A ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS
’ ABILITY
IN
PRONOUNCING VOWEL /æ/, /
ə
/ AND /
ɛ
/
(A Quantitative Study of The Eighth Semester Student of English Education Department of IAIN Salatiga in The Academic Year of 2016/2017)
A GRADUATING PAPER
Submitted to the Board of Examiners as a partial fulfillment of
the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan (S.Pd) in
English Education Department of State Institute for Islamic
Studies (IAIN) Salatiga
By : Dwi Astutik
113-13-101
ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTEMENT
TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY
STATE INSTITUTE FOR ISLAMIC STUDIES (IAIN)
MOTTO
“DONE IS BETTER THA
N
PERFECT”
(Sheryl Sandberg)
”In every
life we have some trouble. But
when you worry, you make it double”
(Bobby McFerrin)
DEDICATION
The writer would like to dedicate this graduating paper to :
My mother and my father for their endless support and prayer
My brothers, my sisters and all my family for their encouragement
My best friends that I could ever had. Amel, Jeni, Wiji, thank you
so much for everything.
All of friends. Thank you for being there.
Myself. This graduating paper will remind me that it took a very
ABSTRACT
Astutik, Dwi. 2017. An Analysis of Students’ Ability in Pronouncing
Vowel/æ/, /ə/ and /ɛ/(A Quantitative Study of the Eighth Semester Students of English Education Department, IAIN Salatiga, Academic Year of 2016/2017). A Graduating Paper.English Education Department. Teacher Training and Education Faculty. State Institute for Islamic Studies Salatiga. Counselor: Faizal Risdianto, S.S, M.Hum.
This research investigated pronunciation errors made by the eight semester students of IAIN Salatiga in pronouncing vowel /æ/, /ə/ and /ɛ/. The objectives of the research were to analyze the profile of students’ mastery in pronouncing vowel /æ/, /ə/ and /ɜ/ and to describethe dominant vowel mispronounced by students. The methodology of this research was a descriptive quantitative study. The writer used an audio recording of each respondents’s recording to get the data. Respondents were asked to read some words which consist ofvowel/æ/, /ə/ and /ɜ/. Based on the data analysis, the respondents’ ability in pronouncing vowel /æ/, /ə/ and /ɛ/ was good.The most difficult type of vowel /æ/, /ə/ and /ɛ/ faced by the respondents’ was vowel /ə/. From the computation, 45.83% of the respondents were incorrect in pronouncing it.The problems encountered by the respondents in pronouncing vowel /æ/, /ə/ and /ɛ/ may be caused by their lack of knowledge of the pronunciation of vowel /æ/, /ə/ and /ɛ/. It is also possible that they know the theory well, but they are not able to practice it orally.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
G. Research Paper Organization ... 8
D. Problems in Pronunciation ... 28
E. Previous Researches ... 33
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY OF THE RESEARCH A. Resesarch Approach ... 37
B. Research Design ... 38
C. Subject of the Study ... 39
1. Population ... 39
2. Sample ... 40
D. Location of the Study ... 40
E. Research Instrument ... 41
F. Technique of Data Collection ... 41
G. Technique of Analyzing Data ... 42
CHAPTER IV DATA PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION A. Data Presentation ... 45
B. Discussion ... 46
1. Calculation of the Score ... 53
2. Interpretation of the Data ... 56
CHAPTER V CLOSURE A. Conclusion ... 58
B. Suggestion ... 59
REFERENCES
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1 English Phonetic Alphabet ... 17
Table 2.2 List of English Consonants ... 18
Table 2.3 Front Vowel ... 21
Table 2.4 Central Vowel ... 22
Table 2.5 Back Vowel ... 23
Table 2.6 Diphthong Sounds ... 28
Table 3.1 Pronunciation Test ... 42
Table 3.2 Respondents’ Test Analysis ... 43
Table 3.3 Students’ Mastery Level used in Tinambunan’s Criterion ... 44
Table 4.1 Summary of the Respondents’ Test Result ... 53
LIST OF FIGURES
Figures 2.1 Pronunciation Features ... 12
Figure 2.2 Speech Organs ... 17
Figures 2.3 Place of English Sound ... 20
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Language is a means of communication in everyday life. It is used
as a bridge of communication among people. People are able to share
ideas, opinions, interests and many other things through language. One of
most spoken language in this global world is English . For many years,
English has been used globally by non-native speakers as an international
language. Pennington (1996 : 12) argues that English has two functions in
what may be called ‘un-English’ contexts covering a very wide territory,
and is used in a variety of domains such social, cultural, educational,
media-related, administrative and literary. It is used primarily for
international communication’.
It is really important to learn about English, so that we can
communicate with others, especially foreigners, without any obstacles. In
Indonesia, English is considered as the first foreign language that is taught
formally from elementary school up to university level. Even, now, some
kindergartens also teach basic English to their students. Students only
learn English at school, so it makes them get some difficulties when
learning this language. As a result, students do mistakes and errors in
English has four skills: reading, speaking, listening, and writing,
and three components: grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation.In terms
of speaking, teachers should be concerned about the micro skills. One of
the micro skills is pronunciation. The aspects of pronunciation that can be
taught consist not only the segmental features like how to pronounce
vowels and consonants correctly but also the suprasegemental features
such as rhythm and intonation. Teacher needs to realize how important
pronunciation is. Students who cannot pronounce well cannot express
what they really intend to and may lose their confidence.
Pronunciation is a very important element of foreign language
learners. There are so many problems with understanding English spoken
at a natural speed by native speakers who speak with various accents.
Non-native English also have problems in speaking to and being
understood by others. Some students still have problems. One of the
problems is dealing with phonetic understanding. Because every English
learner has their own phonetic words dealing with their native language
such as Javanese, Indonesian, Chinese, Japanese, etc. (Hughes et al, 2003 :
4).
Realizing the importance of pronunciation, teachers should be able
to convince students so that they have willingness to improve their English
pronunciation. The pronunciation teaching is not expected to get students
to have native-like pronunciation but the students can achieve at least the
According to Manser, pronunciation is defined as the way in which
languages or words are spoken (Manser, 1991 : 330). It's also dealing with
the way in which someone speaks of foreign language. Pronunciation is
important in English because mispronunciations will make hearer
misunderstand about the meaning of utterance. Pronunciation is clearly a
central factor in people’s success in making themselves understood since it
is the way of sounding those languages. Moreover, pronunciation is
considered as one of the three components of languages, together with
grammar and vocabulary. It plays an important part in listening, and
speaking skill, so developing students pronunciation is one of the most
important tasks for English teachers.
The general aim of teaching English to the students of English
Department of School of Teacher Training and Education is to make them
master all skills of language (listening, speaking, reading and writing).
Besides, it is master the content courses such as linguistics (phonology,
morphology, syntax) and literature. When they are graduated from the
university, they are expected to be proficient in English as well as
professional in teaching it. To meet the goals, several different linguistics
factors such as pronunciation, grammar, lexicon (vocabulary and idiom),
style (appropriate to the situation), function and discourse have become
the learners’ aim and the teachers’ task (Syafei, 1988 : I).
Pronunciation plays a significant part in our personal and social
association to particular communities (Seidlhofer, 2001: 112). For
university students, making errors when pronouncing English words can
be embarrassing especially when they have to make presentations or oral
reports of their assignments. As a result, many are self-conscious and this
in turn affects their confidence when presenting.
As one of language components, pronunciation is a neccessity for
students but, the reality, Indonesian learners could not produce English
words correctly. They get confused when producing English words. It is
because there are differences between Bahasa Indonesia and English. The
first is differences in the number of vowel sounds. Bahasa Indonesia have
six vowel sounds namely /i/, /u/, /o/, /a/, /e/, and /ə/ while English has
twelve vowel sounds; /i:/, /ɪ/, /ɛ/, /æ/, /ʌ/, /ɑ:/, /ɒ/, /ɔ:/, /ʊ/, /u:/, /ɜ:/, and /ǝ/.
The second is English is known as inconsistent language. For example
words good this word should be pronounced as /gʊd/. Contrary, Bahasa Indonesia is consistent language. The way words were spelling is the way
to be pronounced. For example “dia” it should be pronounced /dia/.The third is teacher’s way of speaking. Students usually imitates their teacher.
They speak as their teachers do, but sometimes teachers also make errors
themselves. The fourth is students’ confidences. Some students are
comparatively quiet and shy, which works to their disadvantage in
speaking. They are afraid of making mistakes. They feel uncomfortable in
their first attempt at speech in English and they are afraid of failure,
English embodies the correctness of pronunciation and intonation directly
affects the appropriate communication in conversation.
Pronunciation refers to the description of sound symbol
phonetically which described in alphabetical form. Alphabetical consist of
two aspects namely consonant and vowel that has the differences in
sounds and symbols. From the writer’s point of view, pronouncing English
vowel seems to be more difficult rather than pronouncing English
consonants. It is proved that there are still many students who do not
success to pronounce English vowel correctly. For example, a lot of
students still pronounce the word “that” as /thɛt/ or /thʌt/ instead of /thæt/.
For these reasons, the writer interested to conduct a research to find
some common errors made by students of IAIN Salatiga in pronouncing
some certain vowels of English. The writer does hope that the result of this
research can be used as a feedback for the lecturer and students’
improvement in learning English pronunciation.
Based on the explanation above, the writer conducts a paper
entitled “AN ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN
PRONOUNCING VOWEL /æ/, /ə/ AND /ɛ/ (A QUANTITATIVE
STUDY OF THE EIGHTH SEMESTER STUDENTS OF ENGLISH
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF IAIN SALATIGA IN THE
B. Problem of the Study
Based on the background of the study above, the problems of the study
can be formulated as follows:
1. What is the profile of students’ mastery in pronouncing vowel /æ/, /ə/ and /ɛ/?
2. What is the dominant vowel that mispronounced by students? C. Objectives of the Study
Based on the problems of the study, the objectives of the study are :
1. To analyze the profile of students’ mastery in pronouncing vowel /æ/, /ə/ and /ɛ/.
2. To describe the dominant vowel that mispronounced by the students.
D. Limitation of the Study
Based on the problem above, the writer focuses on analyzing the
students’ ability in pronouncing English words that contain vowel /æ/,
/ə/ and /ɛ/ and describing the dominant vowel that mispronounced by
students.
E. Significance of the Study
There are two kinds of importance of this research; theoretical and
practical. The expected advantages of the study both theoretical and
1. Theoretical contribution
a. The writer does hope that this research can give a
contribution in giving information on how to pronounce
some English vowels correctly
b. This study offers some advantages especially for the writer
herself, the respondents, and all university students toward
their pronunciation
c. The result of this research can be used as the references for
those who want to conduct a research in improving students
ability in pronouncing English vowels
2. Practical contribution
a. For the lecturer
The writer expects that the result of this research will help
lecturer to teach how to pronounce English vowels
appropriately.
b. For the students
Students are able to know what errors that they made when
they are pronouncing English vowels. They also can
improve their pronunciation after realizing errors that they
F. Definition of the Key Terms
To avoid misunderstanding, the key terms were defined as follow:
1. Pronunciation
The word pronunciation is defined as the way in which
language or words are spoken (Manser, 1991 : 30). This term is
closely examined in the study of phonetics and phonology.
2. Analysis
The terms analysis is defined by Audi (1999) as a process
of breaking up a concept, proposition, linguistic complex, or
fact into its simple ultimate constituents.
3. Vowel
According to Jones (1975 : 23), a vowel (in normal speech)
is defined as a voiced sounds in forming which the air issues in
continuous stream through the pharynx and mouth, there being
no obstruction and no narrowing such as would cause audible
friction.
G. Research Paper Organization
This graduating paper consists of five chapters. Each chapters are
discussed as follows :
Chapter I contains introduction which covers the background of the
limitation of the problem, significance of the research, definitions of
the key terms and research paper organization.
Chapter II is literature review. It consists of the underlying theories
that include the definition of pronunciation, speech organs, English
sound, problems in pronunciation, and previous researches.
Chapter III is about methodology of the research which consists of
research approach, research design, subject of the research, location of
the research, research instrument, technique of data collection, and
technique of analyzing data.
Chapter IV is data analysis. It presents the analysis of the data
collected and the discussion the finding of the research.
Chapter V is closure. It is the last part of this graduating paper
CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW
In order to support my research, large amount of information and ideas
are absolutely needed in carrying out this study. That is why, the writer used
many reference textbooks that are related to the subject matter and other
resources, such as materials from internet and the reports of previous studies
and researches on similar topic. This chapter consists of definition of
pronunciation, speech organs, English sound, problems in pronunciation and
previous researches.
A. Definition of Pronunciation
English has four skills: reading, speaking, listening, and writing, and three
components: grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. Pronunciation is the
way in which language or words are spoken (Manser, 1991 : 30). It plays a
significant role in our personal and social lives because the way we speak
reflects our identities, and indicates our association to particular communities
(Seidlhofer, 2001 : 23). The more good our pronunciation, the more easy for
us to communicate with others. It is important for students to have a good
pronunciation because students can convey their thoughts, opinions, ideas,
feelings, so on clearly. It does not mean that students need to have a
was an unrealistic burden for both teacher and learner”. It is impossible for
non native to speak as perfect as native does but at least students have the
minimum requirement of good pronunciation.
Meanwhile, Goodwin as cited in Celce-Murcia (2006 : 117) states that
pronunciation is the language feature that most readily identifies speakers as
nonnative. Since it can identify us as non-native, we do not need to pronounce
like the way native speaker do. However, we need to be minimally intelligible
while speaking. She added that when teachers find students who have
difficulty in speaking, teachers need to assist them through improving their
pronunciation. Seidlhofer (1995) as cited in Celce-Murcia (2006:117) says
“Pronunciation is never an end in itself but a means of negotiating meaning in
discourse, embedded in specific sociocultural and interpersonal contexts.”
Producing sentences can have different meaning related to the way people
pronounce sentences. Indeed, pronunciation needs to be taught to students.
There are many experts that have views what pronunciation in language
teaching is. Kelly (2000:1) is one that views pronunciation through the
constituent parts. He argues that pronunciation has two main features namely
phonemes and suprasegmental features. He has broken down the main features
Figures 2.1 Pronunciation Features
B. Speech Organ
In speaking a language we use speech sounds as the signals to convey
message. Ramelan, (2003 : 17) states that speech sounds are sounds produced
by speech organs which include mouth and the respiratory organs. The human
being has a mechanism of sound production in his body as stated by Indriani
below:
“Man has, in common with any other animals, the ability to produce sounds by certain of body‟s mechanism. The most visual sources of energy for our vocal activity is provided by air stream expelled from the lungs. The air stream provided by the lungs undergoes important modification in the upper stages of respiratory tract before it acquires the quality of a speech sound. First of all, in the trachea or windpipe, its process to the larynx, containing the so-called „vocal cords‟ “ (Indriani, 2003 : 1).
It is clear that human has a sound production mechanism in his body. The
On the basis of their function, Ramelan, (2003 : 18) divide the speech
organs into three as follows:
1. Initiator: speech organ that sets the air in motion for the production of
speech sounds. It is the lungs that play the role as the main initiator.
2. Phonator: refer to the vocal cords in the larynx, which are used to
produce speech sounds called “voice”.
3. Articulator: involves what is available in the mouth and throat.
All the sounds we make when we speak are the result of muscles
contracting. The muscles in the chest that we use for breathing produce the flow
of air that is needed for almost all speech sounds; muscles in the larynx produce
many different modifications in the flow of air from the chest to the mouth. After
passing through the larynx, the air goes through what we call the vocal tract ,
which ends at the mouth and nostrils. Here the air from the lungs escapes into the
atmosphere. We have a large and complex set of muscles that can produce
changes in the shape of the vocal tract, and in order to learn how the sounds of
speech are produced it is necessary to become familiar with the different parts of
the vocal tract. These different parts are called articulators , and the study of them
is called articulatory phonetics .
a) The articulators
1. The pharynx is a tube which begins just above the larynx. It
is about 7 cm long in women and about 8 cm in men, and at
the mouth and the other being the beginning of the way
through the nasal cavity. If you look in your mirror with
your mouth open, you can see the back of the pharynx.
2. The velum or soft palate is seen in the diagram in a position
that allows air to pass through the nose and through the
mouth. Yours is probably in that position now, but often in
speech it is raised so that air cannot escape through the
nose. The other important thing about the velum is that it is
one of the articulators that can be touched by the tongue.
When we make the sounds k and g the tongue is in contact
with the lower side of the velum, and we call these velar
consonants.
3. The hard palate is often called the "roof of the mouth". You
can feel its smooth curved surface with your tongue.
4. The alveolar ridge is between the top front teeth and the
hard palate. You can feel its shape with your tongue. Its
surface is really much rougher than it feels, and is
covered with little ridges. You can only see these if you
have a mirror small enough to go inside your mouth (such
as those used by dentists). Sounds made with the tongue
touching here (such as t and d ) are called alveolar.
5. The tongue is a very important articulator and it can be
usual to divide the tongue into different parts, though there
are no clear dividing lines within the tongue. Fig. 2 shows
the tongue on a larger scale with these parts shown: tip ,
blade, front , back and root . (This use of the word "front"
often seems rather strange at first.)
6. The teeth (upper and lower) are usually shown in diagrams
like Fig. 1 only at the front of the mouth, immediately
behind the lips. This is for the sake of a simple diagram,
and you should remember that most speakers have teeth to
the sides of their mouths, back almost to the soft palate.
The tongue is in contact with the upper side teeth for many
speech sounds. Sounds made with the tongue touching the
front teeth are called dental .
7. The lips are important in speech. They can be pressed
together (when we produce the sounds p , b ), brought into
contact with the teeth (as in f , v), or rounded to produce the
lip-shape for vowels like uù . Sounds in which the lips are
in contact with each other are called bilabial , while those
with lip-to-teeth contact are called labiodental . The seven
articulators described above are the main ones used in
speech, but there are three other things to remember.
Firstly, the larynx could also be described as an articulator
are sometimes called articulators; certainly we move the
lower jaw a lot in speaking. But the jaws are not articulators
in the same way as the others, because they cannot
themselves make contact with other articulators. Finally,
although there is practically nothing that we can do with the
nose and the nasal cavity , they are a very important part of
our equipment for making sounds (what is sometimes
called our vocal apparatus), particularly nasal consonant
such as m, n. Again, we cannot really describe the nose and
the nasal cavity as articulators in the same sense as (1) to
(7) above.
Figures 2.2 Speech Organ C. English Sounds
In English, the phonetic alphabet is usually divided in two main
categories, that are vowels and consonants. Generally, English phonetic
alphabet can be described as follows :
Table 2.1 English Phonetic Alphabet
A A [ei] N N [en]
B B [bi:] O O [ou]
C C [si:] P P [pi:]
E E [i:] R R [a:]
While Sahulata (1988:29) classifies English sounds into three
categories. They are consonants, vowels, and diphthong.
1. Consonants
English has 24 consonants. They are /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/, /f/,
/v/, /θ/, /ð/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /h/, /t/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/, /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /l/, /r/, /w/.
/k/ K car, cookie, cake
/g/ G go, begin, egg
/f/ F fun, office, scoff
/v/ V very, savory, have
/Ө/ Th think, bathtub, month
/ð/ Th these, father, breathe
/s/ S sit, whisper, kiss
/z/ Zh zoo, busy, buzz
/∫/ Sh shoe, luscious, wish
/ʒ/ Zh rouge, vision, measure
/h/ H hat, behind
/m/ M me, sophomore, slum
/n/ N no, running, gun
/ŋ/ Ng swing, singer, swimming
/ʧ/ Ch chair, catcher, witch
/ʤ/ J jaw, magic, age
/w/ W we, away
/j/ Y yes, emulate
/l/ L lamp, pillow, pull
2. Vowels
According to Jones (1975 : 23), a vowel (in normal speech)
is defined as a voiced sounds in forming which the air issues in
continuous stream through the pharynx and mouth, there being
no obstruction and no narrowing such as would cause audible
friction.
Figure 2.3 Place of English Sound
English has 12 (twelve) pure vowels. They are /i/, /ɪ/,
/e/,/ɛ/,/æ/, /ɑ/, /ə/, /Ʌ/, /ɚ/, /ɝ/, /u/, /ʋ/, /o/, and /ɔ/. Jackson (1980:
20) classifies vowels into three kinds, they are front vowels, central
vowels, and back vowels:
a. Front vowel
In articulation, front of vowel consist of six phoneme:
/i/, /ɪ/, /e/, /ɛ/, /æ/ and /ɑ/. The manner of articulation of
articulation also like consonants that is based on the
location of the tongue within the mouth.
Table 2.3 Front Vowel
Sounds Distinction
/i/ This is the highest and most forward front vowel.
Examples: beat /bit/, feed /fid/, city /sIti/, and
sheep /ʃip/
/ɪ/ This is a bit lower and further back than /i/. Examples: bit /bɪt/, fit /fɪt/, slid /slɪd/, and ship
/ʃɪp/
/e/ This is a mid-front vowel.
Examples: bait /bet/, raid /red/ and made /med/
/ɛ/ This is a mid-front vowel that is beginning to get a little low.
Examples: bet /bɛt/, red /rɛd, lead /lɛd, and bed
/bɛd/
/æ/ The tongue is getting quite low here, but it is
sill near the front of the mouth.
Examples: bat /bæt/, ladder /læd/, fad /fæd/
vowels.
Examples: body /bɑdi/, pot /pɑt/, and hobby
/hɑbi/
b. Central Vowel
In articulation, central vowel consist of four /ə/, /Ʌ/, /ɚ/
and /ɝ/. There is really only one central vowel in English,
but we have different signs for stressed and unstressed
sounds :
Table 2.4 Central Vowel
Sounds Distinction
/ə/ This is the unstressed central vowel. It is so
important a sound it even has a name: schwa.
Examples: America /əmɛrɪkə/, and Korea
/kəriə/
/Ʌ/ This is the stressed central vowel.
Examples: lucky /lɅki/, up /Ʌp/, and but /bɅt/
/ɚ/ This is the r-colored unstressed central vowel.
Examples: lover /lɅvɚ/, and sister /sɪstɚ/
/ɝ/ This is the stressed central vowel.
Basically, /ə/ and /ᴧ/ are the same sound. The difference
in location of the tongue when they are produced is tiny.
They have been given different symbols because, in
English, it is very important that we distinguish between
stressed and unstressed sounds.
c. Back Vowel
In articulation of back vowel consist of four /u/, /ʋ/, /o/,
and /ɔ/. Back vowels in English are rounded. The basic
problem with this is that they are not all rounded to the
same degree. The place of articulation for back vowels, like
front vowels and consonants, is based on the location of the
tongue within the mouth. Because the tongue does not
touch any thing, this makes finding the location much
harder.
Table 2.5 Back Vowel
Sounds Distinction
/u/ This is the highest and most back of the
English vowels. This is a tense sound in that
the lips are taut when you are making the
sound.
fuel /fjul/
/ʋ/ This is a little bit further forward and lower
than /u/. This sound is lax. Your lips are
rounded but in a relaxed way.
Examples: book /bʋk/, could /kʋd/, and wood
/wʋd/
/o/ This is a central back vowel. This sound also
has a longer more rounded version which is
sometimes written /o/
Examples: boat /bot/, over /ovo/, drove /drov/,
and show /ʃo/
/ɔ/ This is the lowest and furthest forward of all
the back vowels.
Examples: call /kɔl/, awful /ɔful/, horse /hɔrs/,
and halt /hɔlt/
Those categories of vowel above indicates that the vowels
are more harder than consonant because vowels are include various
part of tongue. Therefore, it needs special technique for English
learners to learn how to correctly pronunce of vowels. Tomake
easy pronunciation of vowels Gilbert (2008 : 27) states there are
1) The two vowel rule: If there are two vowel letters in a
short word, the first vowel sounds like its alphabet
name. The second vowel is silent.
/ey/ /iy/ /ay/ /ow/ /uw/
cake these ice cone fruit
main cream pie soap Sue
2) The one vowel rule: If there is only one vowel letter in a
short word, it sounds like a relative of the alphabet
vowel.
/æ/ /ɛ/ /I/ /ɒ/ /Ʌ/
Had bed his hot sun
Jan Ben Kim John Russ
Beside those three categories above, there are three positions of
lips which are used in describing the articulation of vowel sound :
1. Rounded
The lips are pushed forward into the shape of
circle. Example sound : /u/
2. Spread
The corners of the lips are moved away from
each other as when smiling. Example sound : /i:/
3. Neutral
The lips are not noticeably rounded or spread.
Example sound : /ə/
4. Vowel /æ/
Example cat, bad, sad, sand, land, hand
Among all English vowels, the greatest problem for most
learners poses “æ”. It is somewhere between “a” in “father” and
“e” in “bed”. It is usually pronounced slightly longer in American
English than in British English. It is always represented by the
letter “a” in a stressed closed syllable, but not all such occurrances
are pronounced as [æ].
5. Vowel /ɛ/
Example get, bed, set, sell, fell, men
This vowel is the closest one to the sound of the letter “e” in
represented by an “e” in a closed stressed syllable, but often also
by “ai”, e.g. said, fair, “ae”, e.g. bear, pear, and others.
6. Vowel /ə/
Example a, syllable, moment, terrible, felony, papyrus
Most learners of English learn very fast how to pronounce
“a” when it means an indefinite article, and this is exactly the
pronunciation of [ə]. It can be represented by any vowel (a, e, i,
o, u) in an unstressed syllable, see the examples above. When
represented by “a” or “i”, it is often freely interchangeable with
[ɪ]; for example “terrible” can be pronounced either /ˈtɛrəbl/, or
/ˈtɛrɪbl/.
7. Diphthong
According to Ramelan (1999 : 81) diphthong is a kind of vowel
sound with a special feature; that is there is a deliberate glide made
from one vowel position to another vowel position, and which is
produced in one syllable. Further, Ramelan classifies diphthong
into two categories, they are closing and centering diphthongs.
a. Closing diphthong occurs when the movement
of the tongue is carried out from the position of
open vowel to that of a closer vowel. There are
five closing diphthongs in English. They are /eɪ/,
b. Meanwhile, when the movement of the tongue is
carried out towards the central vowel /ə/, the
diphthong is called a centering diphthong. There
are four centering diphthongs; /ɪə/, /ɛə/, /ʊə/, and
/ɔə/ (Ramelan, 1999: 82).
Table 2.6 Diphthong Sounds
No Symbols Key-words Phonetic Writing
1 /eɪ/ Day /deɪ/
2 /oʊ/ So /soʊ/
3 /aɪ/ High /haɪ/
4 /aʊ/ Cow /kaʊ/
5 /ɔɪ/ Boy /bɔɪ/
6 /ɪə/ Here /hɪə/
7 /ɛə/ There /ðɛə/
8 /ʊə/ Poor /pʊə/
9 /ɔə/ Your /yɔə/
D. Problems in Pronunciation
In our country English plays as a foreign language. It means that
people use English only in school when they have the lesson in the
classroom. Since it is rarely used by people as medium of communication,
baby starts to talk, he does it by listening to the sound of his mother and he
will automatically imitate his mother. Ramelan states that mother tongue
has been deeply implanted in him as part of his habits (1999 : 4).
Moreover Ramelan says that it will be difficult for him to change the habit
of moving his speech organs in such a way as to produce the foreign
sounds. It is understandable since the movements of his speech organs
have been set to producethe speech sounds of his own language.
Kelly (2006 : 4) says that the set of sounds we acquire, however,
may vary : a child brought up in an English-speaking environment will
develop the phonemes of English, a French-speaking child will develop a
different set, and so on. In other words, an Indonesian-speaking child also
will develop the phonemes of Indonesian which are difficult to change.
The difficulty encountered by the student in learning a second
language is caused by the different elements found between his language
and the target language (Ramelan, 1999:5). Further Ramelan says that the
degree of difficulty in learning is also determined by the degree of
difference between the two languages. The greater the similarity between
Moreover, Ramelan (1999:7) points out the nature of pronunciation
problems in learning a foreign language as follows :
Firstly, the problem is concerned with the identification of the foreign sounds. Learners have to remember their acoustic qualities so that they will be able todirectly identify them in an utterance. Secondly, the problem is concerned with the production of sounds by their speech organs. They should be able to hear and identify the acoustic quality of the foreign sounds in order to be able to produce them. The last problem is concerned with the production of suprasegmental features like stress, length, pitch, and intonation.
According to Arini (2009), there are two common mistakes that a
learner makes. First, they fail to make long vowels or diphthongs when it
is followed by voiced consonants. Secondly, they fail to shorten long
vowels or diphthongs when it is followed by voiceless consonants. Arini
adds that there are other problems or difficulties related to pronunciation.
One of them is hearing problem. People have different hearing ability. It
affects people to make mistakes when pronouncing words. O’Connor
(1998: 1) gives a good illustration related to how important our ears are.
He says:
Language starts with the ear. When a baby starts to talk he does it by hearing the sounds his mother makes and imitating them. If a baby is born deaf he cannot hear these sounds and therefore cannot imitate them and will not speak.
So does English. If one cannot listen to English pronunciation well,
he cannot produce it well too. Kelly (2000 : 8) makes a brief and clear
They are :
1. The learner’s first language may have a one-to-one relationship
between sounds and spelling. The concept of there not being
such a relationship may be new.
2. Even if such a concept is not new for the learner, they will have
to become familiar with new sound-spelling relationships.
3. There may be sounds, and combinations of sounds in L1, which
do not occur in English.
4. There may be sounds, and combinations of sounds, used in
English which do not occur in L1.
5. English may use stress and intonation patterns which feel
strange to the learner.
Furthermore, there are also some factors that influencing students’
pronunciation, they are:
a. Speaking is the matter of habit
If someone wants to learn a foreign language he will
obviously meet with all kinds of learning problems. Ramelan,
(2003 : 4) defines that these difficulties have to do with the
learning of the new sound system, the new of vocabulary items,
and the learning of the unfamiliar ways of arranging the foreign
words into sentences.
has been speaking in mother tongue, which has been deeply
implanted in him as part of his habit. So, it will be difficult for him
to sounds or to produce the foreign sound.
b. Intonation and Pitch
The importance of English intonation, both as an area of
difficulty for the foreign learners and as a challenge to theory and
description, has been acknowledged in a number of classic studies
(Clark & Yallop 1990 : 15).
Intonation is the tone of what people say. More specifically,
it is the combination of musical tones (pith) in which people
pronounce the syllable that make up the speech. Intonation is
important in distinguishing one type of sentence to another. It is
also signaling the attitude of the speaker in what they are saying
(Syafei, 2003 : 57).
c. Factors that affect the mastering of Pronunciation
Generally, someone who learns a language as native or
mother tongue will find no difficulty in pronunciation. For
instance, an infant who was born and grow in Indonesia will
capture Indonesia pronunciation easily. Likewise, an infant who
was born and grow in Spain and learn Spain language, as his
mother tongue will capture Spain pronunciation easily. In the
beginning, usually, those infants will get a little problem in voicing
to those infants are called phonological development. When the
stages of Phonological Development are perfectly over, the
problem in producing special sounds will disappear naturally. On
the other hands, someone who learns English as a second or
foreign language will get complicated problem in mastering
English pronunciation. The problem occurs in mastering
pronunciation are commonly said by some experts.
Based on some theories above, it can be concluded that, pronunciation
is a part of speaking which describes speech sounds of language. In
addition, pronunciation errors are natural part in learning second language
which is difficult to be avoided. Therefore, it needs a mould to learn
English pronunciation correctly.
E. Previous Researches
There are some researches that relevant with my research which
analyze the errors of pronunciation in English. The first is a research of
Priscilla Shak, Chang Siew Lee and Jeannet Stephen from Centre for the
Promotion of Knowledge and Language Learning, Universiti Malaysia
Sabah, Malaysia which entitled “Pronunciation Problem : A Case Study
on English Pronunciation Errors of Low Proficient Students”. The aim of
the study was to identify the specific sounds that are commonly
mispronounced by low oral proficiency Malaysian students. Based on the
thematic analysis conducted, the sounds that were commonly
vowels and diphthongs), consonants (plosives, fricatives and affricates),
silent letters, and the ‘-ed’ form. From the findings, the writers
recommended the use of the commonly mispronounced sounds as the
content in producing an instructional pronunciation video for helping low
oral proficiency students of the 21st century to address their pronunciation problems.
The second research is a research of Elkhair Muhammad Idriss
Hassan from English Language Department, Al-Farabi Private College,
Riyadh, KSA. The title of his research is “Pronunciation Problems: A Case
Study of English Language Students at Sudan University of Science and
Technology”. The study investigated the problems in English
pronunciation experienced by learners whose first language is Sudanese
Spoken Arabic. The subjects for the study were fifty students from
University of Sudan of Science and Technology (SUST), and thirty
university teachers of English language from the same university. The
findings of the study revealed that Sudanese Students of English whose
language background is Sudanese Spoken Arabic, had problems with the
pronunciation of English vowels. Based on the findings, the study
concluded that factors such as Interference, the differences in the sound
system in the two languages, inconsistency of English sounds and spelling
militate against Sudanese Students of English (SSEs) competence in
The last research is a research of Sofa Zakiyatul Muna fromEnglish
Department of Educational Faculty of State Institute for Islamic Studies
(IAIN) Salatiga. The title of her research is “The Differences between Thai
and Indonesian Undergraduates in Pronouncing Plural Nouns and Third
Singular Present Verbs due to Progressive Assimilation”. The research
investigated the differences between Thai and Indonesian undergraduates
in pronouncing plural nouns and third singular present verbs with s/es
ending. The aim of this research were to find out the differences and
similarities between Thai and Indonesian undergraduates in pronouncing
plural nouns and third singular present verbs and the factors that influence
it. The subjects of the research was four Thailand and four Indonesian
undergraduates of third semester students IAIN Salatiga in the academic
year of 2015/2016. The data was collected through interview and
recording. The recording was analyzed and combined with interview
report to answer research problems. Based on the data analysis itwas found
that the differences and similarities of Thai and Indonesian undergraduates
are substitution and omission of s/es suffix pronunciation. It was
influenced by the geographic dialects and the existence of consonants in
native language.
The three researches above are related with my research that is
analyzing pronuciation errors in English. Similary, the three researches
above and my research focus in analyzing students pronunciation errors
differences are existed in the scope of study and the subject of research.
The first research analyzes the errors pronunciation made by low
proficient students in Malaysia, the second research analyzes
pronunciation errors of students from University of Sudan of Science and
Technology (SUST), and university teachers of English language from the
same university, and the last research analyzes pronunciation errors of four
Indonesian students and four Thai students of State Institute for Islamic
Studies Salatiga. The three previous researches analyzes pronunciation
errors in English generalIly either in vowel or consonant, also in silent
letters, the ‘-ed’ form, plural nouns and third singular present verbs.
In contrast, my research analyzes pronunciation errors which focuses
only on three English vowels, they are /æ/, /e/ and /ɛ/, and the subjects are
twelve students of the eighth semester students of English Education
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH
This chapter focuses on giving methodological foundation of the
research. The main focus is to guide the reader to comprehend about
research design,subject of the research, location of the reserach, research
instrument, technique of data collection, and technique of analyzing data.
A. Research Approach
In English sound system, there are many styles of speech for each
individual which is influenced by a variety of causes such as locality, early
influences, and social surroundings. The pronunciation of English
involved the production of individual or isolated sounds and the utterance
of words, phrases, and sentences with correct spelling and stressing and/or
rhythm of intonation.
Basically, comparing with the English sound system, the
Indonesian sound system is similar to the English sound system. They are
similar in some terms, namely, minimal pairs, similitude, assimilation,
elision, and intonation. However, some differences also exist. Some
English vowels and consonants do not exist in Indonesian. Indonesian also
Problems faced by the Indonesians learning English are concerned
with the ear, the matter of making foreign sounds, the distribution of the
sounds, certain attributes about sounds, fluency, and the relation between
pronunciation and conventional spelling. Therefore, they should overcome
the problems by deeply understanding the theory of phonology and
practicing to pronounce the words correctly. (Jones, 1990: 57).
B. Research Design
Research design is the overall plan for collecting data in order to
answer research questions. Also, it can be defined as the specific data
analysis techniques or methods that the researcher intends to use
(Fraenkel, et. all, 2011).
Concerning with the objective of study, this research used
quantitative method. According to Creswell in Sukamolson (2010 : 2)
quantitative research is a research that is explaining phenomena by
collecting numerical data that are analyzed using mathematically based
methods (in particular statistics). Cohen as cited in Sukamolson (2010 : 2)
states that quantitative research is defined as social research that employs
empirical methods and empirical statements. He states that an empirical
statement is a descriptive statement about what “is” the case in the “real
world” rather than what “ought” to be the case. Typically, empifical
statements are expressed in numerical terms. Another factor in
quantitative research is that empirical evaluations are applied. Empirical
program or policy empirically fulfills or does not fulfill a particular
standard or norm.
C. Subject of the Study
The subjects of the research were the eighth semester students of
English Education Department of IAIN Salatiga in the academic year of
2016/2017. The eighth semester was chosen based on the consideration
that these students had already taken phonetic and phonology subject in
the previous semester. It was assumed that they had already understood the
concept of pronunciation. Besides, it was predicted that their knowledge of
pronunciation might in line with pronunciation knowledge and awareness.
The subjects were categorized into population and sample.
1. Population
Population plays an important role in conducting this research.
Best (1981: 8) states “Population is any group of individuals that
have one or more characteristics in common that interest the
researcher.” According to the researcher, population is the whole
members of particular group that interest the researcher to get some
information in conducting a research.
The population of this study was the eighth semester students of
English department of IAIN Salatiga. After being subtracted by
2. Sample
According to Arikunto (1998:117), sample is part of population.
To facilitate the researcher in gathering the data, sampling is
needed. The researcher used the random sampling technique in
choosing the respondents. In this case, the researcher took 12
students as the sample which represented approximately 10% out
of 120 students. This is in line with Arikunto (1998: 120) who
states that if the population is more than 100, it is better for the
researcher to take 10%-15% or 20%-25% or more as the sample.
D. Location of the Study
This research is conducted in campus 3 of State Institute for
Islamic Studies Salatiga which located in Pulutan, Jalan Lingkar
Selatan, Salatiga. The reason for choosing IAIN as the location of the
research is that it deals with the accessibility of the researcher. In this
case, the accessibility refers to the ease for both researcher and
respondents in collecting data. Since this department is the place where
the researcher and respondents are studying, it makes them both easy
E. Research Instrument
The writer used instrumet of research below :
1. Test
Test is used to analyze students’ ability in pronouncing vowel
/æ/, /ə/ and /ɛ/. Firstly, the writer made a list of English words which
consist vowel /æ/, /ə/ and /ɛ/. Thus, respondents were asked to read
those words. The respondents’ performances were recorded for later
analysis.
F. Technique of Data Collection
In order to find out the answers of the research questions, a
pronunciation test was used. The data were collected by the audio
recording. The first procedure was aimed to gather the data in the form of
audio taped data.
In the very beginning, the respondents’ permission was asked
regarding the proposed research that will be conducted. The purpose of
this research was also explained. Afterward, the writer gave a test to
respondents. Respondents were asked to read some words which consist
three vowels that will be analyzed by the writer. Those vowels are /æ/, /ə/
and /ɛ/. Then the writer recorded the respondents’ pronunciation. Data
later on were in a form of transcription. Then, each respondent’s
performance was analyzed into phonetic transcription to figure out
The pronunciation test consisted of 30 words containing vowel /æ/,
/ə/ and /ɛ/. The following are the detailed of the pronunciation test:
Table 3.1 Pronunciation Test No Vowel /æ/ Vowel /ə/ Vowel /ɛ/
1 Land Difficult Bed
2 Math Gentleman Men
3 That Develop End
4 Application Distant Beg
5 Adjective Golden Head
6 Balance Pamphlet Pen
7 Graphic Beacon Set
8 Jacket Arrow Guess
9 Language Euphoria Tech
10 Natural Devious Fret
G. Technique of Analyzing Data
The followings are some steps that done by the writer in analyzing
the data:
1. Playing and listening to the repondents’ recording several times
as necessary
2. Transcribing the respondents’ pronunciation into phonetic
3. Assessing the respondents’ pronunciation whether they are
correct or incorrect using the Oxford Dictionary
4. Giving score 1 (one) for each correct pronunciation and 0
(zero) for incorrect pronunciation
5. To put the respondents’ score into the table of respondents’ test
analysis as patterned below:
Table 3.2 Respondents’ Test Analysis
Code of Resp.
Number of Words RCA MCA
1 2 3 4 5 ... 30
R1 0 0 0 0 0 ... 1 18 30
R2 0 0 0 1 1 ... 1 23 30
R3 1 1 1 1 1 ... 1 24 30
R4 0 0 0 0 1 ... 1 16 30
R5 1 0 0 1 1 ... 1 23 30
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 30
R12 1 1 1 1 1 ... 1 24 30
∑NCW ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 258 360
6. Calculating the average proportion of correct pronunciation
7. Determining the mastery level of the students by using mastery
(2003: 34) in order to know how the students pronounce the
English vowel sounds.
Table 3.3 Students’ Mastery Level used in Tinambunan’s
Criterion
Number of Error in Percentage Level of ability
0-25% Excellent
26 – 50% Good
51 – 75% Fair
CHAPTER IV
DATA PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION
A. Data Presentation
In this chapter, the writer would like to present the data collected
descriptively. This research is a research on pronunciation errors made by
the eight semester students of IAIN Salatiga in the academic year of
2016/2017. Furthermore, this research focused on students’ errors in
pronouncing vowel /æ/, /ə/ and /ɛ/. The respondents of this research were
twelve students of the eight semester students of IAIN Salatiga that were
chosen randomly.
First of all, the writer gave a list of 30 words that consist of 10
words which have vowel /æ/ , 10 words which have vowel /ə/ vowel and
10 words which have vowel /ɛ/. Before starting the recording process, the
writer asked the respondents to have some practice in reading those 30
words to avoid some mistakes. After the required data were obtained, the
data then were analyzed carefully. First, the recorded respondents’
pronunciation were played and listened to as many times as needed. Then,
the respondents’ pronunciation were transcribed into phonetic
transcription. To save the time, the writer transcribed only the
After judging the correct and incorrect pronunciations, the next
step was giving score. Score 1 (one) was given to each correct
pronunciation, while the incorrect one was given score 0 (zero). Finally,
the students’ scores were computed and the percentage was calculated.
B. Discussions
According to Krausz (2010 : 17) errors are a natural part of
learning a language and can work as an insight into the tools and the
process used to learn a language. Errors will occur in every aspect of
language learning include pronunciation.
To identify the errors in language, it can be showed by drawing
incorrect conclusion made by the subjects. Corder in Krausz (2010 :18)
states that one of the most important findings of error analysis is that most
errors occour by learners even be releted to phonological errors”.
Based on the data , there were ten (10) words containing vowel /ӕ/
which were pronounced by twelve (12) respondents. It means there were
120 utterances obtained from the test. From the whole utterances, there
were seventy seven (77) correct pronunciations. The rest of them (43)
were wrong. In other words, there were 64.17% of the respondents who
were able to pronounce vowel /ӕ/ correctly. The rest, 35.83% of the
respondents pronounced them wrongly. To know what kinds of mistakes
a. Error pronounciation of vowel /ӕ/
Vowel æ is a stressed front vowel. When pronouncing it the
mouth must be open much more, lips are little tighter and the
tounge stays at the bottom of the mouth. The respondents make
some general errors that can not be avoided. Those errors can be
drawed as /ʌ/, /ɛ/ and /ə/.
1. Vowel /ӕ/ pronounced as /ʌ/
Vowel /ӕ/ and /ɛ/ are both stressed sound, the
difference lies on the articulation. Vowel /ӕ/ is
stressed front vowel whether vowel /ʌ/ is stressed
central vowel. Therefore, the stressed of vowel /ӕ/
is much more longer than vowel /ʌ/. There are two
respondents pronounced “application” as /ʌple’keisyən/ instead of /æple’keisyən/ and one
respondents pronounced it as /eipli’keisyən/. To
minimize the errors the respondents need to pay
more attention on how to pronounce English words
correctly.
2. Vowel /ӕ/ pronounced as /ɛ/
The two vowels are different in the distinction
therefore they have different sound. Vowel /ӕ/ is
stressed front vowel and vowel /ɛ/ is a mid front
above, nine respondents from twelve respondents
made mistake in pronouncing word “land”. They pronounce it as /lɛnd/ instead of /lænd/. To
overcome the problems, the respondents need to
have more practice in pronouncing English words in
order to get correct pronunciation.
3. Vowel /ӕ/ pronounced as /ə/
Sound /ə/ is unstressed central vowel whether vowel
/ӕ/ is stressed front vowel. Three of twelve
respondents pronounced “adjective” as /əjɛktɪv/ instead of /æjɛktɪv/. To resolve that problem,
respondents need to raise their awarness on learning
how to pronounce English vowels correctly.
b. Error pronunciation of vowel /ə/
There were ten (10) words containing vowel /ə/
pronounced by twelve (12) respondents. So, there were 120
pronunciations all together. From the 120 utterances, sixty five
(65) utterances were pronounced correctly. It means 54.17% of the
respondents mastered the pronunciation of vowel /ə/. The rest of
them pronounced it wrongly. In other words, 45.83% of the
students were not able to pronounce vowel /ə/. The followings are
1. Vowel /ə/ pronounced as /ɛ/
These two vowels have different sound and symbol.
Sound /ə/ is unstressed central vowel and sound /ɛ/ is the mid-front vowel that is begin to get a little
low. Four of twelve respondents made errors in
pronouncing “gentelmen”. They pronounce gentelmen as /jentəlmɛn/ instead of /jentəlmən/. To
solve the problems, respondents have to watch
native’s speaker pronunciation, so they are able to
pronounce English word correctly.
2. Vowel /ə/ pronounced as /o/
These two vowel have different sound and symbol.
Sound /ə/is unstressed central vowel and sound /o/ is a central back vowel. From the data collected,
five of twelve respondents were making errors in
pronouncing “develop”. Those five students pronounced it as /dɛ’vəlop/ and /di’velop/ instead of
/di’veləp/. To overcome the problems, the
respondents need to have more practice in
pronouncing English words in order to get correct
3. Vowel /ə/ pronounced as /ʌ/
Basically, vowel / ə/ and / ʌ/ are the same sound but
they have difference in stressed and unstressed.
Therefore, when the subjects confuse to differ
between stressed and unstressed sounds, it will
occurs shortening and lengtening voice. For
example is in the word “euphoria”. From the twelve respondents, there was only one respondents
who pronounced that word correctly. The other
eleven students pronounced it as /yuw’fowrieᴧ/
instead of /yuw’fowrieə/. To minimize the errors the
respondents need to pay more attention on how to
pronounce English words correctly.
c. Error pronunciation of vowel /ɛ/
There were ten (10) words containing vowel /ɛ/ pronounced
by twelve (12) respondents. So, there were 120 pronunciations
altogether. Most students were able to pronounce vowel /ɛ/
correctly. Out of 120 pronunciations obtained, only seven who
were wrong. It means, 94.17% of the students mastered the
pronunciation ofvowel /ɛ/. Their mistakes were mostly about their
awareness in reading the utterances. The followings are the
1. Vowel /ɛ/ pronounced as /e/
Those two vowels are mid-front vowel but vowel /ɛ/ is a mid-front vowel that is beginning to get a little low.
From the data, there was one respondents who
pronounced “bed” as /bed/ instead of /bɛd/ and “men” as /men/ instead of /mɛn/. To solve this problem,
respondents have to watch native speaker’s
pronunciation so it will make them familiar on how to
pronounce English vowels correctly.
2. Vowel /ɛ/ pronounced as /ɪ/
Vowel /ɛ/ and vowel /ɪ/ are both front vowels but
vowel /ɪ/ is the most forward front vowel whether
vowel /ɛ/ is a mid-front vowel. There was one
respondant who pronounced “set” as /sɪt/ instead of
/sɛt/. To minimize the errors the respondents need to
pay more attention on how to pronounce English
words correctly.
3. Vowel /ɛ/ pronounced as /ʌ/
Those two vowels are different in position. Vowel
/ɛ/ is a front vowel and vowel /ʌ/ is a central vowel.
From the data collected, there was one respondent
overcome the problems, the respondents need to
have more practice in pronouncing English words in
order to get correct pronunciation.
4. Vowel /ɛ/ pronounced as diphthong /eɪ/ and /ʊə/ Based on the data collected, there were three
respondents who pronounced vowel /ɛ/ as diphthong
/eɪ/ and /ʊə/. They made that deviation in words
“pen”, “beg” and “guess”. Respondent 1
pronounced “pen” as/peɪn/, respondent 4 pronounced “beg” as /beɪk/ and respondent 8 pronounced “guess” as /gʊəs/. To solve the problems, respondents have to watch native’s
speaker pronunciation, so they are able to
pronounce English word correctly.
The summary of respondents’ vowel test can be seen in the
Table 4.1 Summary of the Respondents’ Test Result
The percentage of correct pronunciation of each respondent
was obtained by dividing the score by the number of items (30) and
it was multiplied by 100. The following is the formula :
Correct pronunciation
X = X 100%
The result of the computation can be seen in the table below :
Table 4.2 Profile of Respondents’ Vowel Test
we can figure out that none of the students was able to pronounce
correctly more than 90% of the total vowel words tested.
After the percentage score of the respondents had been
counted, the next step was calculating the mean score by using the
following formula :
ΣNCI
The mean =
ΣR
258
=
12
= 21.5
Thus, we are able to know from the computation above that
the respondents’ mean score is 21.5.
Next, the average proportion of the correct pronunciation
can be obtained by dividing the sum of respondents’ correct
answers with the sum of maximum correct answers and it was
