THE PRONUNCIATION ERRORS INTERFERENCE
OF NIAS L1 IN L2 INDONESIAN
A THESIS
Submitted to the English Linguistics Study Program in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Magister Humaniora
BY : Asniar Duha
Registration Number : 8106112026
ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTIC STUDY PROGRAM POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
THE PRONUNCIATION ERRORS INTERFERENCE
OF NIAS L1 IN L2 INDONESIAN
A THESIS
Submitted to the English Linguistics Study Program in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Magister Humaniora
BY : Asniar Duha
Registration Number : 8106112026
ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTIC STUDY PROGRAM POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
ABSTRACT
Asniar Duha. Registration Number 8106112026. The pronunciation errors interference of Nias L1 In L2 Indonesian.
A Thesis. English Applied Linguistic Study Program, Postgraduate School, State University of Medan. 2013
ABSTRAK
Asniar Duha. Nomor Pendaftaran 8106112026. Percampuran Kesalahan Pengucapan dari Bahasa Pertama orang Nias dalam Bahasa Bahasa Indonesia sebagai bahasa Kedua. Tesis. Jurusan Liguistik Terapan Bahasa Inggris, Program Pasca Sarjana, Universitas Negeri Medan 2013.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First of all, thanks to Allah SWT for the mercy and guidance in giving the
writer full strength to finish this thesis, Even through faced some difficulties in
completing it.
This thesis, in its present could not have been written without the assistance
and inputs from those who deserve a special appreciation. Therefore in this occasion
the writer would like to express her appreciation. Firstly, to Prof. Dr. Lince
Sihombing, M.Pd for her endless encouragement in completing the thesis, valuable
inputs in the process of writing, and sharp comments in the content and style of
writing that have helped her to shape this thesis. The writer realizes that there are still
many more to be mastered. Secondly, to Prof. Dr. Sumarsih, M.Pd for all support and
guidance in helping the writer to finish this thesis that really testing her abilities
mentally and phsycally. The writer would also like to say many thanks to the Head of
English Department, Prof. Dr. Busmin Gurning M.Pd and also Dr. Sri Minda Murni,
M.S as the secretary of the English Applied Linguistic for making all the process in
completing her Master Degree easy administratively.
The writer would also like to give a special appreciation to her husband,
Panusunan Pasaribu, SE and her three sons Raja Inal Pasaribu, Edwin Djakaulafif
Pasaribu and Azlan Arby Pasaribu for their patience during more than two years left
them every week to finish her study in State University of Medan (UNIMED).
She also would like to extend her indebtedness for valuable inputs from Dr.
Zainuddin, M.Hum, Dr. Eddy Setia, M.Ed, TESP and Dr. Sri Minda Murni, M.S, the
Ayu, M.Hum, Siti Zulaicha, M.Hum, Parwati M.Hum or GUBES (Big and Tall),
Salawati Purba who never give up in giving their support and lovely shared time. And
especially to Siti Zulaicha who always accompany her wherever, whenever to meet
their advisers.
Finally, the writer should admit that the content of this thesis is still imperfect,
but she warmly welcomes any constructive ideas and critics that will improve the
quality of the thesis. She also hopes this thesis would be useful for those who read it,
especially majoring in English.
Sibolga, November 2013 The Writer,
ii
2.1 The Nature of Cross Linguistic Influence Interlanguage 11 2.2 The Types of Pronunciation Errors Interference of Nias L2
ii
4. Structured Interview 27
5. Data Analysis Techniques 27
6. Triangulation 28
3.7 The Location and Time of the Research 29
3.7.1 The Location of Research 29
3.7.2. The Time of Research 30
CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 23
3.1 Research design 23
3.2 The subject of Study 24
3.3 The Instrument of Data Collection 25
3.4 The Technique of Data Collection 25
1. Observation Studies 26
2. Observation of Participation 26
3. Documentation Study 26
CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 23
5.1 Conclusions 23
5.2 Suggestions 24
REFERENCES 31
1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1The Background of the Study
The necessity to pronounce Indonesian correctly by Niasnese native speakers is not easy. Indonesian as national language is compulsory to be used by society also Niasness native speakers.The majority of the Niasnese native speakers in Sibolga are incapable to pronounce their words correctly when they express their thoughts and ideas. Especially in speaking interaction, many of them got difficulty to pronounce the words in their utterance.
Nias people have constantly communicate via language, particularly their family language which they use to communicate with others and in order to be able to live as a social community. A language is often identified as ‘a group of
people’ (Finegan 1997:6). For instance, Indonesians are people who speak
Indonesian, Germans are people who speak German, the English are people who
speak English, etc. Such language identification is called “people’s mother tongue” or native language, or home language, because these languages are
primarily used in families where the people grow up.
Mother tongue is a language which is potentially mastered when people were born or some say that even before we were born. It is acquired informally
and unconsciously. It is “the language learned as a child because it is the one used
in the child’s environment” (Tomlinson, 1984:95). This is known as first language
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where no formal classroom instruction is involved;” whereas a second language is
the language learned formally and consciously as a foreign language, or the
language acquired after the first language. It is “the study of how learners learn an
additional language after they have acquired their mother tongue” (Ellis, 1985:5).
Furthermore, first language acquisition refers to all people’s activities to master
their mother tongue. The stream of activities could be done through both informal
and formal education. Informal education is often named ‘learning a language at home or untutored or naturalistic acquisition,’ while formal education refers to ‘learning a language at school or tutored or classroom acquisition’ (Ellis 1985:5).
Similarly, Tarigan (1988:4) argues that informal education is learning a language naturally, whereas formal education is learning a language scientifically. Moreover, people who speak two languages (bilingual) or more (multilingual) interchangeably may affect the use of each language because one can use the L1’s
rules on L2’s, and vice versa. This language interference is most often discussed
as a source of errors or negative transfer, although where the relevant feature of both languages are the same, it results in correct language production or positive transfer. The greater of the differences between the two languages, the more negative the effects of interference are likely to be.
3
Indonesian as often as possible is very necessary to improve pronounciation capability.
According to Varshney (1995:283) in Saniago Dakhi (2011:3), the lexical change can be in the forms of lexical loss (or a phenomenon in which a particular lexicon dissapears), semantic change ( or the shifting meaning in language) and creation of new lexical item (or the proces of creating a new lexical item to name an object, concept and place through the internal and eksternal borrowings of words).
The theories proposed by Moyna (2009) and Varshney (1995), of course, were not from the research result executed on Li Niha ( Nias Language), but totally derived from the scientific researchers on English which had been studied hundreds years ago by the experienced historical linguists.Thus there will be a tendency that these theories are not completely applicable in Li Niha due to the differences between the two languages. For instance, (1) the consonant is dependent in Li Niha but it is independent in English, (2) the sound [p] is absent in Li Niha but it is present in English and (3) Predicate+subject+object structure in Li Niha but not in English. These three fundamental distinctions, which serves as
determining factors of deciding whether or not Li Niha is consider as a new phenomenon of language change.
The writer argues that practicing is very important for having pronunciation capability. Practicing to prononunce Indonesian correctly will reduce Nias speakers’ problems and diffuculties in pronouncing words of
4
Therefore, Nias speakers should be encouraged to practice their comptence in pronouncing Indonesian.
Based on the writer’s observation, most of the Niasnese native speakers
have low capability in pronouncing Indonesian. Basically, the incapability of Niasnese speakers in pronouncing ability is caused by internal and external factors. Internal factor consists of physical factors and psycology factors. Psysical
factor means the speakers have imperfect body’s function, for example: stiff
toungue and low response. In this case, Niasnese speakers are not included in this problem but their capability are influnced by psychology factors includes lack of interest and motivation to recorrect their error pronouncing because they consider that what they utter can be understood by the hearers, and most of the Nias speakers who are enable to pronounce Indonesian language correctly are adult uneducated people, and also children aged between 5-12 years who are not familiar with Indonesian language at home, plus the primary school teachers mostly use Nias languages. So when the children move to Sibolga they made a mistake in the pronouncing of Indonesian.
However, there is a question which is always in the writer’s mind is, what
5
they donot use their own language.Errors in language is divided into two errors: error inpronouncing and error in spoken. Spoken errors are also made by someone in writing, but the real mistake was not speaking only be classified on two series of analysis errors in language, that language errors include errors to the removal, addition, one of stacking faults morphonology, lexical and phonology.
In accordance with the writer’s observation that in this case Nias speakers pronounce Indonesian as both the most happening removal letters in the words are saying. And sometimes also by an additional well in the letters or words at the end of the spoken word in the language phonology Indonesia.
If the writer see or even listen to a single ethnic such as Niasnese, Bataknese, Javanese it will show consistency when they are speaking, eventhough they are in the formal ceremony, example Javanese speak Indonesian, Bataknese speak Indonesian, Niasnese Speak Indonesian, even Javanese or Niasnese speak other vernacular that they master, in this case will appear the pronunciation error in phoneme.
But in this study the writer focuses on the pronunciation error interference Nias L1 in L2 Indonesian that often occur in their daily conversation. This happens especially when they involve in speaking interaction.They should use Indonesianas National Language. In this case there are some pronunciation error interference when they pronounce some words in Indonesian language.
For example : The word “kawan sakit“ in Indonesia language will be uttered
6
“kura-kura”. The word “sabun-sabun” will be stated “sabu-sabu”.The word
“kangkung” will be stated “kaku”.
Beside Indonesian language, and as a comparation mostly the Niasnese speakers in Sibolgaare able to speak out Batak, Pesisir, Java or other vernacular and they make same mistakes in using those vernacular like in using Indonesian language.Example : The word “Manuk siam” in Batak language means as ayam siam will bepronounced as “manusia”
The majority of the Nias speakers in Sibolga are incapable to pronounce their words correctly when they express their thoughts and ideas in daily conversation, many of them got difficulty to pronounce the word when they are talking each other.
However, ability to pronounce words is very fundamental for Niasnese native speakers to build a conversation with another person.Using Indonesian with correct pronouncing needs the deep attention. Therefore, practicing Indonesian as often as possible is very necessary to improve their pronunciationin the right way.
The writer argues that practicing is very important for having pronounciation capability. Practicing to pronounce Indonesian correctly will reduce Nias speakers problem and diffuculties in pronouncing words of Indonesian language. It takes courage and it will practice the Nias speakers’Pronunciation. Therefore, Nias speakers should be encouraged to practice their comptence in pronouncing Indonesian.
Based on the writer’s observation, most of the Niasnese speakerswho have
7
and the children who have not familiar in Indonesian at home, and in their environment most of Niasnese community, so they seldom to use Indonesian. Basically, the incapability of Nias speakers in pronouncing Indonesian is caused by internal and external factors. Internal factor consists of physical factors and psycology factors. Psysical factor means the speakers haveimperfect body’s function, for example: stiff toungue and low response. In this case, Niasnese speakers are not included in this problem but their capability are influnced bypsychology factors includes lack of interest and motivation to recorrect their pronouncing error because they consider what they utter can understand by the hearers, and most of the Niasnese speakers who are enable to pronounce Indonesian language correctly are adult uneducated people, and also children aged between 4-12 years who are not familiar with Indonesian language at home, plus the primary school teachers mostly use Nias language. So when the children were to Sibolga they made a mistake in the pronouncing of Indonesian.
While, external factors consists of the district, habitual, education, the process of learning Indonesian.Therefore, pronounciation error may occur naturally by Niasnese speakers. In this case, the writer assumes that increasing the correctness inpronouncing is very important and it can done by receiving input from the educated people or people who have good Indonesian pronunciation especially educated Niasnese or Niasnese speakers who has born in Sibolga of course have good pronounce in Indonesian.
8
tobe understood even if they make errors in other areas,whereas learners whose pronunciation is difficult tounderstand will not be understood, even if theirgrammar is perfect. We also often judge people by the waythey speak, and so learners with poor pronunciationmay be judged as incompetent, uneducated orlacking in knowledge, even though listeners are onlyreacting to their pronunciation. Many adultlearners found that pronunciation is one of the most difficultaspects to acquire English, and need explicit helpfrom the teacher (Morley 1994; Fraser 2000). From the statement, this is also happen to the children of Niasnese native speakers at school in Sibolga,Surveysof student needs consistently show that our learnersfeel the need for pronunciation work in class(eg Willing 1989). Thus some sort of pronunciationwork in class is essential.
Based on the previous explanation, the writer thinks that to increase Niasnese native speakers ability in pronouncing Indonesian as the L2 is very neccessary which means that to improve pronouncing ability for the native speakers of Niasnese in Indonesian language especially the students of State elementary school south Sibolga. In addition, the people or the teachers who have good pronouncing in Indonesian should help them and recorrect the Nias students utterance when they do the mistaken to get their pronouncing improvementin Indonesian.
9
Finally, based on the previous explanation, the writer is very interested to
discuss “The Pronunciation Errors Interference of Niasness L1 In L2 Indonesian”
in Sibolga.
1.2 The Problems of the Study
Based on the previous backgroundof the Pronunciation Errors Interference of Niasness L1 in L2 Indonesian are formulated as the following:
1. What factors affect pronunciation errors interference of NiasneseL2 Indonesian?
2. What types of pronunciation errors interference are dominantly made by Niasnesein L2 Indonesian?
3. Why do the pronounciation errors interference happen to the Niasnese L2 Indonesian, the way they are?
1.3 The Objective of the Study
In relation to the problem, the objectives of study are:
1. To see how affect pronounciation errors interference of NiasnessL2 Indonesian.
2. To describe thetypes of pronunciation errors interference dominantly used by Niasnesespeakers in L2 Indonesian.
10 1.4 The Scope of Study
This study attempts to investigate the Pronunciation Errors Interference of Niasnese L1 in L2 Indonesian when they express their thought or ideas in everyday situation specially in spoken language. The main aspects to be observed
is the pronunciation errors of the writer’s students in primary school such as: (1)
the affect of pronunciation errors in their utterance, (2) The types of error that often occur in their utterance and (3) the causes of pronunciation error interference of Niasness L2 Indonesian.
1.5 The Significance of the Study
The Findings of study are expected to be signinificantly relevant to theoritical and practical aspects. Theoritically, the research findings are expected to enrich the theories of pronunciationerrors of Niasness speakers L2 Indonesian language or any research about Nias native speakers, specifically the spoken language in whole Niasness marginal or uneducated community mainly the students of Niasness speakers in Sibolga.This study considers being useful initially to provide the information of pronunciation errors interference of Niasness speakers in L2. Consequently, it will give better understanding and new insights to the next researchers, or Niasness native speakers.
11
55
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 5.1 Conclusions
This thesis is about the pronunciation errors interference of Nias L1 in L2 Indonesian. There are three factors that were observed, they are; Intermarriage (same culture marriage), Parents speak Nias language to the children, Environment. The analysis of the data on prununciation errors provides some useful insights on factors in the interference of Nias L1 in L2 Indonesian. There are some points to be exposed in relation to the factors.
1. The factors that affect the pronunciation errors interference of Nias L2 are : Intermarriage (same culture marriage), Parents speak Nias language to the children, Environment.
2. The dominant factor affect the pronunciation errors interference of Nias L2 Indonesian are: mother tongue or the parents role. Most of the respondents’ parents do not graduate from elementary school, this is
also to be a big factor of their inability to pronounce Indonesian correctly. Living nearby or living in mix culture surrounding help them to improve theirpronunciation in L2 Indonesian.
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3.2 Suggestions
In relation to the conclusios, there are several suggestions that are needed to to share to the readers namely;
1. Niasnese who are uneducated should be aware that Indonesian is very important when they are speaking to other people who came from different tribes.
2. Parents should give more attention to the use on Indonesian and always use to their children at home, because parents as the basic of educator for children.
3. The teacher at the schools should pay attention to the the approriate of students’ utterances in Indonesian if suppose occur the pronunciation
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