ISSUE OF INTELLIGIBILITY AS A MAIN GOAL IN TEACHING PRONUNCIATION: TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVES
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Rhany Dhewani Cahyalita 112008150
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
ISSUE OF INTELLIGIBILITY AS A MAIN GOAL IN TEACHING PRONUNCIATION: TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVES
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Rhany Dhewani Cahyalita 112008150
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in any course or accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and my belief, this contains no material previously published or written by any other person except where due reference is made in the text.
Copyright@ 2013. Rhany Dhewani Cahyalita and Anita Kurniawati, M. Hum
All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without the permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Department, Faculty of Language and Literature, Satya Wacana University, Salatiga.
Issue of Intelligibility as a Main Goal in Teaching Pronunciation: Teachers’
intelligibility in teaching pronunciation for elementary school English teachers in Salatiga. Over a month of interview with 6 different teachers from 6 different elementary schools, 13 interview questions were asked to them in aiming at getting on the teachers‘ perspectives toward the issue of intelligibility in teaching pronunciation. This study aims to find out the phenomenon of intelligibility in teaching pronunciation and communication by askingteachers‘ opinions in pronunciation practices in class. The results indicated that intelligibility become the main important factor in teaching pronunciation for children. However, teachers still have orientation on English speaking countries for their guidance in teaching pronunciation. Therefore, this study explores more on the consciousness of the importance of intelligibility as the aim of the pronunciation class and communication. These findings contribute to a better understanding of intelligibility in teaching pronunciation in particular.
Keywords: intelligibility, pronunciation teaching, communicative competence INTRODUCTION
Throughout my English learning experience, the most difficult problem that I faced
was pronunciation class. In my perception at that time, that class would be fun because it
dealt with a lot of speaking practice. My first experienced in learning pronunciation was in
my junior high school. I came to the class with my ―Javanese‖ accent which was my mother
tongue and my friends laughed at me. One of my friend said that my accent was quite funny
-in negative mean-ing- and they were all felt ―strange‖ with my pronunciation. I was
questioning myself. What was wrong with my accent? Did I have to speak like a ―bule‖ or
native English speaker? Since that, I tried to change my Javanese accent into Native-like
accent. I wanted to speak like a native who was very impressive and fluent. According to
That is why I want to sound like a native speaker who is fluent and perfect in speaking
English.
One day, when I took micro teaching class, I found surprising experience from my
lecturer. In my micro teaching class, my lecturer introduced me about English as an
International language or we could call it EIL. In EIL itself, the most important thing was
communication between English users. The user of English come from all countries in the
world so that there must be a good pronunciation understood by the interlocutor. Good
pronunciation emphasized on the intelligibility and not on the native-like accent. The goal of
good pronunciation focused on two or more people who communicated and understood each
other. The main point was to limit misunderstanding among speakers. From that experienced,
I found that my understanding about native-like accent changed. EIL makes me feel that I do
not need to change my accent. In EIL, accent is not really important. As long as our
interlocutor understands about what we are saying, it will not lead to a problem.
As a learner of English as a Foreign Language (EFL), intelligibility is the important
goal of pronunciation (Jenkins, 2006). Eventhough many students claim that their goal in
learning pronunciation is to sound like a ―native-speaker‖ of English, the point is the
intelligibility itself (Jenkins, 2006). If there are people who tried to speak like a native but
their interlocutor is not clearly enough to get the message, it will be useless. It is clarified that
the central key of communication is the intelligibility when speaking (Jenkins, 2000;
Seidlhofer, 2001), and pronunciation experts have stressed improved intelligibility as the
most important goal of pronunciation teaching (Pennington and Richards, 1986; Morley,
1991; Celce-Murcia, Brinton, and Goodwin; 1996). It is also added by Morley (1992) that
intelligible pronunciation is an essential component of communication competence.
Considering this situation in which English become international language, there must
communicative competence. Therefore, this study attempted to find the answer of the below
research question:
1. What are teachers‘ perspectives toward current issue of intelligibility as a main
goal in teaching pronunciation for elementary school English teachers in Salatiga?
This study aims to find out the issue of intelligibility in teaching pronunciation and
communication from the teachers‘ perspectives in pronunciation practices. It also aims to
make the teachers aware of the issue of intelligibility in teaching pronunciation especially for
children. Therefore, this study is significant for elementary English teachers in Salatiga,
Indonesia. As we know that elementary school children positioning their teachers as a model
of learning so that teachers have to be a good model of learning for them. Elementary school
students are also quick learners so that teachers should teach them the right pronunciation.
This research is conducted in order to make Indonesian teachers aware of their problems
when facing pronunciation issue. In short, this study will help teachers to decide or rethink of
the main focus in teaching pronunciation for children.
Current Issue in Pronunciation Teaching
Based on Hismanoglu (2006), pronunciation is a set of producing sounds. It is
acquired by repeating the sounds over and over again and by being corrected when it is
incorrectly pronounced. Hismanoglu (2006) also argued that pronunciation refers to the
production of sounds that we use to make meaning. Since sounds play an important role in
communication, foreign language teachers must attribute proper importance to teaching
pronunciation in their classes. It is evident that communication is a mutual relationship
between the speaker and the hearer. It includes attention to the particular sounds of a
language (segments), aspects of speech beyond the level of the individual sound, such as
intonation, phrasing, stress, timing, rhythm (suprasegmental aspects), and how the voice is
to the attention of gestures and expressions when we speak a language. Harmer (1993)
stresses the need for making sure that students can always be understood and say what they
want to say. They need to master ―good pronunciation‖, not perfect accents. That is, emphasis
should be on suprasegmental features of pronunciation—not segmental aspects—to help
learners acquire communicative competence as what are stated by Seferoglu (2005). Bott
(2005) asserts, in recent years, increasing attention has been placed on providing
pronunciation instruction that meets the communicative needs of non-native speakers (NNSs)
of English.
Today, there are two principles that have influenced the fields of pronunciation
research and pedagogy; the ―nativeness‖ principle and the intelligibility principle (Levis,
2005). While the ―nativeness‖ principle maintains that a Native-like accent can be achieved
in a foreign language where English becomes first language, the intelligibility principle
claims that learners simply need to be understood. In intelligibility principle, the main focus
is on the understandable communication. Brown (2003) stated that the focus of pronunciation
teaching was on suprasegmentals and how they were used to communicate meaning,
meaningful practice, and the uniqueness of each individual ESL learner. In addition to
Oxford (2003), the focus of pronunciation learning shifted from the teacher playing the key
role in the learning process to the student performing that role.
In some cases, people will try hard to be able to speak English in order to be accepted
in a global society. Since there are people who want to speak English globally, a big question
appears from them. What constitutes ‗acceptable‘ English pronunciation? James (2010)
divides acceptable pronunciation into three levels. Level 1: People often do not understand
what the speaker is saying. Level 2: People understand what the speaker is saying, but the
speaker‘s pronunciation is not pleasant to listen to because he/she has a distracting and/or
listen to. A speaker has acceptable pronunciation when other people can understand what
he/she says and the speaker‘s English is pleasant to listen to; in other words, the speaker is
‗comfortably intelligible.‘ Some learners, however, believe that the aim of learning
pronunciation is to sound like a native speaker of English. Although this is a worthy
individual goal, it should not be the aim of a teacher who wishes to improve their students‘
pronunciation and to improve their students‘ confidence. ‗Acceptable‘ pronunciation is not
synonymous with having an American or British accent. Thus, James (2010) stresses that one
does not have to aim to have their students sounding like the Queen of England or the
President of the United States.
Issue of Intelligibility in Teaching Pronunciation
Nowadays, English is widely regarded as a global or international language, and this
implies that there is a need for people to understand each other‘s Englishes. When we talk
about pronunciation, there is an agreement that accent especially native accent has the most
intelligible pronunciation to be a model of English. Speakers with strong accent may have
intelligible pronunciation because the speaker and the hearer can understand what they are
talking about. In contrast to that, strong accent provides unintelligible pronunciation because
the hearer cannot understand the communication clearly. Hence, some people still agree that
intelligible speakers of English come from inner circle country like America, Australia,
British; English is used as their first language.
In the book, Jenkins (2000) affirmed that the centrality of intelligibility becomes a key
component in communication. This is in line to Pennington and Richards (1986), who
stressed that improving intelligible pronunciation is the most important goal in pronunciation
teaching. According to Richards and Schmidt (2002, p. 263) intelligibility is ―the degree to
which a message can be understood‖. Clearly Derwing (2003) stated pronunciation is a vital
like students and teachers. Morley (1991) stated that, reasonably intelligible pronunciation
will give the speaker communicative empowerment: effective language that will help one not
only to survive, but to succeed as well. Morley (1991) also states that the goal of
pronunciation should be changed from the attainment of perfect pronunciation to the more
realistic goals of developing functional intelligibility, communicability, increased
self-confidence, the development of speech monitoring abilities and speech modification
strategies for use beyond the classroom.
Abercrombie (1991) defines comfortable intelligibility as pronunciation which can be
understood with little or no conscious effort on the part of listener. Morley (1991) also states
that the overall aim is for the learner to develop spoken English that is easy to understand,
serves the learner‘s individual needs, and allows a positive image as a speaker of a foreign
language. In addition, the learner needs to develop awareness and monitoring skills that will
allow learning opportunities outside the classroom environment. As stated by Jones (2002) it
is obvious that creating a stronger link between pronunciation and communication can help
increase learners‘ motivation by bringing pronunciation to a level of intelligibility and
encouraging learners‘ awareness of its potential as a tool for making their language not only
easier to understand but more effective. Morley (1991) also states that intelligible
pronunciation is an essential component of communication competence that teachers should
include in courses and expect learners to do well. The ability to employ stress, intonation, and
articulation in ways that support comprehension is a skill for learners from many language
backgrounds. For some people, the assumption of perfect English which can be inferring to
native-like accent has to be achieved in order to be accepted in global society. However, a
successful communication is closely bound to understanding and being understood. Speakers
Jenkins (2002) argued that the intelligibility gained popularity because acquiring
native-like accent was no longer recommended by the EFL/EIL professionals. This have to be
appropriated with the learners needs in society. Intelligible pronunciation can be used in
countries where English is not used as the first language in order to limit misunderstanding
among people. While in international context, the main focus is not in native-like again since
there are people who come from non native English countries try to speak English for society.
Jenkins (2000) stated that there is another reason for the popularity of English used is that
second language learners' accents are a reflection of their identities and if they wish to
acquire a native-like accent in a foreign language, they should at first do away with their first
language accent. In recent years where English is used all over the world as an international
language, a native-like accent is no longer desirable. So there is no need for the second
language learners to eradicate as far as possible the phonological features of their first
language, and do so with their identities, too (Jenkins, 2000).
METHODOLOGY Context of the study
The study focuses on elementary English teachers in Salatiga. Six elementary schools
were chosen because they have closer location with researcher‘s university. They were all
public elementary schools in Salatiga. They were not belongs to RSBI (Rintisan Sekolah
Bertaraf Internasional) so that English was used as a medium of instruction. Elementary
schools were chosen because they teach Basic English education to the young learners so that
English will be more easily taught as the basis of their knowledge. For this research, the
researcher used sample of convenience (McKay, 2006) which was a selection of participants
based on the people who were easily accessible to the researcher. The researcher decided the
location first then the teachers who were familiar with her and the last was the schools. The
the researcher had to collect data. Another reason why the researcher chose Salatiga as her
context of the study is because Salatiga is a small city which had many varieties of people.
Salatiga provided schools where English is used as a medium of instruction or just as a school
subject. This influenced the data from the participants because they had various answers for
the questions. That was why the researcher chooses Salatiga which is familiar city for the
study.
Participants
The respondents for this research were six English teachers from six different
elementary schools. They came from different university in Central Java, Indonesia. The
table below showed the participants‘ description.
Participants Faculty Status Age Length of teaching
Teacher A
Not yet graduated 22 years old 10 months
Teacher D
because they had background knowledge about the topic being researched. They were chosen
in order to take advantage of the familiarity and education background knowledge of the
easily for collecting data. Considering that this was an educational research which was related
to the issue of intelligibility, this study intended to find out teachers‘ perception toward the
intelligibility in communication.
Data collection instrument
The researcher uses semi-structured interview with 13 guided questions for six
participants. The interview spent about 15 minutes each and it was conducted in a month. The
interview questions and answers are delivered using Bahasa Indonesia in order to give richer
opportunity for the participants to express their feelings. The data is collected qualitatively by
recording the interview process and transcribing the interview result.
Data collection procedure
The data of the study was primarily collected through interview. The interview spent
about 15 minutes for each participant. The researcher gave 13 guided questions from general
to specific tendencies of the respondents. The semi-structure interview aims at finding out:
(a) their special model of English variety.
(b) their background knowledge about teaching pronunciation and the difficulties in
teaching pronunciation.
(c) their main goal and focus in teaching pronunciation.
(d) their opinions toward intelligibility and native-like in pronunciation practice.
(e) their attitude toward intelligibility and native-like.
The researcher used Bahasa Indonesia in order to make the interviewees felt
comfortable in expressing their thoughts and feelings. The interview process was recorded
and the results were transcribed. Clean transcription was used because the researcher was
only focused on the content of the interview and it did not provide any extra information as to
Mix
Data collected from the procedure was analyzed qualitatively. After the researcher got
the data from the interview, then the researcher transcribed and categorized it based on the
interview questions. From these findings, the researcher picked up some categories that
related to the issue of intelligibility in teaching pronunciation to be discussed. There were
three big topics were found based on the interview process. The findings would be presented
below by categorizing the respondents‘ perspectives namely: Teachers‘ attitude towards
Variety of English, Teachers‘ perception toward the issue of intelligibility in teaching
pronunciation, and Teachers‘ perspective towards Native-like in teaching Pronunciation.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVES TOWARDS VARIETY OF ENGLISH
Chart 1. Teachers’ perspectives towards variety of English in teaching pronunciation
Based on the chart above, 4 out of 6 respondents (66 per cent) prefer to use American
English for their English model in teaching pronunciation. 1 respondent (17 per cent) chose
British English and the other 1 respondent (17 per cent) mixed American and British English
for the model of English. When the data was related to the issue of intelligibility in teaching
pronunciation, most participants still had mindset that the best model of English was
American English. It was proved by participant B said that American English was the easiest
variety of English for teaching young learners especially elementary school children.
“I chose American because this is the easiest model of English to be taught for young learners. American English has clear pronunciation. If children are taught using
Since American English still became the principal point that the participant used in
teaching pronunciation to young learners, it could be concluded that the right pronunciation
model came from countries like America or British. Participant C was also stated that
American English was easier to be understood. The sounds of words in American English
could be heard clearly and understandably.
“I choose American because it is easier to be understood and the words sound is
clear and understandable”
Participant E chose American English because it was more dominant than British or
other variety of English. She commented that she would follow anything that was dominant
included American English as the model of teaching pronunciation.
“I prefer to choose American because this model of English is the most dominant
variety of English. I will use the dominant one in order to make me easier to teach
pronunciation”
The data showed that almost all the participants (4 out of 6 or 66%) chose American
English instead of other variety of English because they wanted to follow the most dominant.
They could not change their mindset in using other variety of English like Singlish,
Japanese-English, Indian-Japanese-English, Indonesian-Japanese-English, etc.
In contrast to four participants, Participant A chose two varieties of English as her
guidance that was American and British English because she wanted to apply what she got in
her faculty. When she learned English in English Department, her teachers used American
and British English to teach their students. Therefore, she wanted to use it in their teaching
for young learners.
“I mix American and British because I want to apply what I have got in my college. My teachers at that time used American and British when teaching me in class. Therefore, I want to copy their model of English for my teaching now”
Participant D had opinion that British English was the easiest language to be used.
Participant D was also said that British English had natural pronunciation compared to
“I like British because it is natural and has easy accent if I compare it to American
and Australian”
It was clear that five participants still chose American English as their guidance in
teaching pronunciation because they had a mindset that American English was the best
variety of English to be used. Although one participant chose British English as her guidance
in teaching pronunciation, it could be concluded that those variety of English were come
from inner circle country where English was born. From the data, the participants viewed
intelligibility as their main focus in teaching pronunciation. In contrast to that, they chose
American and British English as their models of teaching pronunciation for their students.
That condition made the researcher thought that inner circle country like America or British
had strong influence in pronunciation teaching for expanding circle countries like Indonesia.
The participants still believe that American English taught the right pronunciation for young
learners.
TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVES TOWARD THE ISSUE OF INTELLIGIBILITY IN TEACHING PRONUNCIATION
In this section, the researcher would present another findings related to the issue of
intelligibility in teaching pronunciation. Based on the interview, there were 4 interesting
findings that the researcher found. The first one was that intelligibility became the main focus
when teaching pronunciation to children. Here, all the respondents agreed that intelligibility
was important to be taught in pronunciation teaching. The second one was that intelligibility
was a key of success in communication. When two or more speakers spoke each others, they
had to have intelligible pronunciation in order to limit misunderstanding in communication.
The third point was that intelligibility made the respondents comfortable when teaching.
They prefer to apply intelligibility principle in class rather than native-like accent because
they taught children. It made children more comfortable to learn English in their early age.
Agre e , 6 Disagre e ,
0
intelligibility principle, both children and teachers would be aware of their English sounds in
communication. The explanation below would make the readers understood the findings
clearly.
Figure 1. Intelligibility as the main focus in teaching pronunciation
In figure 1, intelligibility got the first position in pronunciation teaching. All the
participants agreed that the main focus in teaching pronunciation is intelligibility itself. They
simply said that the aim of teaching pronunciation was to be understood in communication
and they wanted to teach intelligible pronunciation first rather than native-like accent for
children. Although there were people who speak like a native, they had to have intelligible
pronunciation in order to make the interlocutor understand about them. Therefore, they
wanted to emphasize more on intelligibility when teaching English to young learners.
“I try to make my students have the intelligible pronunciation in speaking. Therefore,
intelligibility becomes my main focus in teaching pronunciation for children in order
to limit misunderstanding in communication” (Teacher A).
“If there are native speakers who speak English but do not have clear and intelligible
pronunciation, it can cause miscommunication among them. Since I am teaching
young learners, I try to teach them intelligible pronunciation” (Teacher B).
It was supported by Morley (1991) who stated that intelligible pronunciation was an
essential component of communication competence that teachers should include in courses
Agree, 6 , 0
Figure 2. Intelligibility is a key of success in communication
Figure 2 clearly stated that intelligibility became a key of success in communication.
Participant A stated that in a communication, there must have intelligible pronunciation to
make sure that the interlocutor got the main idea of the conversation. Therefore, she
emphasized more on intelligible pronunciation when teaching children in order to avoid
miscommunication. As Morley (1991) stated that intelligible pronunciation is an essential
component of communication competence.
“Of course there must have intelligibility in a communication. We have to hear and
understand what people saying before we reply and answer their questions.”(Teacher A).
“Intelligibility is the main key to make a successful communication. If there is no intelligibility, I am sure that there must have a lot of miscommunication among us. Although the speaker has advance ability in English, the speaker cannot deliver the message well, and then it will be useless.”(Teacher E).
Pronunciation teaching was important to make students able to communicate among
others. Wrembel (2002) stated that pronunciation teaching has functional communicability;
teaching language that serves communicative needs effectively. In line to Jenkins (2000) who
affirmed that the centrality of intelligibility becomes a key component in communication. It
meant that teachers should think about intelligible pronunciation first before they decided to
move to the native-like. It was also supported by Richards and Schmidt (2002, p. 263);
intelligibility is ―the degree to which a message can be understood‖. From the data,
intelligibility was a key success in communication. Six participants agreed that they had to
Agre e , 5 Disagre e ,
1
Figure 3. Intelligibility become a comfort zone in teaching pronunciation
Figure 3 stated that 5 participants agreed that intelligibility became a comfort zone in
teaching pronunciation. Intelligibility in pronunciation was able to make teachers comfortable
when teaching. They did not need to emphasize on native-like accent when teaching
pronunciation to children. When teachers felt comfortable to teach students about intelligible
pronunciation, they would feel more confident and successful in applying the intelligibility
principle to their students. The data showed that teaches students to achieve intelligible
pronunciation was more important than teaching one English accent in the know as American
and british accents. Therefore, 5 out of 6 respondents said that they were more comfortable
teaching using intelligibility as the prominent things to the students. They assumed that
intelligibility made it easy for them to deliver the materials to the students.
“I feel comfortable when I teach my students using intelligible pronunciation because
my students are still young and when I use intelligible pronunciation, they will understand more.” (Teacher B).
“I prefer to teach using intelligible pronunciation for my students because we are living in Indonesia where English is really a new language for them. Therefore, I want to make sure that my students understand what I am pronouncing in class.” (Teacher F)
Based on the data, it showed that intelligibility made teachers felt comfortable when
pronouncing words in English to their students. Intelligibility principle showed a clear
Agree, 6 Disagre e ,
0
Figure 4. Intelligibility creates awareness in accent and phonetic sounds
The last figure clearly showed that according to the participants, intelligibility creates
awareness in accent and phonetic sounds. As Harmer (2001, p. 183) argues ―It is thanks to
pronunciation teaching that students become aware of different sounds and sound features.‖
Participant F stated in the interview that teaching pronunciation showed to his students how
to pronounce the words correctly and appropriately so that later the students would not
mispronounce the words in English. Below were participants‘ answer related to the
intelligibility issue that creates awareness in accent and phonetic sounds.
“Pronunciation lesson is made for students to prepare their selves in a real society
where English is used as their daily language. Perhaps pronunciation lesson can
make them aware of their own accent so that they can use it properly.” (Teacher E).
“Teaching pronunciation can make students are able to read several texts fluently
based on the right pronunciation and aware of their own pronunciation.” (Teacher D).
It was clear that according to the participants, pronunciation teaching could help
students to achieve communicative competence and made them aware of their own accent
and pronunciation. Intelligibility principle helped children and teachers corrected their own
pronunciation when they pronounce English words incorrectly. They could easily indicate the
wrong pronunciation when they were guided by intelligibility principle.
Based on the finding, the main focus of teaching pronunciation was simply to achieve
English proficiency. They believe that through pronunciation teaching, students would be
able to communicate using English. Figure 4 clearly stated that intelligibility created
Disagre e , 2
Agre e , 3 In
Be twe e n, 1
and pronunciation. The participants who all were teachers had a purpose to form students
increasing their English proficiency. As Hismanoglu (2006) stated that pronunciation refers
to the production of sounds that they use to make meaning. Since sounds play an important
role in communication, teachers must attribute proper importance to teaching pronunciation
in their classes.
TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVES TOWARDS NATIVE-LIKE IN TEACHING
PRONUNCIATION
Chart 2. Teachers’ perspectives toward native-like in teaching pronunciation.
As stated in previous theme which was intelligibility in teaching pronunciation, the
data showed that 3 participants (50 per cent) still considered Native-like pronunciation as
their main aspect in teaching pronunciation. Participant A, B, and E agreed if native-like
accent was being applied in classroom.
“I agree if I have to use native-like in teaching pronunciation for my students because they will learn something new about English. Since they are still young, they will absorb native-like accent quicker than adult.” (Teacher A).
“Native-like is important since there is intelligible accent or pronunciation inside it.” (Teacher B).
“I want to introduce native-like accent for my students so that I try to teach them using native-like pronunciation. The important point is the intelligible pronunciation because I think native-like which has intelligibility is more interesting than intelligible
pronunciation only.” (Teacher E).
It was clear that 3 participants still had their own mindset that native-like was good to
be applied in classroom. Native-like pronunciation still become the main focus in learning
correct, competent, fluent, and real (Jenkins, 2005). Native-like accent was not wrong
because students deserved to choose whether they wanted to speak like a native or not. Based
on the data, some participant stated that Native-like English norms still needed as a model for
teaching English.
In contrast to that, 2 out of 6 participants (33 per cent) stated that native-like accent
was not really important to be applied in classroom. The main important thing was the
intelligible pronunciation for children. Since the study was conducted in small city Salatiga
where English was a new language for elementary school children, intelligible pronunciation
was needed in teaching pronunciation.
“I do not really agree with the use of native-like accent in classroom. Native-like is
good since there is intelligibility in pronouncing words.” (Teacher D).
“We live in Indonesia where English is not really useful in society so that the term
native-like is not really suitable to be applied in class. We have to teach them Standard English or Indonesian English first then later the students will choose the
appropriate accent for their life.” (Teacher F).
The last 17 per cent or 1 participant out of 6 said that native-like accent could be
important or not based on the situation. When students talked to people who came from
similar accent, they could use their own accent. When they met people who came from
countries like American people, they could use native-like accent with intelligible
pronunciation. The important point was the intelligibility itself. If there was not intelligible
pronunciation then the communication would be failed. In some cases, Native-like accent
became a major point in achieving pronunciation goal. It had to be noted that in
communication, there must have intelligible pronunciation. Moreover, the respondents who
were the English teachers should view native-like pronunciation as their positive indication of
their involvement in their works.
In addition to that, native-like accent could create social expectations. One of the
in the class. Students who could speak like a native could increase teachers‘ satisfaction in
the process of learning. When students could pronounce English words fluently like a native,
their parents would feel proud of them because their expectation could be achieved through
native-like accent.
“There are a lot of people; can be teachers or parents or students, who want to
achieve native-like accent in order to be accepted in society. They want to master English well through mastering native-like accent for their pronunciation.” (Teacher A).
Teachers still faced difficulty in distinguishing between native-like and intelligibility
in teaching pronunciation. American or British English still became their central model of
English when they had to teach pronunciation in class. They could not eliminate those
varieties of English because they believed that inner circle country like America could give
the best model on how to pronounce words correctly. Therefore, intelligibility in
pronunciation was only a small part in teaching pronunciation to young learners.
Intelligibility was only used in communication to make the speaker and the hearer understood
each other. When teachers taught pronunciation in class, they still used inner circle countries
as their guidance to make students understood the right pronunciation.
CONCLUSION
From the first findings, 100 per cent showed that countries like America and British
become the model of English for children. The participants agreed that those countries gave
good example for pronunciation teaching. They simply said that countries like America or
British are clear and easy to follow in class. The other results of the study show that
intelligibility becomes the main important factor in teaching pronunciation. Almost all the
participants agreed that their main focus in teaching pronunciation for their students were
sounds clearly and to be understandable. If one does not strive for a common pronunciation,
principle has to be applied when teaching English for children because children are easy to
pervade what the teachers saying.
Another finding is intelligibility helps teachers and students to be aware of phonetic
sounds and accent. The participants believe that intelligibility makes their accent sounds
clearly and understandable. Beside that, when children speak using intelligible pronunciation,
their interlocutors can understand what they are talking about clearer. Awareness on
pronunciation can also lead to better listening comprehension. Therefore, intelligibility in
teaching pronunciation is important for children to be achieved. Based on the data showed
that native-like accent is also important for teachers to be shown for students in order to
improve their ability to communicate. The participants do not want to force their students to
sound like a native but they want to show that native-like is also good to achieve in
pronunciation practice. The participants still believe that native-like is the most prestigious
level to be achieved. They cannot leave native-like concept since English comes from
countries like America and British.
The overall findings showed that the main focus of teachers‘ perspective toward the
issue of intelligibility was the intelligibility itself which became the most important aspect in
teaching pronunciation for elementary school students. They believed that elementary school
children must achieve intelligibility in communication. If possible, students could also speak
using native-like accent in order to achieve higher level of English pronunciation. Therefore,
from the issue of intelligibility in teaching pronunciation, it could be concluded that the first
important aspect was the intelligibility principle and the other expected aspect was having the
native-like accent.
The study related to pronunciation is still limited. In this case, the researcher is only
focus on particular site that is Salatiga, Indonesia. The implication then is that English
They have to point much on pedagogical value for their students. It would be more
appropriate for teachers to think of the teaching contexts and their students. Some language
educators or training department can rearrange their main focus when facing the issue like
what the researcher had. They have to be aware of the issue of intelligibility and native-like
accent in pedagogical field. Therefore, intelligible pronunciation can be achieved easily
through the development of the teachers in understanding the concept of EIL. The main
limitation of this study is lack of generalizability because of the number of participants and
context of the study. The researcher only uses smaller area in small city Salatiga with six
different English teachers from different elementary schools. It would be interesting to
investigate more detail about pronunciation issue in a broader area so that the issue of it can
be used for teachers‘ reference in teaching pronunciation. In the future, the researcher hopes
that there will be other deeply research related to pronunciation by linking the concept of
intelligibility and international English.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Completing a bachelor‘s degree is truly a long event, and I would not have been able
to complete this journey without the aid and support of countless people over the past four
years. I must express my gratitude to Allah SWT, the Most Gracious and the Most Merciful
for the strengths and blessing in completing this thesis. English Department of Satya Wacana
Christian University for the best 4 years of my life. Anita Kurniawati, M. Hum for her
supervision and constant support throughout this research. Anne Indrayanti Timotius, M. Ed
for her support and knowledge regarding this topic. Mr. Cahyono and Mrs. Kuntowiyati as
my parents and also to my sister Mega Saturnina for their endless love, prayers, and
encouragement. My Eka Prasetya for his patience and care. All my best friends, Praditha,
Vita, Widhi, Istyana, Murni, Putila, Ani, Ambir, Candra, Maulida for being the surrogate
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