ABSTRACT
Kenyar, Nina. 2009. The Mastery of Stress Placement of Nouns among the Second Semester Students of the English Language Education Study Program. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Department of Language and Arts Education, Faculty of Teachers Training and Education, Sanata Dharma University.
This study aimed to investigate the mastery of stress placement of nouns among the second semester students of the English Language Education Study Program. There were two research questions: (1) How well is the students’ mastery of stress placement of disyllabic nouns, trisyllabic nouns, tetrasyllabic nouns, affix nouns, and compound nouns? (2) What errors do they make toward the disyllabic nouns, trisyllabic nouns, tetrasyllabic nouns, affix nouns, and compound nouns?
To answer the research questions, the researcher used content analysis and library research. In content analysis, the writer analyzed the data which were the students’ speeches that had been recorded. The data were gathered by recording students’ speeches when they were doing Interactional Speech II test. Furthermore, library research was used to obtain the theory of stress placement of noun. Those theories were applied to analyze the data and to draw conclusion.
After conducting the research, the writer discovered that the second semester students of the English Language Education Study Program had not mastered the stress placement of nouns yet. The conclusion was derived from the results of the study which were all below 49% and classified as ‘the students do not master nouns stress placement yet’. Moreover, there were three kinds of errors made by the participants. The first kind of word stress errors the participants made was misplacing the stress. The stress that was supposed to fall on the first syllable would fall on the second syllable. The second kind of word stress errors made by the participants was double-stressing the word that actually only have one stressed syllable. The trisyllabic word that was supposed to have stress on its first syllable would have stress on its first and third syllables. This error only happened to the words that had three syllables or more. The last kind of word stress errors found was the participants put the equal stress to the syllables, either both syllables unstressed or even stressed. Finally, the researcher expected the students to consult the dictionary in order to acquire knowledge about word stress placement.
ABSTRAK
Kenyar, Nina. 2009. The Mastery of Stress Placement of Nouns among the Second Semester Students of the English Language Education Study Program. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Jurusan Pendidikan Bahasa dan Seni, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Studi ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji penguasaan mahasiswa semester dua Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris terhadap penempatan tekanan kata pada kata-kata benda. Terdapat dua pertanyaan dalam studi ini: (1) Seberapa baik penguasaan mahasiswa semester dua Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris terhadap penempatan tekanan kata pada kata-kata benda yang memiliki dua suku kata, tiga suku kata, empat suku kata, imbuhan, dan gabungan dengan kata lainnya. (2) Kesalahan apa saja yang dilakukan oleh mahasiswa semester dua tersebut dalam menempatkan tekanan kata pada kata-kata benda yang memiliki dua suku kata, tiga suku kata, empat suku kata, imbuhan, dan gabungan dengan kata lainnya.
Untuk menjawab pertanyaan-pertanyaan tersebut, penulis menggunakan metode content analysis dan library research. Dalam content analysis, penulis menganalisa data yang berupa pidato para peserta yang sudah direkam sebelumnya. Data tersebut diambil saat para peserta melakukan ujian Interactional Speech II. Selanjutnya, library research digunakan untuk mendapatkan data tentang teori penempatan tekanan kata pada kata-kata benda. Teori-teori tersebut diaplikasikan dalam menganalisa data dan menarik kesimpulan.
Setelah melakukan penelitian, penulis mengetahui bahwa mahasiswa semester dua Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris belum menguasai penempatan tekanan kata pada kata-kata benda. Kesimpulan ini didapatkan dari hasil studi yang menunjukkan bahwa penguasaan para mahasiswa tersebut di bawah 49%. Hasil perhitungan di bawah 49% diklasifikasikan sebagai ‘siswa tidak menguasai penempatan tekanan kata pada kata-kata benda’. Kemudian, terdapat tiga jenis kesalahan yang dilakukan para peserta dalam menempatkan tekanan kata pada kata-kata benda. Jenis kesalahan pertama yaitu menempatkan tekanan kata pada suku kata yang salah. Tekanan kata yang seharusnya jatuh pada suku kata pertama ternyata jatuh di suku kata kedua. Kesalahan kedua yaitu memberikan dua tekanan kata pada kata yang seharusnya hanya memiliki satu tekanan kata. Kata bersuku kata tiga yang seharusnya memiliki tekanan di suku kata pertama ternyata diberi tekanan pada suku kata pertama dan ketiga. Jenis kesalahan ini hanya dapat terjadi pada kata-kata bersuku kata tiga atau lebih. Jenis kesalahan terakhir yaitu memberi tekanan yang sama pada semua suku kata. Tekanan tersebut bisa berupa tekanan yang lemah pada semua suku kata ataupun juga tekanan yang kuat. Akhirnya, peneliti mengharapkan siswa untuk mengacu pada kamus agar mengetahui penempatan tekanan kata yang tepat.
THE MASTERY OF STRESS PLACEMENT OF NOUNS AMONG THE SECOND SEMESTER STUDENTS
OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
A Thesis
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By Nina Kenyar
Student Number: 041214083
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
THE MASTERY OF STRESS PLACEMENT OF NOUNS AMONG THE SECOND SEMESTER STUDENTS
OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
A Thesis
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By Nina Kenyar
Student Number: 041214083
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
2009
A Thesis on
THE MASTERY OF STRESS PLACEMENT OF NOUNS AMONG THE SECOND SEMESTER STUDENTS
OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
By Nina Kenyar
Student Number: 041214083
Approved by
Date Carla Sih Prabandari, S.Pd., M.Hum. 26 September 2009
Sponsor
A Thesis on
THE MASTERY OF STRESS PLACEMENT OF NOUNS AMONG THE SECOND SEMESTER STUDENTS
OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
By Nina Kenyar
Student Number: 041214083 Defended before the Board of Examiners
on 9 October 2009 and Declared Acceptable
Board of Examiners
Chairperson : Ag. Hardi Prasetyo, S.Pd., M.A. Secretary : Made Frida Yulia, S.Pd., M.Pd. Member : Carla Sih Prabandari, S.Pd., M.Hum. Member : Ag. Hardi Prasetyo, S.Pd., M.A. Member : Made Frida Yulia, S.Pd., M.Pd.
Yogyakarta, 9 October 2009
Faculty of Teachers Training and Education
Sanata Dharma University
Dean,
Drs. Tarsisius Sarkim, M.Ed., Ph.D.
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY
I honestly 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, 26 September 2009 The Writer
Nina Kenyar 041214083
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:
Nama : Nina Kenyar Nomor Mahasiswa : 041214083
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
THE MASTERY OF STRESS PLACEMENT OF NOUNS AMONG THE SECOND SEMESTER STUDENTS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
Beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada).Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan 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 meminta 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: 9 Oktober 2009 Yang menyatakan,
Nina Kenyar
ABSTRACT
Kenyar, Nina. 2009. The Mastery of Stress Placement of Nouns among the Second Semester Students of the English Language Education Study Program. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Department of Language and Arts Education, Faculty of Teachers Training and Education, Sanata Dharma University.
This study aimed to investigate the mastery of stress placement of nouns among the second semester students of the English Language Education Study Program. There were two research questions: (1) How well is the students’ mastery of stress placement of disyllabic nouns, trisyllabic nouns, tetrasyllabic nouns, affix nouns, and compound nouns? (2) What errors do they make toward the disyllabic nouns, trisyllabic nouns, tetrasyllabic nouns, affix nouns, and compound nouns?
To answer the research questions, the researcher used content analysis and library research. In content analysis, the writer analyzed the data which were the students’ speeches that had been recorded. The data were gathered by recording students’ speeches when they were doing Interactional Speech II test. Furthermore, library research was used to obtain the theory of stress placement of noun. Those theories were applied to analyze the data and to draw conclusion.
After conducting the research, the writer discovered that the second semester students of the English Language Education Study Program had not mastered the stress placement of nouns yet. The conclusion was derived from the results of the study which were all below 49% and classified as ‘the students do not master nouns stress placement yet’. Moreover, there were three kinds of errors made by the participants. The first kind of word stress errors the participants made was misplacing the stress. The stress that was supposed to fall on the first syllable would fall on the second syllable. The second kind of word stress errors made by the participants was double-stressing the word that actually only have one stressed syllable. The trisyllabic word that was supposed to have stress on its first syllable would have stress on its first and third syllables. This error only happened to the words that had three syllables or more. The last kind of word stress errors found was the participants put the equal stress to the syllables, either both syllables unstressed or even stressed. Finally, the researcher expected the students to consult the dictionary in order to acquire knowledge about word stress placement.
ABSTRAK
Kenyar, Nina. 2009. The Mastery of Stress Placement of Nouns among the Second Semester Students of the English Language Education Study Program. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Jurusan Pendidikan Bahasa dan Seni, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Studi ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji penguasaan mahasiswa semester dua Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris terhadap penempatan tekanan kata pada kata-kata benda. Terdapat dua pertanyaan dalam studi ini: (1) Seberapa baik penguasaan mahasiswa semester dua Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris terhadap penempatan tekanan kata pada kata-kata benda yang memiliki dua suku kata, tiga suku kata, empat suku kata, imbuhan, dan gabungan dengan kata lainnya. (2) Kesalahan apa saja yang dilakukan oleh mahasiswa semester dua tersebut dalam menempatkan tekanan kata pada kata-kata benda yang memiliki dua suku kata, tiga suku kata, empat suku kata, imbuhan, dan gabungan dengan kata lainnya.
Untuk menjawab pertanyaan-pertanyaan tersebut, penulis menggunakan metode content analysis dan library research. Dalam content analysis, penulis menganalisa data yang berupa pidato para peserta yang sudah direkam sebelumnya. Data tersebut diambil saat para peserta melakukan ujian Interactional Speech II. Selanjutnya, library research digunakan untuk mendapatkan data tentang teori penempatan tekanan kata pada kata-kata benda. Teori-teori tersebut diaplikasikan dalam menganalisa data dan menarik kesimpulan.
Setelah melakukan penelitian, penulis mengetahui bahwa mahasiswa semester dua Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris belum menguasai penempatan tekanan kata pada kata-kata benda. Kesimpulan ini didapatkan dari hasil studi yang menunjukkan bahwa penguasaan para mahasiswa tersebut di bawah 49%. Hasil perhitungan di bawah 49% diklasifikasikan sebagai ‘siswa tidak menguasai penempatan tekanan kata pada kata-kata benda’. Kemudian, terdapat tiga jenis kesalahan yang dilakukan para peserta dalam menempatkan tekanan kata pada kata-kata benda. Jenis kesalahan pertama yaitu menempatkan tekanan kata pada suku kata yang salah. Tekanan kata yang seharusnya jatuh pada suku kata pertama ternyata jatuh di suku kata kedua. Kesalahan kedua yaitu memberikan dua tekanan kata pada kata yang seharusnya hanya memiliki satu tekanan kata. Kata bersuku kata tiga yang seharusnya memiliki tekanan di suku kata pertama ternyata diberi tekanan pada suku kata pertama dan ketiga. Jenis kesalahan ini hanya dapat terjadi pada kata-kata bersuku kata tiga atau lebih. Jenis kesalahan terakhir yaitu memberi tekanan yang sama pada semua suku kata. Tekanan tersebut bisa berupa tekanan yang lemah pada semua suku kata ataupun juga tekanan yang kuat. Akhirnya, peneliti mengharapkan siswa untuk mengacu pada kamus agar mengetahui penempatan tekanan kata yang tepat.
Every endless night has a dawning day…
Every darkest sky has a shining ray…
I dedicated this work as a gift for
my beloved parents
my beloved sisters
my beloved Oscar
myself
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to express my greatest gratitude to the Almighty God for always giving shining rays over my darkest skies. Without His guidance, I would never find my strength to keep on fighting.
I owe much to my sponsor, Carla Sih Prabandari, S.Pd., M.Hum., for giving me time, guidance, suggestions, attention, and motivation during the process of finishing this thesis. I thank her for her comments, corrections, and suggestions.
I also would like to thank to all lecturers in the English Language Education Study Program especially Christina Lhaksmita Anandari, S.Pd., M.Ed. for giving me permission to obtain the data in her class. Moreover, my gratefulness also goes to all students in Interactional Speech II Class E 2007/2008 for their willingness to help me obtain the data. My next appreciation is for Mbak Dani, Mbak Tari, and all of the librarians for their support during my study.
My greatest gratitude goes to my beloved parents and sisters. I thank them for the tears and laughs we have shared and all lessons I have been taught. I will never stop thanking God for my very best family.
My deepest gratitude is for Oscar Setiyanto, my cumut. I thank him for accepting me the way who I am. “This is my turn, the next will be yours!”
I also would like to offer my thankfulness to all friends in PBI, especially Aline, Rina, Evy, Novi, Indri, Putri, Festy, Vonny, Haris, Retha, and Adi for being together in this journey. I give my regard to Sekartaji family: Mbak Har, Mbak Iyus, Chui, Merita, Natalia, Nayang, Tithe, Ratih, Susan, and Siska for their friendship and support.
My sincere thanks go to many other names that cannot be mentioned one by one, for their patience and for encouraging me to finish my thesis. May God bless them.
Nina Kenyar
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
TITLE PAGE ………...………. i
APPROVAL PAGES ……...……… ii
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ………..……… iv
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ……… v
ABSTRACT ………. vi
ABSTRAK ……….……….. vii
DEDICATION PAGE ……… viii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……….. ix
TABLE OF CONTENTS ……….. x
LIST OF TABLES ………..……….. xii
LIST OF FIGURES ……..……… xiii
LIST OF APPENDICES …….………. xiv
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE A. Theoretical Description .………. 8
1. Word Stress ………. 8
a. Definition of Word Stress ……….. 8
b. The Importance of Word Stress ………. 13
c. Stress System in English ……… 13
2. A Brief Overview of English Nouns ………... 27
a. Function of Nouns .……… 28
b. Types of Nouns .………. 29
3. A Brief Overview of Language Errors …….……….. 31
B. Theoretical Framework .………. 32
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY A. Research Method ……….. 34
B. Research Participants ……… 35
C. The Nature and Source of Data ……… 36
D. Research Instruments ………. 37
E. Data Gathering Technique ……… 37
F. Data Analysis Technique .………. 38
CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION A. Data Presentation ……… 42
B. Discussion ……….. 52
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS A. Conclusions ……… 58
B. Suggestions ……… 59
REFERENCES ….……….. 62
APPENDICES ………. 65
LIST OF TABLES
Table page
3.1.1 The List of Disyllabic Nouns ……….. 40
3.1.2 The List of Trisyllabic Nouns ……… 40
3.1.3 The List of Tetrasyllabic Nouns ………. 41
3.1.4 The List of Affix Nouns ………. 41
3.1.5 The List of Compound Nouns ...……….. 41
4.1 Summary of the Data ……… 44
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure page
3.1 Example of the use of Sony Sound Forge 8.0.53™ ………. 38
4.1.1 Example of the Students’ Production in ‘powder’ ………. 44
4.1.2 Example of the Students’ Production in ‘family’ ………. 46
4.1.3 Example of the Student’s Production in ‘accident’ ………. 47
4.1.4 Example of the Students’ Production in ‘intersection’ ………. 48
4.1.5 Example of the Students’ Production in ‘appearance’ ………. 49
4.1.6 Example of the Student’s Production in ‘government’ ………. 50
4.1.7 Example of the Students’ Production in ‘bedroom’ ……… 51
4.2.1 Examples of the First Type of Word Stress Error: Misplacing the Word Stress ……..……….. 56
4.2.2 Examples of the Second Type of Word Stress Error: Double-stressing the Word ……...……….. 57
4.2.3 Examples of the Third Type of Word Stress Error: Putting Equal Stress to All Syllables ……….. 57
LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix page 1. Surat Permohonan Ijin Penelitian ……… 67
2. The Transcription of the Participants’ Speeches ……….. 68 3. Example of the Students’ Production in Disyllabic Nouns,
Trisyllabic Nouns, Tetrasyllabic Nouns, Affix Nouns, and
Compound Nouns ………..……… 77 4. The List of Disyllabic Nouns, Trisyllabic Nouns,
Tetrasyllabic Nouns, Affix Nouns, and
Compound Nouns ...………..……… 80
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This chapter consists of six major sections. There are the research background, the problem formulation, the problem limitation, the research objectives, the research benefits, and the definition of terms mentioned in this study.
A. Research Background
Language is the most advanced form of communication. Compared to signals, signs, and symbols, language has an advantage that it can be used to communicate for long distance (Sharpe, 2000: 383). In their life, people definitely know at least one language and can use it for communication. It means that they have the capacity to produce sounds that signify certain meanings and to understand or interpret the sounds produced by others (Fromkin, Rodman, and Hyams, 2003: 4).
Knowing a language includes mastering the vocabulary. It requires the ability to identify that certain sound sequences signify certain concepts or meanings (Fromkin et al., 2003: 5). Words in any language are the sound units that are related to specific meanings. People who know English know that school means an institution for educating children (Hornby, 1995: 1049). They also know that school is different from street because street is a public road in a city, town,
or village with houses and buildings on one side or both sides (Hornby, 1995: 1180).
Besides mastering the vocabulary, having sufficient knowledge about language phonology is also important. It means that the learners have to know what sounds are in that language and what sounds are not. Indonesians who learn English may probably pronounce this as /dIs/ although the initial sound is actually
pronounced as /ð/. This could happen because there is no /ð/ in Indonesian sound system. Nevertheless, as soon as the learners are conscious about English sound system that has /ð/ in this, they will learn to pronounce this as /ðIs/. Knowing the
intuitively aware that certain syllables in each word and one word in particular, will be more phonetically prominent than others (McMahon, 2002: 118). Accurate word stress patterns are essential for the learner’s production and perception of English. If a non-native speaker produces a word with the wrong stress pattern, an English listener may have difficulty in understanding the word, even if most of the individual sounds have been well pronounced (Kenworthy, 1987: 28).
Among English parts of speech, noun is one of the most important parts. Nouns may function in central core of a sentence as a subject of verb, a complement of verb, a subjective complement, and an objective complement. Besides, nouns can also be used in structures of modification as an object of preposition, a noun in apposition, a noun in direct address, and a noun adjunct.
Stress placement in some words may indicate parts of speech they belong to. For example the word present. Stress on the first syllable indicates that the present is an adjective or a noun. On the other hand, stress on the second syllable shows that the word is a verb. Another example is the word object. The noun of object has stress on the first syllable; however, the verb has stress on the second.
B. Problem Formulation
This research would like to address two questions. There are:
1. How well is the students’ mastery of stress placement of disyllabic nouns, trisyllabic nouns, tetrasyllabic nouns, affix nouns, and compound nouns? 2. What errors do they make toward the disyllabic nouns, trisyllabic nouns,
tetrasyllabic nouns, affix nouns, and compound nouns?
C. Problem Limitation
To make the study easier, the writer divides the nouns into five parts: disyllabic nouns as table, window, and people, trisyllabic nouns as disaster, privacy, and custody, tetrasyllabic nouns as pedestrian, affix nouns as business and legality, and compound nouns as T-shirt and T-junction. The first three parts are the stem nouns without any affixation or compounding process.
The participants of the study are the second semester students of the English Language Education Study Program in the academic year 2007/2008. There are approximately 160 people.
Since this study only focuses on stress placement of disyllabic nouns, trisyllabic nouns, tetrasyllabic nouns, affix nouns, and compound nouns, any other types of speech will not be analyzed. Moreover, any mistake in sound accuracy, sentence stress, and grammar will be disregarded.
D. Research Objectives
The objectives of this research are stated as follows:
1. To find out how well the students master the stress placement of disyllabic nouns, trisyllabic nouns, tetrasyllabic nouns, affix nouns, and compound nouns.
2. To find out errors that are made toward the disyllabic nouns, trisyllabic nouns, tetrasyllabic nouns, affix nouns, and compound nouns.
E. Research Benefits
This study tries to give an overview of the students’ mastery of stress placement especially of nouns. It gives some benefits to English learners, teachers, and future researchers.
This study hopefully could help the English learners to develop their skill in placing the stress on the right syllable. Also, by reading this study, they could identify words that are commonly spoken with wrong stress pattern so that they could avoid doing the same mistake.
placement. Also, the teacher would also find out the words that are commonly spoken with wrong stress pattern. This awareness helps the teacher in facilitating the students in acquiring the word stress.
Moreover, future researchers could use this study as the basic knowledge to conduct another research in students’ mastery of stress placement. This research also includes its shortages so that the future researchers could find some way to avoid that.
F. Definition of Terms
Some important concepts in this study are defined as follows: 1. Mastery
Stern (1983:346) argues that someone has the mastery of a language when she or he has
a. the intuitive mastery of the forms of the language,
b. the intuitive mastery of the linguistics, cognitive, affective, and sociocultural meaning, expressed by the language forms,
c. the capacity to use the language with maximum attention to communication and minimum attention to form, and
d. the creativity of language use
2. Stress Placement
In this study, stress placement refers to word stress of nouns. Word stress is one main emphasized syllable in a word. The vowel sound in this syllable sounds higher in pitch, longer, and louder. Therefore, some particular syllables of nouns sound more prominent than others.
3. Nouns
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
In this chapter, the writer tries to examine some theories that support this study. This study is about the students’ mastery of stress placement of nouns. Therefore, it is important to state some related theories as the bases of this study in order to achieve the results. There will be two major sections discussed in this chapter: theoretical description and theoretical framework.
A. Theoretical Description
This subtopic consists of some theories that are relevant to the study.
1. Word Stress
This chapter will give an overview of the definition of word stress, the types of word stress and the importance of word stress.
a. Definition of Word Stress
English is not a tone language; it means that the raising and the falling tone of a word will not completely alter its meaning, instead it has a suprasegmental function which operates above the level of individual segments (Finch, 2000: 50). Suprasegmental features consist of four parts: stress, pitch, length, and juncture (Pateda, 1988: 65) furthermore stress is the most complicated part to be explained (Verhaar, 1996: 57). However, there are some linguists who
try to identify what stress is. According to O’Grady, Dobrovolsky, and Aronoff (1989: 39), stress is a cover term for the combined effects of pitch, loudness and length as seen in some vowels that are uttered more prominent than others. This prominence always occurs in any polysyllabic words (Widdowson, 1996: 43). Poldauf (1984: 13) has the same opinion that word stress is the relative position of the force peak or peaks in a word opposed to other positions the force peak or peaks could occupy in a word in consideration of the number of its syllable. It implies that monosyllabic words cannot have word stress since it has no syllables to be compared to. Jones (1972: 245) concludes that stress may be described as the degree of force which a sound or syllable is uttered. Moreover, Fasold and Connor-Linton (2006: 31) state that stress is a prominence relation between syllables. Further he states that the certain syllables are longer, louder, higher, pitched or more clearly articulated than those around them.
Furthermore, McMahon (2002: 118) states that stress in a word is a highest property, signaled by a number of subsidiary phonetic factors, which work together to pick out a stressed syllable from the unstressed ones which surround it. Most dictionaries assume that stress is unpredictable and idiosyncratic property of each word (Liles, 1972: 209) but Chomsky and Halle (1968: 59-60) state that the placement of main stress within the word is predictable. Moreover, Widmayer and Gray (2007) state that word stress is not an optional extra that can be added to the English language only when the speaker wants to but it is part of the language.
stronger burst in initiatory energy (Giegerich, 1992: 179). It is using more muscular energy than the energy that is used for unstressed syllables (Roach, 1991: 85) and it pushes out more air from the lungs (Brazil, Coulthard, and Johns, 1980: 3). Based on experimental studies, when a speaker produces stressed syllables, the muscles he uses to expel air from the lungs are more active, producing higher subglottal pressure. Similar things probably happen with the muscles in other parts of the speech apparatus (Roach, 1991: 85). Moreover, these extra efforts cause a tightening and shortening of the vocal cords and a consequent higher pitch, also make the stressed syllables into schwa (Brazil et al., 1980:3)
The second characteristic is the perception of the stressed syllable toward the listener. This characteristic is closely related to the first one but they are not identical. All stressed syllables are recognized as stressed because they are more prominent than unstressed syllables. There are four important points that make a syllable becomes prominent (Roach, 1991: 86). The first one is the stressed syllables are produced with greater intensity and therefore heard as louder than adjacent unstressed syllables (McMahon, 2002: 118). Loudness is one component of prominence but changing only the loudness will not give significant effect to the syllable.
The duration of syllables also has an important role in prominence. The duration of stressed syllables is greater and then perceived as longer. If a syllable is longer than the others, that syllable tends to be the stressed syllable.
quickly (McMahon, 2002: 118), that will be heard as spoken with higher pitch. When a syllable is said with a pitch that noticeable different from the others, that syllable can be marked as the stressed syllable.
The last point that implies the prominence is the quality. If a syllable contains a vowel that is different in quality from the others, the syllable may be the stressed syllable. The most frequently encountered vowels in weak syllables are /I/, /ə/, and /ʊ/, and the stressed syllable is often against the vowels in the weak syllables. So the prominence of the stressed syllable is increased by contrast with these background qualities (Roach, 1991: 86). McMahon (2002: 118) has the same opinion that the stress has effects on vowels quality. Vowel in low stress will be reduced into schwa; nevertheless the stressed syllables have the full vowels as / :/, /aʊ/, and /i:/.
As a conclusion, prominence is produced by four main factors: loudness, duration, pitch, and quality. Experimental work has shown that the strongest effect is produced by pitch. Duration is also a powerful factor; however, loudness and quality have much less effect (Roach, 1991: 86). On the contrary, Avery and Ehrlich (1992: 63) define that word stress in English language is not only about higher pitch but also about making vowels longer and louder.
syllable (Ladefoged, 1993: 249), the stress is in vowels, not in consonants (Widmayer and Gray, 2007).
Some notations are often used to symbolize the word stress in the written text. Following are some marks that are used in books.
a. TAble b. 'table c. táble
d. table O o e. table
There are some advantages and disadvantages from using each type of the notation. The first notation is not very suitable for learners who are not used to the Roman alphabet (Japanese, Chinese, Russian, etc). Also, the writer has to know the boundaries of the syllable of each word so he can write it in upper and lower case. The mark ( ' ) is a very quick addition to the written word, but dictionaries vary in the use of similar mark; some put it before the stressed syllable, some put it after, so this may be a source confusion (Kenworthy, 1987: 29). The third mark is so simple but the writer has to be careful when taking it in syllables with two vowel letters. In other language, putting ( ) in two vowel letters means that two vowels are pronounced as two separate syllables.
b. The Importance of Word Stress
Comprehending English word stress is a magic key to understanding the spoken English. Although the phonemic function of stress in English is not very significant as in some other languages, it is important to note that in the vast majority of English words where stress does not give rise to phonemic distinction, speakers are not at liberty to stress whichever syllable they like (Giegerich, 1992: 180). By paying attention to stress placement, people can still understand the word spoken although they do not hear the complete word.
Indonesian learners will find it difficult to master all English word stress since there is no word stress in Indonesian language. It is important for English learner to acquire knowledge on English word stress since an English listener may have great difficulty in understanding the word if a non-native speaker produces a word with the wrong stress pattern, even if most of the individual sounds have been well pronounced (Kenworthy, 1987: 28).
c. Stress System in English
Placement of stress can be varied depends on the part of speech of the words also the number of syllables as well. Here are the patterns of word stress for some types of word regardless of the exceptions.
1) Disyllabic words (verbs, nouns, and adjectives) a) Verbs
verbs have stress on the second syllable. Although most of verbs are stressed on the second syllable, there are still some verbs that get stressed on their first syllable. Roach (1991: 89) defines that there are two basic rules to identify the stress on disyllabic verbs, whether it is on the first or second syllable.
Roach (1991: 89) states that the first syllable of the verbs will be stressed if: - The final syllable contains a short vowel and has only one (or no) final consonant.
Example: gather → /'gæðə/
vary → /'veəri/
happen → /'hæpən/ - The final syllable contains /əʊ/
Example: follow → /'f ləʊ/ borrow → /'b rəʊ/.
The second rule is the second syllable will be stressed if:
- The second syllable of the verbs contains a long vowel or diphthong. Example: abhor → /ə'bɔ:r/
imply → /ɪm'plaɪ/
apply → /ə'plaɪ/
- The word ends with more than one consonant. Example: assist → /ə'sɪst/
abound → /ə'baʊnd/
Giegerich (1992: 184) also has the same statement that the final syllable will be stressed if the word ends with:
- A heavy vowel (/æ/ and /e/) + a consonant. Example: distract → /dɪ'strækt/
- A long vowel or a diphthong. Example: rely→ /rɪ'laɪ/ - A long vowel + a consonant.
Example: assert→ /ə'sɜ:t/
- A vowel + a cluster of two consonants. Example: resist→ /rɪ'zɪst/
b) Nouns
Unlike the stress on verbs, the stress on disyllabic nouns usually falls on the first syllable. More than 90 per cent of all English disyllabic nouns are stressed on their first syllable (Avery and Ehrlich, 1992: 67). Although nouns with final syllable are comparatively rare in English (Giegerich, 1992: 184) there are some nouns that have the stress on the second syllable.
There are simple rules to identify the stress on disyllabic nouns (Roach, 1991: 89): if the second syllable contains a short vowel, the stress will usually come on the first syllable. For example: angel → /'eɪnʤəl/, cemist → /'kemɪst/, and agent
Nevertheless, if the second syllable contains a long vowel, the second syllable will be stressed. This rule can be found in police → /pə'li:s/, bamboo → /bæm'bu:/ and balloon→ /bə'lu:n/.
c) Adjectives
Like disyllabic verbs, most of disyllabic adjectives have stress on their second syllable. However, there are rules to identify the stress on disyllabic adjectives. The first syllable will be stressed if the final syllable contains a short vowel and has one (or no) final consonant (Roach, 1991: 89). For example handsome →
/'hænsəm/, clever→ /'klevə/, and pretty→ /'prɪtɪ/.
The second syllable will be stressed if the disyllabic adjectives end with a cluster of two or more consonants (Liles, 1972: 211). Moreover, Roach (1991: 89) states that the second syllable is stressed if the second syllable contains a diphthong or a long vowel. Abrupt → /ə'brʌpt/, alive → /ə'laɪv/, and robust →
/rəʊ'bʌst/ are the examples.
2) Trisyllabic words (verbs, nouns, and adjectives) a) Verbs
There are two rules applied to trisyllabic verbs. A verb will have penultimate stress if that verb ends in a non-tense vowel and followed by a single consonant (Chomsky and Halle, 1968: 69). Roach (1991: 90) has the same opinion by stating that stress will be placed in penultimate syllable if the last syllable contains a short vowel and ends with not more than one consonant. For instance consider →
However, the final syllable will be stressed if the last vowel is a tense vowel or the last vowel followed by a cluster of two or more consonants (Liles, 1972: 211). Moreover, Chomsky and Halle (1968: 70) also Roach (1991: 90) state that a verb will have a final stress if the last syllable contains a long and tense vowel or diphthong and ends with more than one consonant. Examples: resurrect →
/rezər'ekt/ and correspond→ /k rɪ'sp nd/.
b) Nouns
The basic rule for trisyllabic nouns is the penultimate syllable will be stressed if it is heavy (Giegerich, 1992: 187). Nevertheless, if the penultimate syllable is light, stress the antepenultimate syllable (McMahon, 2002: 120). In detail, there are some additional rules to identify the placement of word stress on trisyllabic nouns. If the final syllable contains a short vowel or /əʊ/, it is unstressed; if the syllable preceding this final syllable contains a long vowel or diphthong, or if it ends with not more than one consonant, that middle syllable will be stressed (Roach, 1991: 90). For instance acacia → /ə'keɪ∫ə/, disaster → /dɪ'z :stə/,
synopsis→ /sɪ'n psɪs/, and potato→ /pə'teɪtəʊ/.
If the final syllable contains a short vowel and the middle syllable contains a short vowel and ends with not more than one consonant, both final and middle syllable are unstressed and the first syllable is stressed (Roach, 1991: 90). Thus:
abdomen→ /'æbdəmən/, vertebra→ /'vɜ:tɪbrə/, cinema→ /'sɪnəmə/, and paraffin
However, if the final syllable has diphthong or ends with more than one consonant, the stress will usually be placed on the first syllable. Elephant →
/'elɪfənt/, marigold → /'mærɪgəʊld/, adjutant → /'æʤʊtənt/, and stalactite →
/'stæləktaɪt/ are the examples (Roach, 1991: 90).
c) Adjectives
There are three basic rules to identify the placement of the stress on trisyllabic adjectives (Liles, 1972:211). The first rule is stress on trisyllabic adjectives is placed on the last tense vowel of the word. The second rule is the stress will be placed on the last vowel of an adjective if it is followed by a cluster of two or more consonants. The last rule is the penultimate syllable will be stressed if neither of the above conditions is met. The examples are esthetic → /es'θetɪk/,
alternate→ / :l'tɜ:nət/, and specific→ /spə'sɪfɪk/.
3) Affix words
Affixes are two sorts in English: prefixes, which come before stem and suffixes, which come after the stem (Roach, 1991: 95). Moreover, there are three possible effects on word stress caused by the addition of affixes (Roach, 1991: 96):
1. The affix itself receives the primary stress. E.g. circle → /'sɜ:kl/
semi + circle → /'semisɜ:kl/
E.g. happy → /'hæpi/
un + happy → /ʌn'hæpi/
3. The stress remains on the stem, not the affix, but is shifted to a different syllable.
E.g. magnet → /'mægnət/
magnet + ic → /mæg'netɪk/ a. Prefixes
The effects of prefixes on stress do not have the comparative regularity, independence, and predictability of suffixes, and there is no prefix of one or two syllables that always carries primary stress (Roach, 1991: 98). However, according to Asher (1994: 5018), there are two factors to be considered: some prefixes behave as if they were not there with respect to stress, such as ex-husband→ /eks'hʌzbənd/ and misfortune → /mɪs'fɔ:ʧu:n/, and some prefixes are not capable of taking stress, even if the rules predict that they should have it, as in
readdress→ /ri:ə'dres/ and prenatal→ /pri:'neɪtəl/. The action of resisting stress is called stress repellent and normally causes stress to fall on the following syllable.
b. Suffixes
(running), and et cetera. On the other hand, derivational suffixes mean the suffixes that produce new words. For example is the suffix –less. When it is attached to a noun base it will, then, form an adjective as in homeless,
meaningless, and friendless. Next are –ly that will form adverbs when attached to adjectives (beautifully, neatly, carelessly, etc.), –ee that forms nouns when attached to verbs (employee, refugee, payee, etc.) and so on.
On the phonological side, Giegerich (1992: 191) divides suffixes into two types; there are stress-neutral suffixes and stress-shifting suffixes. Stress-neutral has two properties that differentiate it from stress-shifting. Firstly, stress-neutral never make any difference to the stress pattern of their base. The example is the stress patterns of realizing, happiness, penniless are the same as those of realize,
happy, and penny. Secondly, the suffixes will never receive any stress although there is more than one suffix attached to one stem as in meaninglessness.
However, stress-shifting suffixes may change the stress pattern of the word without suffixes from the word with suffixes. For instance atom → /'ætəm/ with
atomic → /ə't mɪk/ and proverb → /'pr vɜ:b/ with proverbial → /prə'vɜ:biəl/. Also, stress-shifting suffixes can bear the main stress of the word as in Chinese,
usherette, and arabesque.
Giegerich (1992: 192) finds it difficult in giving clue how to classify English suffixes nevertheless Roach (1991: 96-98) tries to divide most common suffixes into three main characters. Thus:
The word stress falls on the suffix instead of the stem. Here are some suffixes that get the stress after being attached to the stem.
‘-ee’: trustee: trust → /trʌst/ trust + -ee → /trʌs'ti:/
refugee: refuge → /'refju:ʤ/
refuge + -ee → /refju:'ʤi:/ ‘-eer’: engineer: engine → /'enʤɪn/ engine + -eer → /enʤɪ'nɪər/
mountaineer: mountain → /'maʊntɪn/ mountain + -eer → /maʊntɪ'nɪər/ ‘-ese’: journalese: journal → /'ʤɜ:nəl/
journal + -ese → /ʤɜ:nə'li:z/
Japanese: Japan → /ʤə'pæn/
Japan + -ese → /ʤæpə'ni:z/ ‘-ette’: cigarette: cigar → /sɪ'g :r/
cigar + -ette → /sɪgər'et/
launderette: launder → /'lɔ:ndər/
launder + -ette → /lɔ:n'dret/ ‘-esque’: picturesque: picture → /'pɪkʧər/
picture + -esque → /pɪkʧər'esk/
statue + -esque → /stæʧu'esk/ 2. Suffixes that do not affect stress placement
Following are the examples of some suffixes that do not affect the placement of the word stress after it is attached to the stress.
‘-able’: questionable: question → /'kwesʧən/
question + -able → /'kwesʧənəbl/ ‘-age’: marriage: marry → /'mæri/
marry + -age → /'mærɪʤ/ ‘-al’: mystical: mystic → /'mɪstɪk/
mystic + -al → /'mɪstɪkəl/ ‘-en’: sweeten: sweet → /swi:t/
sweet + -en → /'swi:tən/ ‘-ful’: colour: colour → /'kʌlər/
colour + -ful → /'kʌləfəl/ ‘-ing’: interesting: interest → /'ɪntərest/
interest + -ing → /'ɪntərestɪŋ/ ‘-ish’: purplish: purple → /'pɜ:pl/
purple + -ish → /'pɜ:plɪ∫/ ‘-like’: birdlike: bird → /bɜ:d/
power + -less → /'paʊələs/ ‘-ly’: equally: equal → /'i:kwəl/
equal + -ly → /'i:kwəli/ ‘-ment’: puzzlement: puzzle → /'pʌzl/
puzzle + -ment → /'pʌzlmənt/ ‘-ness’: nastiness: nasty → /'n :sti/
nasty + -ness → /'n :stinəss/ ‘-ous’: dangerous: danger → /'deɪnʤər/
danger + -ous → /'deɪnʤərəs/ ‘fy’: simplify: simple → /'sɪmpl/
simple + -fy → /'sɪmplɪfaɪ/ ‘-wise’: clockwise: clock → /kl k/
clock + -wise → /'kl kwaɪz/ ‘-ize’: fertilize: fertile → /'fɜ:taɪl/
fertile + -ize → /'fɜ:tɪlaɪz/ ‘-y’: cheesy: cheese → /ʧi:z/
cheese + -y → /'ʧi:zi/ 3. Suffixes that influence stress in the stem
‘-eous’: courageous: courage → /'kʌrɪʤ/
courage + -eous → /kər'eɪʤəs/ ‘-ial’: adverb: adverb → /'ædvɜ:b/
adverb + -ial → /əd'vɜ:biəl/ ‘-ic’: economic: economy → /ɪ'k nəmi/
economy + -ic → /ɪkə'n mɪk/ ‘-ion’: narration: narrate → /'næreɪt/
narrate + -ion → /nə'reɪ∫ən/ ‘ious’: mysterious: mystery → /'mɪstəri/
mystery + -ious → /mɪ'stɪəriəs/
‘-ity’: legality: legal → /'li:gəl/ legal + -ity → /li: 'gæləti/ 4) Compounds
Most of the compounds consisted of two elements have stress on their first element as in daybreak → /'deɪbreɪk/, key-hole → /'ki:həʊl/, pickpocket →
/'pɪkp kɪt/, and windscreen → /'wɪndskri:n/. Jones (1972: 258-260) states that there are several characteristics of compounds that have stress on their first element. Those are:
1. The compound noun denotes a single new idea rather than the combination of two ideas suggested by the original words.
E.g. greenhouse → /'gri:nhaʊs/
blacksmith → /'blæksmɪθ/
2. The meaning of the whole compound noun is the meaning of the second element restricted in some important way by the first element.
E.g. birthday → /'bɜ:θdeɪ/
carthorse → /'k :thɔ:s/
3. The first element of the compound nouns is either expressly or by implication contrasted with something.
E.g. flute player → /'flu:tpleiə/
4. The meaning of the compound adjective is practically synonymous with its first element.
E.g. oval-shaped → /'əʊvl∫eɪpt/
5. The compound noun is commonly or very frequently used attributively. E.g. midnight → /'mɪdnaɪt/
E.g. make-up → /'meɪkʌp/
getaway → /'getəweɪ/
Even though most two-element compounds have stress on their first syllable, there are some compounds that have stress on their final syllable. According to Roach (1991: 99-100), there are several types of two-element compounds that stressed on their final elements, thus:
1. Compounds with an adjectival first element and the –ed morpheme at the end. E.g. bad-tempered → /bæd'tempəd /
left-handed → /left'hændɪd/
2. Compounds which have a number as their first elements. E.g. second-hand → /sekənd'hænd/
three-wheeler → /θri:'wi:lər/
3. Compound functioning as verbs and have an adverbial first element. E.g. downgrade → /daʊn'greɪd/
ill-treat → /ɪl'tri:t/ 4. Compound functioning as adverbs
E.g. head-first → /hed'fɜ:st/
downstream → /daʊn'stri:m/
/weɪst'peɪpəb :skɪt/. Otherwise, three-element compounds have main stress on their first element. Examples: teaspoonful → /'ti:spu:nfʊl/, and watercress bed →
/'wɔ:təkresbed/.
5) Word-class pairs words
Word-class pairs words are words which are identical in spelling but different in the stress placement, according to its word class. There is no significant rule in identifying the stress of word-class pairs words. The most common rule is the stress is likely to fall on the second syllable of a verb and fall on the first syllable of a noun or adjective (Roach, 1991: 100-101). The examples are:
- present (V) → /prɪ'zent/ (N) → /'prezənt/ - object (V) → /əb'ʤekt/ (N) → /' bʤɪkt/
Although most of word-class pairs words have a different stress placement, some of them share a same stress placement. Thus: open (V and A) → /'əʊpən/ and envy (V and N) → /'envi/.
2. A Brief Overview of English Nouns
core of a sentence. In addition, it may also function as the chief or headword in many structure of modification.
a. Function of Nouns
1) Function in Central Core (Frank, 1972: 9-10) i. Subject of Verb
Subject of verb means who or what is being talked about. The verb agrees with the subject in person and in number.
ii. Complement of Verb (Object of Verb) An object of verb can be:
- A direct object: who or what receives the action of the verb.
- An indirect object: a second object to or for which the action of the verb is directed. The indirect object precedes the direct object.
iii. Subjective Complement (Predicate Noun)
A subjective complement is used after a linking verb to refer back to the subject. While an object of a verb has a different identity from the subject, a subjective complement has the same identity as the subject.
iv. Objective Complement
2) Function in Modification Structures (Frank, 1972: 10-11) i. Object of Preposition
Object of preposition completes the idea of time, direction, position, etc. begun by a preposition.
The student sat at his desk.
His desk is the object of the preposition at. ii. Noun in Apposition
A second noun is used after a first one to re-identify the first one.
Mr. Johnson, my teacher, is very intelligent.
The first noun may be used in any of the functions already given. iii. Noun in Direct Address
Usually a proper noun used to draw the attention of the person being spoken to. The noun in direct address actually names the ‘subject’ who is asked to perform in a request or a command.
John, open the window please.
iv. Noun Adjunct
Noun adjunct is a noun use in adjective position before another noun, the two together forming a noun compound.
She’s going to the grocery store.
b. Types of Nouns
1) Types of Nouns Classified by Meaning
i. Proper Nouns
A proper noun begins with a capital letter in writing. It includes personal names (Mr. Alex Rover), names of geographic units such as countries, cities, rivers, etc. (Bangladesh, Jakarta), names of nationalities and religions (the English, Christianity), names of holidays (Independence Day, Christmas), names of time units (Monday, June), and words used for personification. As opposed to proper nouns, all other nouns are classified as common nouns.
ii. Concrete or Abstract Nouns
A concrete noun is a word for a physical object that can be perceived by the senses – we can see, touch, and smell the object. An abstract noun is a word for a concept – it is an idea that exists in our minds only.
iii. Countable or Noncountable Nouns
A countable noun can usually be made plural by the addition of –s. A noncountable noun is not used in the plural. However, some noncountable nouns may also be used in a countable sense and will have a plural. The example is the word chicken. In ‘We had chicken for dinner’, chicken is a noncountable noun; in ‘There were many chickens in the yard’, chicken is a countable noun.
iv. Collective Nouns
and herd. Collective nouns are countable nouns and they may have plural forms.
2) Type of Nouns Classified by Form (Frank, 1972: 7-8) Compound nouns
The term compound refers to a group of words joined together into one vocabulary unit that functions as a single part of speech. Compounds may be written as two separate words, as hyphenated words, or as single words.
Compound nouns consist of the following forms:
1. noun + noun: bathroom, department store, grammar book
2. possessive noun + noun: artist’smodel, lady’s maid
3. adjective + noun: blackbird, common sense
4. verb + noun: pickpocket, dance team
5. noun + verb: handshake, lifeguard
6. gerund + noun: dining room, punching bag
7. noun + gerund: housecleaning, fortune telling
8. preposition + noun: overalls, downpour
9. verb + preposition: breakdown, grown-up
10. noun + prepositional phrase: son-in-law, editor-in-chief
3. A Brief Overview of Language Errors
miscalculations, and erroneous assumptions form an important aspect of learning virtually any skill or acquiring information (Brown, 2000: 216). Dulay (1982: 138) has the same opinion by stating that making errors is an inevitable part of learning and people cannot learn language without first committing errors.
Errors are the flawed side of the learner speech or writing (Dulay, 1982: 138). They are those parts of conversation or composition that deviate from some selected norm of mature language performance. They are usually systematic, predictable, universal, and reflecting learners’ attempts to make the task of learning and using the second language simpler (Ellis, 2003: 18-19). Moreover, errors happen because the learners have not yet internalized the formation rules of the second language (Corder, 1979: 259).
The rule of making errors in the second language can be explained by the notion of transfer which is called negative transfer of interference (Corder, 1979: 132). In transfer, the learners use some of the rules they already know to produce and understand the second language (Corder, 1979: 132) and when the learners make errors they do the transfer imperfectly. This opinion is agreed by Corder (1967) as cited in Dulay (1982: 139) who is stating that the term ‘errors’ is reserved for the systematic deviations due to the learner’s still developing knowledge of the second language rule system.
B. Theoretical Framework
placement of nouns. In English, word stress is not an optional extra; however, it is a part of it. Comprehending English word stress is a magic key to understanding the spoken English. By paying attention to the stress placement, native speakers could still understand the word although they do not hear the complete word. Nevertheless, if a non-native speaker produces a word with the wrong stress pattern, an English listener may have difficulty in understanding the word, even if most of the individual sounds have been well pronounced.
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
This chapter presents the methodology employed in the study. This includes the descriptions of the research method, the research participants, the nature and source of data, the research instruments, the data gathering technique, and the data analysis technique.
A. Research Method
Basically, this study was a qualitative research. Qualitative research focused on understanding social phenomena from the perspective of the human participants in the study (Ary, Jacobs and Razavieh, 2002: 22). Moreover, qualitative problems looked at the context of events, natural setting, subjects’ perspectives, unfolding and uncontrolled events, reasons for the events, and phenomena needing exploration and explanation (Ary et al., 2002: 426). Also, this kind of research did not use statistical analysis.
The methods being used were content analysis, and library research. The researcher used content analysis since the data were gathered by recording the participants’ speeches. Content analysis was a technique for examining the content, or information and symbols, contained in written documents or other communication medium (Neuman, 2006: 44). The documents could be books, newspaper or magazine articles, advertisements, speeches, official documents, films or videotapes, musical lyrics, photographs or pictures, articles of clothing,
gestures, or works of art. Content analysis was often used in conjunction with observational studies. The researcher tape recorded classroom verbal behavior and made a typed transcript from the audiotape. The content of the transcript was then analyzed in order to measure variables formulated by the researcher (Borg and Gall, 1983: 512).
Moreover, the researcher also used library research. In library research, the researcher referred to the theory on sources of nouns stress placement to find the data and to draw conclusion.
B. Research Participants
The participants of this study were twenty two students of the second semester of the English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University who were taking Interactional Speech II Class in the academic year of 2007/2008. The students of Interactional Speech II were chosen since they were in the stage of learning English as means of communication. In Interactional Speech II Class, the students were expected to speak up and express their ideas. It is expected that by analyzing the students of Interactional Speech II, the writer could obtain the pure data about students’ mastery of stress placement of nouns.
representative class which presented the characteristics of the participants. Finally, the writer chose Class E as the representative since that class applied an individual and impromptu test which then allowed the writer to obtain natural behavior of the participants as the data to be analyzed. There were 22 participants, 18 female and 4 male.
The data were obtained while the participants did their final test of Interactional Speech II on Friday, 23 May 2008. The writer observed the participants and recorded their speeches.
C. The Nature and Source of Data
The gathered data were regarded as an authentic material since it was the recording of students’ productions. Moreover, this recorded material was considered valid since it was not revised.
D. Research Instruments
The instruments being used in this research were the researcher as a human instrument and the documents which were the students’ speeches and the transcription of the speeches. The students’ speeches were gathered by recording it while the students did the final test. The researcher used the recorded speech instead of gathering written documents since she intended to analyze the participants’ understanding of the word stress in practice rather than in theory. Moreover, after acquiring the speeches, the writer transcribed and analyzed them in order to solve the problem formulation.
E. Data Gathering Technique
F. Data Analysis Technique
In order to analyze the data, the researcher followed several steps. Firstly, she transferred the recorded speech into soft file by connecting the cassettes in the recorder into a personal computer, and then transcribed the speech into written text. Through the transcription, the writer tried to identify every noun spoken by the participants. After finding the nouns, she applied Sony Sound Forge 8.0.53™ to the soft file in order to analyze the data. The software was used since it could show the length and also the pitch of each syllable so the writer could observe the syllables of each word in detail. The length in the figure showed the length of each syllable utterances. The longer the figure, the longer the syllable was uttered. Moreover, the height of the figure showed the pitch of the syllables. Higher pitch in the figure indicated that the syllable was spoken with higher pitch than the other syllables. The example of the use of the software could be seen in Figure 3.1.
Figure 3.1: Example of the use of Sony Sound Forge 8.0.53™
the the stress of the word “people”
The speaker tended to put equal stress on the word “people”
The figures in the Figure 3.1 all sounded people; however, they were spoken with different stress placements. From the figure in the first column, it could be seen that the height of the first part was higher than the second part. It meant that the first syllable was spoken with higher pitch. Moreover, the length of the first part was longer than the second. It meant that the first syllable was spoken longer than the second syllable. Therefore, the figure in the first column showed that the speaker put the stress on the first syllable of the word people.
The figure in the second column indicated that the speaker uttered the word “people” with inappropriate stress pattern that was misplacing the word stress. People was supposed to have stress on its first syllable; however, the speaker stressed the second syllable more prominent than the first. The prominence could be seen from the length of the second part which was dramatically longer than the first one.
The figure in the third column showed another phenomenon. The pitch and the length of the first and second syllable were quite the same. It was quite difficult to identify which syllable that was stressed because the speaker gave same level of prominence to the syllables.
nouns and the features being pinpointed were the nouns with incorrect stress pattern. The appropriate nouns stress placement was based on some references as Collins Cobuild English Dictionary for Advanced Learners (2001) and The New Oxford American Dictionary 2nd edition (2005). Moreover, the accents that were identified as the appropriate English word stress would be both American English and British English.
In order to make the analysis easier, the writer classified every type of nouns into tables. Each table would consist of nouns according to its type, the appropriate stress placement based on dictionary, the frequency of how many times the nouns occurred, the frequency of right occurrences and the frequency of inappropriate word stress occurrences. The classification would be like this:
Table 3.1.1: The List of Disyllabic Nouns
Disyllabic
Table 3.1.2: The List of Trisyllabic Nouns
Table 3.1.3: The List of Tetrasyllabic Nouns
Table 3.1.4: The List of Affix Nouns
Affix Nouns
Table 3.1.5: The List of Compound Nouns
Affix Nouns
CHAPTER IV
RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
This chapter consists of two major sections. There are data presentation and discussion. The first section presents the data gathered from the study and the second section deals with answering the two problems including the discussion.
A. Data Presentation
As already stated above, this study aimed to obtain the data about mastery of stress placement of nouns toward second semester students of English Language Education Study Program. This research was conducted in Interactional Speech II Class with 22 participants. Each participant might have the same or different topic with others. Although they had the same topic, they definitely used different vocabulary to express their ideas, or at least they share same vocabulary but not a hundred percent. The topics given dealt with the things they experienced everyday such as describing people’s character, giving direction, describing traffic situation in Yogyakarta, and describing things. Each student might speak for two minutes to eight minutes.
While the students did the test, the researcher tape recorded their speeches. The recorded speech would be used as the data to indicate how well the students of second semester master stress placement of nouns. The recorded speech was then transferred into soft file in order to make the analysis easier. After that, the
writer transcribed students’ speech so she could obtain nouns spoken by the students.
The researcher then examined the transcript and classified the nouns into tables. Afterward, those nouns were cross-checked once again with the transcript and the recorded speech. In order to obtain the stress placement of nouns spoken by the students, the writer played the speeches back several times and wrote down their stress placement of nouns. In this stage, the researcher used Sony Sound Forge 8.0.53™ as the software to help her in identifying the word stress. By using this software, she could clearly observe the pitch and the length of each syllable spoken by the participants. The students’ stress placement of nouns was then compared with Collins Cobuild English Dictionary for Advanced Learners and
The New Oxford American Dictionary 2nd edition as the references of the appropriate English stress placement. The results from comparing students’ stress placement of nouns with stress placement of nouns from the dictionary were used to answer the first and second problem.
Table 4.1: Summary of the Data
Disyllabic nouns occurred 194 times and consisted of 82 different words. However, among the 194 times of occurrences only 40 times were spoken with appropriate stress pattern. The other 154 times were spoken with inappropriate stress pattern. It consisted of 73 times misplacing the stress and 81 times putting equal stress. The example was the word powder in Figure 4.1.1.
Figure 4.1.1: Example of the Students’ Production in ‘powder’
The speaker uttered the word with appropriate stress pattern
The speaker misplaced the stress by putting it on the second syllable
Figure 4.1.1 consisted of three figures which were divided into three columns. All three figures sounded the word powder although they were spoken with three different stress placements. The figure in the first column showed that the speaker uttered the word powder in an appropriate stress pattern which was on the first syllable. This conclusion was derived from comparing the pitch and the length of the first part to the second part. The pitch and the length of the first part were more prominent than the second one therefore it could be concluded that the word was spoken with the stress on its first syllable. In the second figure, it could be seen that the pitch of the first and the second were quite the same however the length of the second syllable was significantly prominent than the first one. Because of that, the writer concluded that the speaker stressed the second syllable more than the first syllable. The third figure showed that there were no significant difference between the first and second syllable, both in the pitch and the length. Considering that, the writer drew conclusion that the speaker put equal stress on the first and second syllable.
Figure 4.1.2: Example of the Students’ Production in ‘family’
The speaker uttered the word with appropriate stress pattern that was on the first syllable
The speaker misplaced the stress by putting it on the second syllable
The speaker double-stressed the word
Figure 4.1.2 consisted of three different figures which actually sounded
