
I declare that the work presented in this thesis was carried out by myself and does
not incorporate without acknowledgement any material previously submitted for a
degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge this thesis does
not contain any materials previously publish or written by another person except
MOTTO AND DEDICATION
MOTTO:
“Ridho Allah terdapat
pada ridho orang tua dan
kemurkaan Allah terdapat pada kemurkaan orang
tua”
(H.R. Muslim)
“Bersyukur, maka
kebahagiaan dunia dan akhirat
akan kau
dapatkan”
(QulatulMaulidiyah)
DEDICATION
I dedicate this thesis especially for:
My beloved father and mother,
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
First of all, the writer would like to give the most appreciation and the
greatest thanks belong to Allah SWT, the lord of the universe and the there after.
He guided us with all His Mercy and Blessing given to the writer in finishing her
thesis. Besides, assholatuwassalamu ‘alarasulillah, peace and blessing is upon to
our beloved Prophet Muhammad SAW who brought the lightness from the
darkness.
The writer would like to address her sincere gratitude to her beloved parents,
Sulkan and Djumaia for their great love, affection and tremendous motivation so
that the writer can finish this thesis. Then, the writer really thanks for the wonders
of their prayers because the writer believe that the blessing of Allah SWT are the
blessing of parents.
Besides, a special thanks to the writer’s young beloved brother,Shodik Nur
Firdaus and for Annisa Zukhrufa Jannah as the writer’s beloved young sister,their
prayers and valuable motivations which are very useful for the writer.
The writer also would like to express her deepest gratitude to the individuals
for helping her to finish this thesis and for their contribution in the process of
writing until it had become a complete thesis. They are as follows:
1. Drs. Jarum, M.Ed as the writer’s first advisor. A special thanks for his
valuable guidance, wide knowledge, encouragement, patient, advice, and
2. Drs.Taufiq Burhan, M.Pd as the writer’s second advisor who has guided the
writer with her great correction, suggestion, and experience, knowledge to
improve the quality of this thesis.
3. All lecturers of English Language Education Department of FKIP UMM, who
have given many knowledge to the writer. Then, thanks for their guidance,
instruction and help during study at this university.
4. The writer’s beloved friends, Elsa and Mput. Thanks for giving her joyful
days and beautiful togetherness. Besides, the writer really thanks for their
great motivation to finish this thesis.
5. The writer’s lovely friend, FRANDIANSYAH ANDAN NUGROHO. Thanks
for always accompanied her in doing this thesis and support her when she felt
down.
6. Thanks to AONS MALANG, without you all in this big city, I am nothing.
7. There are some people who have helped the writer during the process of
conducting this thesis whose names are not mentioned here.
May Allah SWT, The Almighty and The Merciful, bless them all. The writer
realizes that this thesis is still far from being perfect. Therefore, suggestion and
criticisms will be accepted for the improvement of this thesis.
The Writer,
TABLE OF CONTENTS
APPROVAL ... i
LEGALIZATION ... ii
ORIGINALITY DECLARATION ... iii
MOTTO AND DEDICATION ... iv
ABSTRACT ... v
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ... vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... viii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 2.1 Language and Society ... 8
2.2 Social Life ... 9
2.3 Pronunciation ... 10
2.4 Features of English Pronunciation ... 10
2.4.1 Segmental Features ... 11
2.4.2Supra Segmental Features ... 16
2.4.2.1 Stress ... 17
2.4.2.2 Intonation ... 17
2.5.1 Rhotic and non Rhotic Accent ... 18
2.5.2 Differences in Vowel Pronunciation ... 18
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Resign Design ... 20
3.2 Object of the Study... 21
3.3 Research Instrument ... 21
3.4 Data Collection ... 21
3.5 Data Analysis ... 22
CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 4.1 Research Findings ... 23
4.1.1 Differences in Pronunciation ... 23
4.1.2 Social Life Influence in the Differences of Pronunciation ... 27
4.2 Discussion ... 29
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION 5.1 Conclusion ... 31
5.2 Suggestions ... 32
REFERENCES ... 33
APPENDIX Synopsis of “Freedom Writer” Movie ... 35
REFERENCES
Andrew, Damon P.S., Pedersen, Paul M &McEvoy Chad, D. 2011. Research Methods and Design in Sport Management. USA.
Ary, Donald. Jacobs, Lucy Cheser., Sorenson, Christine K & Razavieh, Asghar. 2010. Introduction to Research in Education (8thed.). Canada: Nelson Education, Ltd.
Bloomingdale, Alex & Satoris, Brad. 2009. The Freedom Writers Diary Summary.
Retrieved from https://www.enotes.com/topics/the-freedom-writers-diary Coupland, Nikolas & Jaworski, Adam. 1997. Modern Linguistics. Sociolinguistics.
A Reader and coursebook. United States of America: St. Martin’s Press,
INC.
Fromkin, Victoria., Rodman, Robert & Hyams, Nina. 2003. An Introduction to Language, 7th ed. Australia.
Hornby, S A. 1995. Oxford Advanced learner’s Dictionary (Fifth edition). Oxford University Press.
Jendra, Made Iwan Indrawan. 2010. SOCIOLINGUISTICS, The Study of Societies’
Languages. Yogyakarta.
Kelly, Gerald. 2000. How to Teach Pronunciation. England.
Laurie, Bauer. 2002. An Introduction to International Varieties of English. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, Ltd 22 George Square.
Lunenburg, Fred C & Irby, Beverly J. 2006. The Principalship: Vision to Action.
USA: Thomson Wadsworth.
Mack W, Raymond., Pease John. 1973. Sociology and Social Life. Newyork: D. Van Nostrand Company 450 West 33�� Street.
Mesthrie, Rajend., Swann, Joan., Deumert, Andrea & Leap, William. 2000. Introducing Sociolinguistics. Edinburgh. Edinburgh University Press. Odgen, Richard. 2009. An Introduction to English Phonetics. Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press.
Roach, Peter. 2000. English Phonetic and Phonology. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
Roach, Peter. 2009. English Phonetics and Phonology. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
Sands, Laura M. 2015. What is Social Behavior?. Retrieved from https://m.Wisegeek.org/what-are-social-life-influences.htm
Staff, IMDb. 2007. Synopsis for Freedom Writer. Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0463998/synopsis?ref_=ttpl_pl_syn
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This chapter consists of the introduction of the study, covering background of
the study, statement of the problems, purpose of the study, significance of the study,
scope and limitation, and definition of the key terms.
1.1Background of the Study
Every human being is born into the groups and spends a lifetime in patterned
social relations. Everything people do like crossing the street, choosing a mate, or
buying new clothing is closely bound up with what people expect from others and
with what others expect and accept from them. All human beings are social. People
have to interact with other people in order to survive.
One of the ways to do the social interaction is by holding a communication.
Lunenburg (2006:222) explains that communication can be defined as the process
of transmitting information and common understanding from one person to another.
To do this process, people need a tool which is known as language. Besides, an
important fact about behavior of human beings in relation to their social
environment is linguistic behavior.
Man is constantly using language and man is constantly linked to others via
shared norms of behavior. There are two aspects of the interaction of human
behavior that cannot be separated; the use of language and the behavior of social
life. Talking about language and society, Fishman, in Jaworski and Coupland, states
that the sociology of language is focuses not only the language usage but also
language attitudes and overt behaviors toward language and toward language users
2
Moreover, Trudgill expresses that language is not just a term which refers to the
process of conveying meaning, referring to the ideas, or communicating
information (1983:13). Language is an indexical of one’s social class, status, region
of origin, gender, age of group and so on (Mesthrie, et.al.2000:6).
Concerning for the human communication, automatically our mind has been
guided in different languageused in societies. Wardhaugh, in Mesthrie, et.al.
(2000:1) states that language as a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human
communication. This definition stresses that the basic to build the language is
spoken words which combine sounds with meaning. There is more to the
relationship between sound and meaning than is dream of in normal linguistic
theory.
All speakers of English can talk to each other and understand each other. Not
only between two speakers but also more than that and they have some differences
between each other; age, sex, size, speech rates, and whether English as a first
language. Besides, Fromkin, et.al. has stated that word choices, the pronunciation
of words, and grammatical rules are the other of differences (2003:445).
Every time people open mouth, they give to other people the important clues
what kind of people they are: where they come from, what social class they belong
to, even their sex and age. This information says something that consider the
speaker identity; about individuality and about social, national, and ethnic groups.
Language and identity can involve entirely different languages. The differences in
the speech of people belonging to different social class in a community. In most
communities, social classes are usually brought into relief the differences in the
3
People who come from different geographical places, from different social
classes, of different ages, and different educational background can be seen from
their different pronunciation which is called accent (Roach, 2009:14). The word
accent is often focused on dialect. According to Roach, dialect refers to a variety of
a language which is different from others not just in pronunciation but also in
vocabulary, grammar, and word order (2009:14). On the other hand, it different
from accent, accent is refer to a variety of pronunciation differences only. Than,
regional phonological or phonetic distinctions are often referred to as different
accent.
There are some linguistics’ branches, one of them is phonology. Fromkin, et.al.
states that phonology is a part of English study that deals with the ways in which
speech sound form system and pattern (2003:273). Besides, according to Giegerich,
in Pamungkas, states that phonology investigates the regularities that govern the
phonetics realizations of sounds in the words of language (2013:2). One of the
important parts in phonology is phonetic symbol. Phonology is a branch of
‘humanities’ while phonetics is ‘natural science’.
In addition, Dardjowidjojo, in Pamungkas (2013:2), states that phonetics is a
science that deals with the sounds of human languange. Phonetic symbol is a written
character used in phonetic transcription of represents a particular speech
sound.Phonetic symbol has connection with pronunciation practice. Pronunciation
is the way in which word spoken by sound, whereas phonetic symbol is the way
pronunciation is written.
There are some previous study talked about the differences of language that use
4
study tried to find out the different pronunciation used by main characters in “The
Holiday” movie. It deals with the study about the different pronunciation between
British and American people. In this thesis, which entitled a study on the differences
between British and American pronunciation used by main characters in Holiday
movie, she found several differences in sounds pattern used by main characters in
“The Holiday” movie. Different speech sounds are used in a language to make
different word sound different, so that each meaning is connected with a different
phonetic form. She added that this difference is most commonly found between
British and American pronunciation. There are rhotic and non-rhotic accent, change
of diphthong, and change of vowel.
Furthermore, this study is focused on analyzing different pronunciations
because of the social life influence in “Freedom Writer” movie. The writer takes
this area because this movie is one of the inspiring movie. It is based on the true
story, when Erin Gruwell as the teacher was assigned a class full of students who
were labeled “at risk,” she had no idea the challenges she would face. The students
came from different geographical places; there is Little Cambodia, the Ghetto,
Wonder Bread Land, and South of the Border or Little Tijuana and diferent
educational background. Their speech are different of one student between another
one. However, she never give up, she hold them to do something different,
something memorable, something powerful and humane. She was done something
that useful for the teacher; The Freedom Writers Diary. As explained by
Bloomingdale and Satoris in www.enotes.com that many teacher implement the
5
1.2Statement of the Problems
Based on the background of the study, the research problem is formulated to
carry out this study in the following description;
1) What are the differences in pronunciations between the characters in “Freedom
Writer” movie?
2) How does the social life influence the differences of pronunciation in “Freedom
Writer” movie?
1.3Purpose of the Study
In line with the problem of the study, the objective of this study was taken from
the whole dialogues of movie related to the problem of the study and the general
purpose is:
1) To describe the differences in pronunciation between the characters in
“Freedom Writer” movie.
2) To describe the influence of social life on the differences of pronunciation in
“Freedom Writer” movie.
1.4Significance of the Study
By conducting this study, the writer expects that the findings will be useful to
enlarge our knowledge of pronunciation especially in studying features of English
pronunciation. On the other hand, the result of this study has both theoretical and
practical values. Theoretically, this study is important for the reader to know more
about the differences pronunciation because of the social life influence in the movie.
Practically, the result of the study are expected can increase the students
6
Besides, for the teacher, this study could be used as an additional reference material
in studying and teaching linguistics. Moreover, it can be useful as reference for the
related study.
1.5Scope and Limitation
The scope of the study is the influence of social life on the differences of
pronunciation in “Freedom Writer” movie. There are some social life that influence
the differences of pronunciation, like different geographical places, different social
classes, and different ethnicity. The writer focused on the different ethnicity.
Moreover, the limitation in this study is based on the same words spoken by the
characters in the “Freedom Writer” movie.
1.6Definition of the Key Terms
There are many others meaning of language terms, which are used in
communication. The definition of key terms given in this study in order to avoid
mistakes and misunderstanding of the contents of the study. The terms which are
necessary to be defined are as follows:
1. Social life influence is the sum of all things that may change or have some effect
on a person’s behavior, thoughts, actions, or feelings (Sands, 2015).
2. Differences is the plural of difference. It is the state or way in which two people
or things are not the same, or in which somebody or something has changed
(Oxford Advanced learner’s Dictionary, 1948:321).
3. Pronunciation is the way in which a language is spoken (Oxford Advanced
7
4. Freedom writer is the true story of English teacher Erin Gruwel and her first
teaching assignment in Long Beach, California, working with students other
