19 An Error Analysis of English Voiceless Plosive Consonants /p/, /t/,
and /k/ of Students at SMAN 11 Banda Aceh
1Nurul Fajri*; 2Abdul Gani Asyik
1*,2English Education Department, Universitas Serambi Mekkah, Banda Aceh, Indonesia
Email: [email protected]
Abstract
This research was conducted based on the phenomenon happened in learning environment. The students have low ability in pronunciation.
They got difficulty in pronouncing English words including plosive voiceless consonants sound. Therefore, this manuscript sheds lights on the errors produced in pronouncing plosive voiceless consonants sound.
To find out the types of error and to find out the percentages of errors which students made in pronouncing plosive voiceless consonants /p/, /t/
and /k/ with aspirated and unaspirated. This research was conducted based on descriptive qualitative research design. The participants were 20 female tenth graders at SMAN 11 Banda Aceh, class of X IS 2. In collecting the data, a sheet containing 30 aspirated and unaspirated consonants /p/, /t/, and /k/ words was distributed, and then the students pronounced the words while their voice recorded. All recorded sound produced by participants checked thoroughly, they were played one by one. The transcriptions were used to find out how many errors produced.
The researcher identified the words on transcription which produced an error, the researcher identified the student’s errors and after identifying the data, and finally the errors were classified. In this way, the researcher determined the types of error that belong to each type of error. Then, the errors that committed by the students put into the distribution table of errors to find out the number of errors each of the student committed.
After classifying the data, the researcher calculated the students’ errors and made the total for each error by counting the errors to get the total of each error. The result of the research showed that there were three types of errors those are aspirated /h/ sounds as unaspirated, unaspirated sound as aspirated /h/ and all sounds unaspirated. The total of errors were 372 errors’ items which made by the students. The most common errors were all sounds unaspirated, which was 167 errors’ items or 44.9%
made by the students, aspirated sounds as unaspirated was 131 items or 35.2% and unaspirated sounds as aspirated was 74 items of errors or 19.9%.
Keywords: Analysis; Error; Type; Pronunciation; Plosive Voiceless Consonants
Nurul Fajri, Abdul Gani Asyik
A. Introduction
Language is one of the most important things for humans and language is also part of culture, it is part of human behavior. Therefore, people will not live without using language. People will always use the language in every activity to know and understand each other in their lives. According to Wibowo (2001), language is a symbol of sound that is meaningful and is produced by arbitrary and customary speech, which is used as a communication tool by a group of people to express feelings and thoughts. Huda (2014) argues language is a communication tool in the form of the sound system or the voice system which it produced by the human vocal organs. Each of the language’s signs has the meaning whose purpose is to make the communication be interactive. Therefore, language helps people in the world to communicate and express ideas, thoughts, and feelings from one person to another. This is used to talk each other, write and send messages.
To learn a language, language learners must master the grammar, vocabulary, and especially pronunciation. To communicate with others, people have to be good in pronunciation, so that they can understand each other. Talking about pronunciation. Agisnandea (2019) says that pronunciation is the production or speech for communication.
Pronunciation consists of organized sounds produced by air expelled through the organs of articulation. Then, Dwiningrum (2016) states that pronunciation is important for communicating with other people in life, especially for speaking in English. If the pronunciation is good, people will precisely understand what is being said.
There are three parts of pronunciation, namely; stress, articulation, and intonation. Underhill (2005) states that stress is the emphasis the syllables of a word. Next, according to Articulation is the vocal tract is opened and closed rapidly either with the lips or the tip of the tongue (/ba/–/da/ and /pa/–/ta/). Therefore, articulation is the changing of the teeth, lips, and tongue which affects the different sound produced.
Currently, there are still many language learners who have problems with pronunciation. Most of them think that the pronunciation of words in English is a difficult thing to do. It is because their tongues are not used to saying some of the words they rarely say. In other words, it is different from their everyday language. There are lots of pronunciation mistakes when they speak English. They pronounce English words the
same as they pronounce Indonesian words. Many language learners also have problem in their speaking ability, especially when they speak words including voiceless plosive consonants (/p/, /t/, /k/) with aspirated /h/ and unaspirated. They made more errors when the words are included /p/, /t/, and /k/ in the first place of words (initial).
Based on first previous study conducted by Nisa (2020), the result showed that there were four types of errors produced by students in pronouncing all words, those are “omission”, “addition”, “misformation” and
“misordering”. The total of errors were 44 errors’ items which made by the students. The most common errors were omission which was 32 errors’
items or 73% made by the students, misordering was three items or 7%, misformation was five items of errors or 11% and addition was four items or 8 % which meant it was the lowest while other errors’ classification based on surface strategy taxonomy.
The next previous study data conducted by Azizah (2019), the result showed that there were four types of errors done by students in pronouncing all words, those are “omission”, “addition”, “misformation”, and “misordering”. The total of errors were 141 errors’ items which made by the students. The most common errors were omission which was 110 errors’ items or 78.01% made by the students, misordering was fourteen items or 9.93%, misformation was eleven items of errors or 7.8%, and addition was 6 items or 4,26% which meant it was the lowest while other errors’ classification based on surface strategy taxonomy.
After comparing those researches above, the researcher considers that there were no differences of both researches. Both researches was focused on English voiceless plosive consonant error. It made the researcher decided to choose an error analysis of students in pronouncing voiceless plosive consonants, and because of there was not many previous research related to this study in English Education study program at the Universitas Serambi Mekkah. Referring to the reason above, this research focuses on analysis pronouncing of English voiceless plosive consonants error (/p/, /t/, /k/) with aspirated /h/ and unaspirated of students of SMAN 11 Banda Aceh. Therefore, the researcher entitled An Error Analysis of English Voiceless Plosive Consonants /p/, /t/ and /k/ of Students at SMAN 11 Banda Aceh.
B. Method
Nurul Fajri, Abdul Gani Asyik
This research used descriptive qualitative research design. According to Sugiyono (2013), the descriptive method is the method used to describe or analyze research results, but it's not used to make broader conclusions.
Creswell (2003) states that a qualitative research is one in which the inquirer often makes knowledge claims based primarily on constructivist perspectives (the multiple meanings of individual experiences, meanings socially and historically constructed, with an intent of developing a theory or pattern) or advocacy/ participatory perspectives (political, issue-oriented, collaborative or change oriented) or both.
Another expert concludes that qualitative research as a form of systematic empirical inquiry into meaning (Shank, 2002). By systematic he means planned, ordered and public, following rules agreed upon by members of the qualitative research community. By empirical, he means that this type of inquiry is grounded in the world of experience. Inquiry into meaning says researchers try to understand how others make sense of their experience.
The use of descriptive qualitative research method in this research is to answer the objective of study that is to describe what types of error and what are the percentages of error in pronouncing English voiceless plosive consonants by students at SMAN 11 Banda Aceh.
The participants in this study was students at SMAN 11 Banda Aceh, it was the tenth-grade female students. This research used purposive sampling technic, the researcher took 20 students from the class of X IS 2 to be the research participants, because the researcher had known the class and the researcher can collecting the data easily.
The instrument utilized in this research was an oral test. This research took an oral test of students’ voice recording about pronouncing 30 words involving plosive voiceless consonants /p/, /t/, and /k/ with aspirated /h/ and unaspirated. It means, there are words which consonants pronounced with an exhalation of breath (aspirated /h/) and some do not (unaspirated). The words consist of /p/, /t/, and /k/ aspirated /h/ at the beginning of words and in the middle of words and /p/, /t/, and /k/ unaspirated at the beginning of words, in the middle of words and at the end of words.
This research was conducted on June 16, 2021 to students of class X IS 2 at SMAN 11 Banda Aceh. This research was conducted virtually through the Whatsapp group. During data collection process, the researcher firstly shared the students the vocabularies containing 30 aspirated /h/ and unaspirated consonants /p/, /t/, and /k/ words and asked the students to
pronounce the words while their voice recorded. Next, all recorded sound produced by the students checked thoroughly, it played on one to another one. The transcript of their recordings used to know how many errors that produced by the students.
This research used the procedure error analysis through the following steps: first, the researcher collected the students’ recordings to be analyzed.
They have been giving a task to read 30 words which was given by the researcher. Second, after collecting the students’ voice recordings, the researcher listened them repeatedly in order to know the speech then transcript the recordings. The researcher identified the words on transcription which produced an error. The researcher identified the students’ errors. Third, after identifying the data, the researcher classified the errors into each types of error. There were three types of error, those are “aspirated/h/ sounds as unaspirated”, “unaspirated sounds as aspirated/h/” and “all sounds unaspirated”. In this way, the researcher determined the types of error that belong to each type of error. Then, the errors that committed by the students put into the distribution table of error to find out the number of errors each of the student committed.
After classifying the data, the researcher calculated the students’
errors and made the total for each error by counting the errors to get the total of each error. To analyze the data this study used the formula found in Riduwan (2005):
Note:
P= The presentation of error F= The frequency of error occurred N= The total number of error
C. Research Findings
Types of Error Made by Students in Pronouncing English Voiceless Plosive Consonant /p/, /t/ and /k/ with Aspirated /h/ and Unaspirated
Nurul Fajri, Abdul Gani Asyik
This research classified errors based on 3 types of errors they are;
‘Aspirated /h/ sounds as unaspirated’ as type one, ‘unaspirated sounds as aspirated /h/’ as type two and ‘all sounds as unaspirated’ as type three.
It means, type one students read aspirated /h/ words as unaspirated, type two students read unaspirated words as aspirated /h/ and type three students read all words as unaspirated.
The number of student’s error of each types of error can be grouped in the following figure:
Figure 1. The Number and Percentages of Student’s Error in Each Types of Error
From the figure above, it can be inferred that the highest errors were in third type of error it was ‘all sounds as unaspirated’ type, which were 167 items or 44.9 %. These errors were done by the students who pronounced all the list of words of /p/, /t/ and /k/ with aspirated /h/ and unaspirated at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of words, they pronounced all of words as unaspirated, they pronounced all the words as they did not know the real rules of how to pronouncing the words. And the second most common error was errors that were 131 items or 35.2 %.
These errors were gained by the students who pronounced half aspirated /h/ words as unaspirated. Meanwhile, the lowest place was taken by the second type of error with 74 items or 19.9 %, this kind of error were made by the students most in unaspirated words. They pronounced all unaspirated words as aspirated /h/. It concluded that the ‘all sounds
unaspirated’ type have the highest errors than ‘aspirated /h/ as unaspirated’ and ‘unaspirated sounds as aspirated /h/’ type.
Based on the data, it can be inferred that the students may already study about how to pronounce words but they also often made errors when they speak 30 words which consist of plosive voiceless consonants with aspirated /h/ and unaspirated whether at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of words.
The Percentages of Error Made by Students in Pronouncing English Voiceless Plosive Consonants /p/, /t/ and /k/ with Aspirated /h/ and Unaspirated.
Below is the table of student’s error at /p/, /t/ and /k/ aspirated /h/
at the beginning and in the middle of words.
Table 1. The Percentages of Error at Words /p/, /t/ and /k/ with Aspirated /h/
Symbols Aspirated /h/ at the Beginning of Words
Aspirated /h/ in the Middle of Words
/p/
/t/
/k/
35 % 50 % 50 %
60 % 55 % 77.5 %
The table illustrated that the highest error in aspirated /h/ at the beginning of words was at /t/ and /k/ symbols, which were 50 %, the lowest was at the /p/ symbol, that were 35 % and the common error in aspirated /h/ in the middle of words was at /k/ symbol it was 77.5 % and the lowest was 55 % at /t/ symbol. In conclusion, errors at /p/, /t/ and /k/
aspirated /h/ in the middle of words was more than /p/, /t/ and /k/ aspirated /h/ at the beginning of words
Next, is the table of student’s error at /p/, /t/ and /k/ unaspirated at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of words.
Table 2. The Percentages of Errors at /p/, /t/ and /k/ with Unaspirated
Nurul Fajri, Abdul Gani Asyik
Symbols Unaspirated at the Beginning of Words
Unaspirated in the Middle of
Words
Unaspirat ed at The
End of Words /p/
/t/
/k/
30 % 25 % 32.5 %
22, 5 % 30 % 17.5 %
15 % - 12.5 %
The table explained that unaspirated at the beginning of words has the common error was on the /k/ symbol with the percentages 32.5 % and the lowest was at /t/ symbol with total percentages was 25 %. And then, the largest percentages in unaspirated in the middle of words was 30 % at /t/ symbol and the lowest one was 17.5 % at /k/ symbol. Finally, unaspirated at the end of words has the largest error was at /p/ symbol, that were 15 % and the lowest was 12.5 % at /k/ symbol. In summary, /p/
and /k/ symbols unaspirated at the beginning of words have more errors than /p/ and /k/ symbols in the middle and at the end of words. Different from /p/ and /k/ symbols, /t/ symbol has more errors at unaspirated in the middle of words than /t/ unaspirated at the beginning of words and there were no errors at /t/ unaspirated at the end of words.
Therefore, the researcher also found some errors that made by the students in pronouncing plosive voiceless consonants (/p/, /t/ and /k/) with aspirated /h/ and unaspirated by mispronouncing some words, and it were described on the discussion.
D. Discussion
After processing all the data by using an oral test, it needed to discuss some findings. The discussion focused on two objectives of the research question. The first discussion is about what types of error that students made in pronouncing English Voiceless plosive consonants /p/, /t/ and /k/ with aspirated/h/ and unaspirated and the second discussion focused on what are the percentages of error that students made in pronouncing English voiceless plosive consonant /p/, /t/ and /k/ with aspirated /h/ and unaspirated.
In this research the researcher found a new terms of types, which were; aspirated /h/ sounds as unaspirated, unaspirated sounds as aspirated /h/ and all sounds unaspirated. First and second type of this research was same as the type used by the previous studies data that conducted by Nisa (2020) and Azizah (2019), there are ‘omission and addition’. The first type and second type in this study were ‘aspirated /h/
sounds as unaspirated’ has the same meaning as ‘omission’ and
‘unaspirated sounds as aspirated /h/‘ has the same meaning as ‘addition’.
The total percentages of errors in omission in this study were 35.2% with 131 total of errors and addition were 19.9% or 74 errors. While the total errors of omission in the previous study data that conducted by Nisa (2020) was 32 errors or 73% but the addition has the total errors was 4 items or 8%. The total errors of omission in the previous study data by Azizah (2019) were 110 or in percentages were 78.01% and the total error of addition was 6 items or 9.93%.
It concluded that the common errors that students made in previous studies were in omission, but in this study the largest errors that students made were in third type of error that was ‘all sounds aspirated /h/’, with number of percentages were 44.9 % with 167 total frequencies.
E. Conclusions
Based on the explanation and the description in the previous section, it can be concuded that the tenth grade female students, which was the first grade students of social department class in SMAN 11 Banda Aceh still made many errors in pronouncing English words which consist of plosive voiceless consonants (/p/, /t/, and /k/). The conclusions are as below:
1. The most common types of errors made by the students are students pronounced ‘all sounds as unaspirated’, students pronounced the words
‘aspirated /h/ as unaspirated’ and students pronounced ‘unaspirated sounds as aspirated /h/’. The types ‘All sounds as unaspirated’ with the number was 167 or 44.9 %, then the type ‘aspirated /h/ sounds as unaspirated’ with the number was 131 or 35.2 %, finally the type
‘unaspirated sounds as aspirated /h/‘ with the number was 74 or 19.9 %.
2. These totals of errors were 372 items of error which show that student most made erroneous in type ‘all sounds as unaspirated’ the student pronounced all the words as they did not know the real rules how to
Nurul Fajri, Abdul Gani Asyik
pronouncing the words. For example; the word ‘kill’ as pronounced [k/h/ɪl] was being pronounced [kɪl] by 10 students by omitting the aspiration [p/h/]. And it happened in other words with aspirated /h/ at the beginning, in the middle and at the end. They pronounced all words as they did not know the real rules of pronouncing the words.
3. This study is limited to the error of English voiceless plosive consonants, which are /p/, /t/ and /k/ with aspirated/h/ and unaspirated.
They are /p/, /t/ and /k/ aspirated/h/ at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of words. The researcher also limited the participants only on female students. This was done because the school separated between male and female students during learning process.
4. The result of this study is significant to lecturers, teachers, researcher and other researchers. This research hopefully may help lecturers of English education and English teachers to increase their material that will teach to their students, especially in practicing and pronouncing plosive voiceless consonants sound. For the researcher this study is expected to be a great experience to face the future when the researcher becomes a real teacher, and for other researchers this study would definitely attribute an additional knowledge and gain information in this research by a lot of data were being learned. And the information presented may be used as reference data in conducting new research.
This study will also serve as their reference that will give them a background and overview.
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