1
ERRORS IN PRONUNCIATION OF CONSONANTS AND
DIPHTHONGS BY NON-ED STUDENTS OF UNIVERSITAS
KRISTEN SATYA WACANA COMING FROM JAVANESE,
AMBONESE, MANADONESE, KUPANGNESE AND
BATAKNESE
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of
The Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Oktavianita Jeremi Dwiroro Poluan
112012088
ENGLISH TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
UNIVERSITAS KRISTEN SATYA WACANA
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F. References………...
9 List of Tables
Table 1. Percentage of Students’ Score………...
10
List of Figures
Figure 1. Sound of Speech………..
Figure 2. The Position of Sound [v]………...
Figure 3. The Finding of Sound [v]……….
Figure 4. The Finding of Sound [θ]……….
Figure 5. The Finding of Sound [ð]……….
Figure 6. The Finding of Sound [ʒ]……….
Figure 7.The FindingofSound [dʒ].……….
Figure 8. The Finding of Sound [tʃ]………
Figure 9. The Finding of Sound [eɪ]………....
11 communicate with other people. However, not all Indonesians use English as a second or foreign language because they had some difficulties, particularly pronunciation. This research aims to analyze the English phonological errors of consonant and diphthong which cannot be found in Bahasa Indonesia, such as consonants [v], [θ], [ð], [ʒ] , [dʒ] and [t∫], and diphthongs [eɪ] and [oʊ] . This research useda descriptive qualitative method. In this research, there were 15 participants who come from different ethnics and faculties, except Faculty of Languages and Arts. The data was collected by using a sound recorder, then analyzed by native English teachers from the USA to identify the accuracy in pronunciation, and what consonants and diphthongs which often pronounced incorrectly. The result showed that the consonants and diphthongs which produced by the students were inaccurate. There were 41.99% out of 15 participants who could not pronounce the consonants and diphthongs correctly. Students from Manadonese often made the errors compared to other students from other ethnics. The common phonological errors which produced by the participants were the sounds [ð], [θ], and [ʒ] in consonants and the sound [oʊ] in diphthong. From those results,it shows that their pronunciation was influenced by their accent and mother tongue.
Keywords: Pronunciation errors, consonants, diphthongs.
A. INTRODUCTION
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language by the language learners. According to Lanteigne (2006), the goal of the language learners is to make sure that they can communicate what they have in mind effectively; they have to be understood when they are uttering the words. During the process of learning English, pronunciation is very important. According to Baker and Murphy (2011), acquiring pronunciation skills have proven to be a vital part of every EFL learner's ability to communicate in English. In Indonesia context, Mathew (2005) carried out research on the mispronunciations of English consonants; voiced stops, voiceless stop, sibilants, affricates and interdentals for learners whose first languages are Indonesian, Gayo and Acehnese. Therefore, language learners should pay more attention to the way they articulate the foreign words because the precision in pronouncing words is very important.
According to Moeliono & Dardjowidjojo (2003) and Tiono & Yostanto (2008)’s study, English sounds such as [v], [θ], [ð], [ʒ], [dʒ], and [t∫] cannot be found in Indonesia language. Therefore, for
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out that Indonesian speakers tend to pronounce English diphthongs in a lax manner but diphthongs in English should be tense.
For these reasons, this study will be conducted at UKSW and it focuses on two of the English phonology that is consonant ([v], [θ], [ð], [ʒ], [dʒ]and [t∫]) and diphthong ([eɪ] and [oʊ])were chosen due to
their frequent use in English which cannot be found in Indonesian. Therefore, by doing this study, the writer wants to identifythe commonphonological errorswhich are produced by the students in UKSW based on their ethnicity by investigating the accuracies and inaccuracies of consonants and diphthongs. The error analysis in this study will focus on the errors that students make. This can provide a significant understanding into how a language is actually learned by the students. It will also help the students to understand the phonological differences between their first language (L1) and the second language (L2) they wanted to achieve.
B. LITERATURE REVIEW
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(www.soundofspeech.uiowa.edu/english/english.html). In Figure 1 shows an animated articulatory diagram, a step-by-step description, and video-audio of the sound spoken in context. The animated side view of the mouth is particularly helpful for tongue placement and to see the difference between nasal and non-nasal sounds.This project was a collaborative effort of the Departments of Spanish and Portuguese, German, Communication Sciences and Disorders, and Information Technology Services at the University of Iowa.
Figure 1. Sound of Speech
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Figure 2. The Position of Sound [v]
(a) (b) (c)
(d) (e)
(a) The inner border of the lower lip contacts the upper teeth to create a constriction, (b) the tongue position may vary depending on phonetic context, (c) the vocal folds are adducted and vibrating, (d) the velopharyngeal port is closed, and (e) air forced through the lower lip and upper teeth constriction creates audible frictional turbulence. This website is very useful for the learners who study about English because they could learn how the tongue moves when it produced a sound.
b. Influenced by the mother tongue
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pronunciation. He stated that “where you from are, of course, will not only thing which influences how you speak. In addition, people speak different kinds of English depending on what kind of social background they come from” (p. 2). Mostly, someone who learns a
language as mother tongue will pronounce it fluently.
Similar to Tominaga’s study (2009), teachers’ intervention also influenced students’ pronunciation. The SPL (Successful
Pronunciation Learners) said teachers’ good pronunciation and concrete guidance on pronunciation were quite beneficial. In this case, teacher’s mother tongue or language background can influence the students’ pronunciation. As cited in Jung (2010), said that:
“The influence of learners' mother tongue on their pronunciation is not really stronger than on other areas of language use. The most important thing is that evidently many students thought the factors of comprehensibility were more difficult or significant than those of intelligibility, so they need to know meaningful communications are more important than such pronunciations.” (p. 159)
Hence, Jung (2010)added that “miscommunications with people from different countries may occur due to a variety of pronunciations of English and different sounds and speech styles as well as wider socio-cultural and pragmatic competence and general variables” (p. 159).
c. Influenced by the accent
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pronunciation that identify where a person is from, regionally or socially. Derwing & Munro (2005) also said that accentedness, a “normal consequence of second language learning” (p. 383). ɚt means
that accent has an important role in influencing language learners’ pronunciation because their accent shows their identity. However, as a language learner, the most important thing is as long as they can speak English with a good pronunciation, the accent is not really needed. Harmer (1991) said that good pronunciation is needed for this, but a “perfect accent” is not.
Basically, the accent may identify the locality in which its speakers reside, the socio-economic status of its speakers, their ethnicity, their caste or social class, their first language, etc., and all of them could influence people accent (Davies, 2007:43). Indeed, even when listeners are unfamiliar with the language they are listening to, they appear able to distinguish native from non-native speakers (Major, 2007).
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Often 'accent' is a subset of 'dialect' because each area must have a way to read a different language, especially Indonesia.
2.2. Previous Study
Based on Hakim’s (2012) study of phonetics in English pronunciation with Javanese students in STAIN Bengkulu discovered that they were difficult to remove their Javanese accent when they speak English. He found that 27 people or 90% of the total respondents had difficulty in eliminating the suppression remedy Javanese accent. They use stressing in some phonetics, such as: [b], [d], [g], [j], [dʒ], and [ð]. Some word at that language generally said with more heavy and that very influence to the way how they speak especially in their pronunciation. For example, neng ndi (where is), ojo (don’t), etc. This can occur because of differences due to the way it produces the sound of phonetics.
Similar to Hakim (2012), Tiono & Yostanto (2008)’s study stated that the students made phonological errors in all of the pronunciation of the six English consonantal sounds. The phonological errors could be found in all three positions of occurrences. Yet, it should also be noticed that although they made those phonological errors, they still managed to pronounce some of the words correctly every now and then.
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tendencies to substitute diphthong /aɪ/ to vowel /e/ or sometimes with unclear /eɪ/. She said there were difficulties for Indonesian speakers to pronounce English diphthongs /eɪ/ and /oʊ/ accurately. The ability to pronounce diphthongs was influenced by English proficiency and the use of English in the academic environment. Producing diphthongs in careful style gave more opportunity for the participants to produce accurate diphthongs rather than in semi-careful style.
Based on those previous studies, it can be concluded that the students’ accent and mother tongue are stronger enough to influence
their pronunciation although some of them tried to eliminate the accent. They found many difficulties when pronouncing the English words because its consonants and diphthongs are not existed in Bahasa Indonesia.
C. METHODOLOGY
20 3.1. Research question
There are two research questions that were attempted to address in the study:
1. Are the non-ED students of UKSW able to produce consonants and diphthongs accurately?
2. What are the common phonological errors produced by Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana’s (non-ED) students coming from different ethnicities?
3.2. Context of the study
The study was done by involving students from many faculties of UKSW Salatiga, Central Java, Indonesia. The reason why the place was chosen for the study was as follows: (1) UKSW has been famous as “ɚndonesia Mini” where all of the students are coming from the
different ethnic group. It will help the writer to collect the data, (2) the students were already taken or still taking English subject in UKSW, and (3) the location was suitable and easy for the writer to access. 3.3. Participants
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gender. These participants have same language background to communicate whether Bahasa Indonesia or regional language.
3.4. Data collection instruments
22 3.5. Data collection procedure
After the writer found the participants, the writer interviewed them about their language background; next, the writer gave the text to the participants and asked them to read aloud the sentences in the text naturally. The writer recorded the participants when reading the sentences. The words in the sentences were mostly common words in order to make the subjects feel more relax and unaware what words are being analyzed.
There are 24 words which were analyzed by the writer and the raters. A list of 24 words is given to the participants. Those words are designed to diagnose pronunciation difficulties of the participants. Based on participants’ language background their pronunciation errors
are diagnosed into three positions: initial position (IP), middle position (MP) and final position (FP). Those words were adequate to diagnose the participants’ pronunciation errors. The sound recording is
conducted individually in a quiet place and took approximately three minutes for each participant. Each participant required reading the sentences at a normal speed.
3.6. Data analysis procedure
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P = F x 100
N
usethe standpoint of English phonetic system from O’Grady, Dobrovolsky & Katamba (1996) and the explanation of each sound would use the application of Phonetic: The Sounds of American English from the University of Iowa. The data wereexamined by using
the following larges of score based on descriptive qualitative (Arikunto, 2006).
Where : P = The total of man score
: N = The total of Phonetics
: F = The total of correct phonetics
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That percentage of the qualification would show the errors pronunciation which was produced by the participants and it could help the writer to see how many errors of consonants and diphthongs appear.
D. FINDING AND DISCUSSION
Generally, the result of this study shows the accuracy and inaccuracy of the pronunciation which produced by the participants. The finding on Table 2 (see attachment 1) showed that most of the participants could not pronounce the consonants and diphthongs well. Attachment 2-6 showed the analysis from the raters after listening to the sound record. The findings below were grouped based on the six consonantal sounds investigated in this study.
a. The Pronunciation of [v] [f]
Figure 3. The Finding of Sound [v]
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also showed that Bataknese was the one who made many errors. They replaced the sound [v] to [f], whereas the sound [f] is voiceless. They felt difficult to eliminate their mother tongue. It happened as the study from Moeliono & Dardjowodjojo and Tiono & Yostanto’s study that the sound [v] is cannot be found in Indonesia phonetic system.
Based on the theory about mother tongue, Trudgill (1994) stated people speak different kinds of English depending on what kind of social background they come from (p.2). The errors happened because their language background is different. Almost all of them are still movement of the lips and the air coming out of their lungs when this sound produced. On the other hand, during the analysis of this study, the raters found something unique that was sounded [fv]. This sound was like a combining sound between sound [f] and [v], and it was produced by one participant from Kupang in two positions. First, it was produced like sound [f] but then, suddenly it changed to sound [v]. So, the participant pronounced the word “van” in the Initial Position as a [fvæn] not [væn] and the word “develop” in the Middle Position
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Therefore, from those three positions of the expected errors, the result of the finding found that most of the participants pronounced the sound [v] replaced to the sound [f], even though it has the same manner and place of articulation with the sound [v].
b. The Pronunciation of [θ]  [t] and [Ø]
Figure 4. The Finding of Sound [θ]
The University of Iowa described the sound [θ] as a voiceless dental fricative. In Figure 4 showed that in the Initial Position, there were 12 errors. In the Middle and Final Position, there were 14 errors for each position. The total of the errors phonetic were 35 errors or88.89% which is produced by 15 participants. From five ethnics group, there was2 ethnics group (Ambonese and Bataknese) who made the errors in every position. The result in Figure 4 showed that there were 4 participants or 11.11% who could pronounce the sound in different positions.
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described as a voiceless alveolar stop, which means the front and sides of the tongue contact the alveolar ridge anteriorly and laterally. And the velopharyngeal port is closed; even the manner and place are very different with the sound [θ].
Based on the analysis, the raters found that the result was a little bit confusing when the sound [θ] was not sounded or even faded, which showed by purple color. It means that the participants did not pronounce the sound and they skipped it. It happened when the participants pronounced the word “monthly” in the Middle Position
(MP) which pronounces as [mʌnθli] but they pronounced it as [mʌnli]. However, the raters also found something unusual that was the sound [θ] replaced to [θ/t], which means the sound was not sounded as [θ] or [t] and it produced by one of the participants from Ambon. She pronounced the sound [θ/t] in all of the three positions. It was a little bit confusing because the sound was not sounded as [θ] or [t]. Moreover, the raters found something different. One of the participants from Kupang pronounced the sound [θ] correctly, but the sound was palatalized, which showed by yellow color. It means thatthe body of the tongue is raised toward the hard palate during the articulation of the consonant. And this participant also pronounced the sound [θ] as [ð] in the Final Position.
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of pronunciation that identify where a person is from, regionally or socially” (p. 3). Their accent is strong enough to influence the way
they pronounced the English words. Most of them felt difficult to eliminate their accent, because according to Davies (2007), an accent may identify the locality in which its speakers reside. Therefore, when they pronounced the word “think” in the Initial Position, it should be pronounced as [θɪŋk] but they pronounced it as [tɪŋk]. In the Middle Position, the word “monthly” should be pronounced as [mʌnθli] but they pronounced it as [mʌnli] and [mʌntli], even not on both. And in the Final Position, they pronounced the word “faith” as [feɪt] and [feɪð], not [feɪθ].
c. The Pronunciation of [ð] [d] and [t]
Figure 5. The Finding of Sound [ð]
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The total of the errors phonetic was 40 or 88.89% of participants could not pronounce it well. This result was similar to the sound [θ].
In Figure 5, most of the participants pronounced the sound [θ] as [d]. In fact, the sound [d] is described as a voiced alveolar stop, which means the front and sides of the tongue contact the alveolar ridge anteriorly and laterally, and the velopharyngeal port is closed. The sound [ð] which replaced to [d] almost happened to the Initial and Middle Position. The word “there” which pronounces as [ðer] but they pronounced it as [der] and the word “father” which pronounces as [fαðer] but they pronounced it as [fαder]. ɚt happened because there is no sound [ð] in Indonesia phonetic system. The raters also found that they replaced the sound [ð] to [t]. It happened when they pronounced the word “with” as [wɪt], whereas it should pronounce as [wɪð]. Furthermore, from the result, the raters found something different that was sound [θ]. One of the participants from Ambon
pronounced the sound [ð] as [θ] in the Final Position. Likewise, there was one of the participants did not pronounce the sound [ð] in the word “father” [fαðer], which means it was disappeared, which was showed by purple color.
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English pronunciation in the southern part of the United States. Based on Crystal (2003), an accent is “the cumulative auditory effect of
those features of pronunciation that identify where a person is from, regionally or socially.” It means that when they pronounced the English words, their accent could show their identity. For example, Javanese, their accent was very strong because they used stressing in some phonetics, such as: [b], [d], [g], [j], [dʒ] and [ð]. So, that is why when they pronounced the word “there” which pronounces as [ðer] but they pronounced it as [der]. The sound became heavier because their accent is very thick. Therefore, based on the result it can be concluded that Bataknese was the ethnic who made so many errors in every position.
d. The Pronunciation of [ʒ]  [dʒ], [ʃ], [g], and [j]
Figure 6. The Finding of Sound [ʒ]
31 mother tongue. Their language background could influence the way they speak and the process of learning English. As Trudgill (1994) stated that “where you from are, of course, will not only thing which
influences how you speak. In addition, people speak different kinds of English depending on what kind of social background they come from” (p. 2).
ɚn this case, teacher’s language background could also influence
their pronunciation. As Tominaga’s (2009) study, the SPL (Successful Pronunciation Learners) said teachers’ good pronunciation and
concrete guidance on pronunciation were quite beneficial. It means that the teachers are the target of the students’ learning process. ɚf the
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the sound [ʒ] as [dʒ] and it was palatalized. The other two pronounced it correctly but it was also palatalized.
The finding of the errors phonetic in this sound was very interesting. According to Derwing & Munro (2005) said that accentedness is a normal consequence of second language learning (p.383). It means that even though they are trying to eliminate their accent, but it still influence the way they pronounce the English word and it was normal as second language learners. Therefore, this result showed that from 15 or 26.67% of participants could pronounce the sound [ʒ] correctly and 73.33% could not pronounce it well, which means the entire ethnics group made the errors phonetic.
e. The Pronunciation of [dʒ]  [g] and [j]
Figure 7. The Finding of Sound [dʒ]
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backward, which means that this participant pronounced it in the opposite way. It was hard to understand why she pronounced the sound on that way and this was the first time the raters found it. The result showed that almost all of the correct pronunciations which produced by the participants were palatalized. It means that the body of the tongue is raised toward the hard palate during the articulation of the consonant. Therefore, based on the result, it can be found that Javanese and Manadonese could pronounce this sound correctly without any influences.
f. The Pronunciation of [tʃ]  [c]
Figure 8. The Finding of Sound [tʃ]
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interesting because Javanese accent is very strong and heavy, but they could eliminate their accent when they pronounced this sound.
Most of the error phonetic which is produced by the participants was the sound [c]. There were 4 of 15 participants replaced the sound [tʃ] to [c]. It is produced by Ambonese, Manadonese, and Kupangnese. In Figure 8, the total of the errors phonetic was 13, which means there were 28,89% of participants could not pronounce this sound correctly and 71,11% could pronounce the sound correctly. The percentage was same with the result of the sound [dʒ].
The result also found some of them pronounced the sound [tʃ] as [s], [ʃ], [t] even [tØ] in different positions. In the Initial Position, the word “champion” which pronounces as [tʃæmpiən] but they pronounced it as [cæmpiən] even there was one who pronounced it as [kæmpiən]. In the Middle Position, they also replaced the sound [tʃ] in the word “teacher” [titʃ ] to [c] became [tic r]. In the Final Position, the word “match” which pronounces as [mætʃ] but they pronounced it as [mæts] and [mæʃ]. The most interesting were when one of them
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students’ mother tongue is not really stronger to influence their
pronunciation but the factors of comprehensibility were more difficult. Afterward, the raters found that some of the correct pronunciations were also palatalized same as the sound [θ], [ʒ] and [dʒ].
g. The Pronunciation of [eɪ]  [e]
Figure 9. The Finding of Sound [eɪ]
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mandible is slightly lower than for [i], the lips in this sound are also unrounded, the vocal folds are adducted and vibrating, and the velopharyngeal port is closed.
Based on the result, there were 21 errors which produced by the participants. It means that from 15 participants, there were 46.67% could not pronounce the sound [eɪ] correctly, but there were 53.33% could pronounce it well. From five ethnics group, there was oneethnic who did not make the error that was Kupangnese. They were good in pronouncing this sound. However, Ambonese and Bataknese were the most ethnics who made the errors. In Figure 8 showed that almost all of the participants replaced the sound [eɪ] to [e]. They pronounced the word “gate” as [get] not [geɪt] in the Initial Position and the word pronounced the sound [eɪ] as [e] and not the other sounds. The raters said that most of the participants were really good to pronounce the diphthong [eɪ] correctly. The raters noted that when the participants found the word with the end ‘y’, they will pronounce it as the sound
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pronunciation. As Trudgill (1994:2), said that mother tongue very influences the pronunciation of someone who practices English in oral communication. They are difficult to master and change their pronunciation. That is why when they pronounced this sound, they felt difficult how to pronounce it well.
h. The Pronunciation of [oʊ]  [αʊ], [o] and [α]
Figure 10. The Finding of Sound [oʊ]
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slightly, the lips are usually rounded and protruded, the vocal folds are adducted and vibrating, and the velopharyngeal port is closed.
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did not find ‘w’ in the word, they would pronounce it as the other
sounds. This finding was unique and interesting because the finding was out of the writer and raters’ expectation. If the listener also has
the same problem in the language background, the miscommunication would appear. As Jung (2010) said that “miscommunications with people from different countries may occur
due to a variety of pronunciations of English and different sounds and speech styles as well as wider socio-cultural and pragmatic competence and general variables” (p. 159). It is because pronunciation is the knowledge of how to say a word – that is how to pronounce it (Harmer, 2001:26).It means that their behavior of using their mother tongue and accent in communication also influenced the way they utterance the English words.
E. CONCLUSION
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the participants were the sounds [ð], [θ], and [ʒ] in consonants and the
sound [oʊ] in diphthong. Mostly, the hardest consonants that difficult to pronounce are sounds [ð] and [θ]. From 15 participants, there were only 11,11% could pronounce the sound [θ] and [ð]. Most of them pronounced those consonants inaccurately.
Based on the result, almost all of them pronounced the sound [θ] as [t] and the sound [ð] as [d]. Nevertheless, the easiest consonants that can be pronounced by the participants were the sounds [dʒ] and [tʃ]. The errors of both sounds were not more than 30%, which means they could pronounce it well. And the difficult diphthong to pronounce was the sound [oʊ]. Most of them pronounced it as [αʊ]. Therefore, this study can be concluded that less than 50% of the participants could not pronounce the consonants and diphthongs accurately.
42 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
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