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13 Rut Esterlina Sipahutar, S.Pd Some Linguistic Features of a Four and Half-Year-Old Child’s Language Acquisition and Its Significance in Teaching and Learning Process
14 David Berthony Manalu, M.Pd The Batak Toba Students’ Typical Problems in English Pronunciation
15 Bobby P.S Dhillon, M.Ed Lecturers’ Beliefs about Teaching Reading Strategies and Their Classroom Practices: A Case Study at Teacher Training Faculty of HKBP Nommensen University Pematangsiantar
16 Marnala Pangaribuan, M.Hum The Correlation of Metacognitive Performance towards Writing Ability in FKIP UHN Pematangsiantar
17 Dedi Suresman, S.Pd Improving Speaking Skill of Grade Seven of SMP SATRYA BUDI Karangrejo based on Sociolinguistics Approach
18 Herman, M.Pd An Indispensable Tool in Translation at Sixth Semester of Nommensen University Pematangsiantar
19 Joko Marganda Zose Rizal Hutagaol
The Implementation of Character-Based Education in Teaching English through Contextual Teaching Learning Method (CTL) and Teaching Collaboration 20 Nurianti Sihombing, S.S The Use of Word Stresses in the Same Written Forms
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21 Kristonny Panjaitan, S.Pd English Language Acquisition of Santa Lucia Autistic Students Pematangsiantar
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THE ɒɑTɑK TOɒɑ STUDENTS’
TYPICAL PROBLEMS IN
ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION
David Berthony Manalu Universitas HKBP Nommensen manaludavidberthony@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
This research is conducted to find out the students’ problems in pronouncing English words which is focused on English vowels, diphthongs, and consonants. This research occupies qualitative analysis. The subjects are the grade 11 students of STM HKBP Pematangsiantar. Those students come from Batak Toba cultural background. The data is analyzed by first transcribing the students’ voice into phonetic transcription, and then comparing them to the Standard English Pronunciation, after that identifying the students’ problems. The researcher find out that the interference of students’ mother tongue, namely: Batak Toba language, made the students difficult to pronounce some English phonemes, such as (1) vowels /ə/, and /ɜː/; (2) diphthongs /eɪ/, /əʊ/, /eə/, /ɪə/, and /ʊə/; (3) consonants /ð/, /θ/, /ʃ/, /tʃ/, /ʒ/, /f/, /v/, and /z/; and (4) suffix –s /z/ or /s/, and suffix–ed /d/ or /t/ or /id/. In conclusion, the cause of the interference of mother tongue in the students’ pronunciation is the absence of such phonemes in ‘Aksara Batak’ (Batak’s Script). The researcher suggests English teachers to introduce English phonemes (consonants, vowels, and diphthongs) and stress to class of beginner, and to be a good model in teaching pronunciation.
Key Words: Pronunciation, vowels, diphthongs, consonants, mother-tongue
I. INRODUCTION
Pronunciation is recognized as a fundamental ability which students should acquire, primarily because it can affect accuracy and comprehension. Many learners of English have major difficulties with pronunciation. Therefore, the emphasis on teaching correct pronunciation i.e. recognizing errors in pronunciation and correcting them is necessary for an improvement of student’s pronunciation ability.
In general, it is found that English Foreign Language (EFL) students encounter some common difficulties when learning foreign language pronunciation. According to Brown (1994: 284), the factors that cause these difficulties are phonological differences between their native language (L1) and their second language/foreign language (L2). He proposes six factors that affect learner’s pronunciation, i.e., native language, age, experience, innate phonetic ability, identity and language ego, and motivation and concern for good pronunciation ability.
Clearly, the native language is the most influential factor affecting a learner’s pronunciation. If the teacher is familiar with the sound system of the learners’ native language, he will be better able to diagnose the student difficulties. Since the learners freely bring their different accents from their native language in the English classroom, then their English pronunciations sound awkward. This made a big problem to learning English pronunciation.
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vocabulary tends to be the second matters. Language learners, on the other hand, often show considerable enthusiasm for pronunciation. They feel it is something that would help them to communicate better. So, even though both teachers and learners are keeping in on the subject, it is often neglected.
Identification and recognition of the speech sounds will certainly help the foreign learners understand continuous stream of speech sounds used in real communication. In other words, the ability to identify and recognize the quality of the speech sounds will certainly help the student to know how the speech sounds are to be uttered.
The variables in mother tongue that hinder effective communication in English are caused by differences in phonetics. Most languages, for instance, do not use, or pronounce, the combination in the same way as it is pronounced in the English language.
II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.1 English Pronunciation
Skandera and Burleigh (2005: 5) stated that pronunciation deals with the speaker’s knowledge of the sound system of a language. It is therefore exclusively concerned with competence. It can be divided into two branches: segmental and suprasegmental pronunciation.
Segmental pronunciation is based on the segmentation of language into individual speech sounds provided by phonetics. Unlike phonetics, however, segmental pronunciation is not interested in the production, the physical properties, or the perception of sounds, but in the function and possible combination of sounds within the sound system. While suprasegmental pronunciation (also called as prosody) is connected with those features of pronunciation that cannot be segmented because they extend over more than one segment, or sound. Such features include stress, rhythm, and intonation (also called as pitch contour or pitch movement).
2.2 English Consonants
Consonants are sounds that are produced by an obstruction of an air-stream either in the pharynx or in the vocal tract. There are 24 consonant phonemes in Received Pronunciation (RP) and in most other accents of English (Skandera & Burleigh, 2005: 20). Consonant is regarded as a typical speech sound that is articulated either with complete or partial closure of the air stream in the mouth cavity by means of certain speech organ. The features of consonants can be determined by three main aspects they are: place of articulation, manner of articulation and vibration of the vocal cords (voiced and voiceless). The English consonants can be drawn as in the following chart:
Stress Rhythm Intonation
Segmental Suprasegmental
Pronunciation
Consonants Vowels
103 sounds; moreover, the escape of the air is caracteristically accomplished in an unimpeded way over the middle line of the tounge (Gimson, 2001:33)
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2.4 English Diphthongs
A diphthong is a glide from one vowel to another, and the whole glide acts like one of the long, simple vowel (Connor, 1980: 84). Diphthongs can be divided into two groups, namely: rising and centring diphthongs. The rising diphthongs are those ending in high vowels such as /ɪ/ and /ʊ/.
The English rising diphthongs are: /eɪ/, /aɪ/, /ɔɪ/, /aʊ/, and /oʊ/ (for strong form) or /əʊ/ (for weak form). While, the English centring diphthongs are those ending in /ə/ such as: /eə/, /ɪə/, and /ʊə/.
III. RESEARCH METHOD
This research is a descriptive qualitative study because it concerns with the natural context of students’ pronunciation. The subjects are the grade 11 students of STM HKBP Pematangsiantar. Those students come from Batak Toba cultural background. The data is analyzed based on some techniques:
1. Repeatedly listening to the recorded data.
2. Transcribing the students’ pronunciation by using the IPA phonetic symbol.
3. Finding out the students’ problems in pronouncing English vowels, diphthongs, and consonants. 4. Classifying the students’ problems.
5. Drawing conclusion pertaining to their problems
IV. DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDING
Below is sample of data analysis.
1) He says that he wants us to take it away
Student : /hi ˈses dɜt hi ˈwonts ʌs ˈtuː ˈtek ɪt ɜˈweɪ/ Standard English : /hi ˈseɪz ðæt hi ˈw nts ʌs ˈtuː ˈteɪk ɪt əˈweɪ/
2) You turn to the right at the end of the street
Student : /juː ˈtʌrn tu dɜ ˈraɪt et dɜ ˈend op dɜˈstriːt/ Standard English : /juː ˈtɜːn tə ðə ˈraɪt ət ði ˈend əv ðə ˈstriːt/
3) My friend has just sold two very fine old paintings
Student : /maɪ ˈprend hɜs ˈdʒʌst ˈsold ˈtuː ˈperi ˈpaɪn ˈold ˈpentɪŋ/ Standard English :/maɪ ˈfrend həz ˈdʒʌst ˈsəʊld ˈtuː ˈveri ˈfaɪn ˈəʊld ˈpeɪntɪŋ/
4) I drank a cup of coffee this morning
Student : /aɪ drɪŋk ɜkʌp op ˈkopi dɪs ˈmornɪŋ/ Standard English : /aɪ dræŋk ə kʌp əv ˈk fi ðɪs ˈmɔː.nɪŋ/ 5) I have taken my cloth to be cleaned
Student : /aɪ hæp ˈtæken maɪ ˈklot tu bi ˈklend/ Standard English : /aɪ hæv ˈteɪkən maɪ ˈkl θ tə bi ˈkliːnd/
6) They can’t forget the things he said
Student : /deɪ kɜnt ˈporget dɜˈtɪŋs hi ˈsed/ Standard English : /ðeɪ kənt fəˈget ðə ˈθɪŋs hi ˈsed/ 7) She gave me much money yesterday
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Standard English : /ʃi ˈgeɪv mɪ mʌtʃ ˈmʌni ˈjestədeɪ/
8) She has gone for a walk in the park with my brother
Student : /si hɜs ˈgon por æ ˈwolk ɪn de ˈp rk wɪt maɪ ˈbrʌder/ Standard English : /ʃi həz ˈg n fə ə ˈwɔːk ɪn ðə ˈp ːk wɪð maɪ ˈbrʌðə/
9) All the people run away when the earthquake happened
Student : /ol de ˈpiːpel ˈrʌn ɜˈweɪ wen de ˈertkwɪk ˈhæpend/ Standard English : /ɔːl ðə ˈpiːpl ˈrʌn əˈweɪ wen ðə ˈɜːθ.kweɪk ˈhæpənd/
10)The engineer is repairing the gear of his car
Student : /de endˈʒɪnerɪs ˈreperɪŋ de gear op hɪs k r/ Standard English : /ði endʒɪˈnɪərɪz rɪˈpeərɪŋ ðə gɪə əv hɪz k ːr/
From the comparison of student’s pronunciation and the Standard English pronunciation above, the analysis are as follows:
a. Pronouncing Vowels
The phonetic transcription from the student’s voice is not relevant with the Standard English in pronouncing vowels such as:
- /ə/ is pronounced with /ɜ/ in ‘away’ /ɜˈweɪ/, ‘the’ /dɜ/.
- /ə/ is pronounced with /e/ in ‘taken’ /tæken/, ‘yesterday’ /jesterˈdeɪ/, ‘brother’ /brʌder/, ‘people’ /piːpel/, ‘happened’ /hæpend/
- /ɜː/ is pronounced with /
ʌ
/ in ‘turn’ /tʌrn/ - /æ/ is pronounced with /ɪ/ in ‘drank’ /drɪŋk/- /i/ is pronounced with /æ/ in article ‘the’ /dæ/ preceded by vowel beginning word ‘end’. - /i/ is pronounced with /e/ in ‘repairing’ /ˈreperɪŋ/
- /i:/ is pronounced with /e/ in ‘cleaned’ /klend/ b. Pronouncing Diphthongs
The phonetic transcription from the student’s voice is not relevant with the Standard English in pronouncing diphthongs such as:
- /eɪ/is pronounced with /e/ in ‘says’ /sez/, ‘take’ /tek/, ‘gave’ /gep/. There is omission of vowel /ɪ/
- /eɪ/ is pronounced with /
ɪ/ in ‘earthquake’
/ertkwɪk/. There is omission of vowel /e/ - /eə/is pronounced with /e/ in ‘repairing’ /ˈreperɪŋ/- /ɪə/is pronounced with /e/ in ‘engineer’ /endˈʒɪner/
- /ɪə/ is pronounced with /ea/ in ‘gear’ /gear/
- /əʊ/ is pronounced with /o/ in ‘sold’ /sold/, ‘old’ /old/
c. Pronouncing Consonants
The phonetic transcription from the student’s voice is not relevant with the Standard English in pronouncing consonants such as:
- /ð/ is pronounced with /d/ in ‘that’ /dæt/, ‘this’ /dis/, ‘the’ /dæ/, ‘they’ /dei/, , ‘brother’ /brʌder/ - /ð/ is pronounced with /t/ in ‘with’ /wit/
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After analyzing the data, the researcher discovers that the interference of students’ mother tongue, in this case Batak Toba language, made them difficult to pronounce some English phonemes.
The students omit one of the vowels from the diphthong in a word. For instance, they pronounce /tek/ for verb ‘take’ where it should be pronounced with /teɪk/, or in pronouncing noun ‘engineer’ with /endˈʒɪner/ instead of /endʒɪˈnɪər/.
3. pronouncing consonants, such as: /ð/, /θ/, /ʃ/, /tʃ/, /ʒ/, /f/, /v/, and /z/
The students find it hard to distinguish phoneme /ð/ to /d/, /θ/ to /t/, /ʃ/ to /s/, /tʃ/ to /c/ or /s/, /ʒ/ to /s/, /f/ to /p/, /v/ to /p/, and /z/ to /s/. For instance, instead of pronouncing /ðeɪ/ for pronoun ‘they’, the students change the consonant /ð/ to /d/ becomes /dei/. Another example is /θɪŋs/ for word ‘things’ has been pronounced by the students with /tings/
The students’ problems above can be simplified into table as follows: Table 1. The comparison of English vowels and students’ vowels
English
Table 2. The comparison of English diphthongs and students’ vowels English
Table 3. The comparison of English consonants and students’ consonants English
Diphthongs
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/ð/ /d/
/θ/ /t/
/ʃ/ /s/
/tʃ/ /c/ or /s/
/ʒ/ /s/
/f/ /p/
/v/ /p/
/z/ /s/
V. CONCLUSION
The students’ problems in pronouncing English words above are caused by the interference of the students’ mother tongue, namely: Batak Toba language. In Batak Toba phoneme (Aksara Batak), there are no phonemes such as vowels /ə/, and /ɜː/; and consonants /ð/, /θ/, /ʃ/, /tʃ/, /ʒ/, /f/, /v/, and /z/. Since the research subjects are the students who are used to speak Batak Toba language in their daily life, so it is obvious that they find it difficult to pronounce such phonemes by themselves.
But, there is always solution for every problem. It is the great responsibility of an English teacher to teach and train better English pronunciation to his/her students. Teacher should speak and read at a normal speed so that the students will not get used to a pace different to that which they hear outside the classroom. When speaking or reading, it is important to the teacher to read or speak with more expression so making the pronunciation deliberately more audible. Moreover, it is easier for an EFL (English as foreign language) student to copy and remember an excited expression.
REFERENCES
1) Brosnahan, L.F and B. Malmberg. 1970. Introduction to Phonetics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2) Brown, Douglas. 1994. Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy, Second Edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
3) Gimson, A.C. 1962. An Introduction to Pronunciation of English. London: Edward Arnold. 4) Haycraft, Brita. 1971. The Teaching of Pronunciation. London: Longman.
5) Jones, Daniel. 1979. An Outline of English Phonetics, New Delhi: Kalyani Publishers. 6) Kelly, Gerald. 2000. How to Teach Pronunciation. Edinburgh: Pearson Education Limited. 7) Kenworthy, Joanne. 1987. Teaching English Pronunciation. New York: Longman.
8) O’Connor, J. D. 1980. Better English Pronunciation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 9) Roach, Peter. 2000. English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course, Second Edition.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
