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THE ACCENT OF ENGLISH TEACHERS FROM KURANJI PADANG
WEST SUMATERA
Ikhsan*
English Department, STKIP PGRI West Sumatera, [email protected]
Sri Imelwaty**
[email protected] Yelliza [email protected]
ABSTRACT
The purpose of the research is to analyze English teacher‟s pronunciation who come from Kuranji while pronouncing English words.The method of this research was qualitative research using content analysis, technique of data collection used through recording of teacher voice when the teacher read the narrative text which was provided by the researcher. The recording was obstained from 8 teachers from Kuranji, live and teach at Kuranji district Padang city West Sumatera. All of the teachers are from 5 different Schools and located at Kuranji ; 3 teachers are from SMPN 18 Padang, 2 teachers are from SMPN 28 Padang, 1 teacher is from SMPN 5 Padang, 1 teacher is from SMAN 16 Padang and 1 teacher is from PERTI Kuranji Padang. Data was Analyzed by hearing carefully the recording of the teacher‟s voice. The recording was transcribed and compared with standard English. The result of data analysis shows that Kuranji accent was not found when the teacher pronounce the words in English by reading text. However, it was found the differences in pronounce sounds such as; long vowel, stress, diphthongs, rhotic and fricatives. It can be concluded that accent of regional language was not found when the teacher pronounce the word through reading form.
Keywords: Teacher‟s accent, teacher‟s pronunciation.
INTRODUCTION
English as an international language also appears in many aspects of human life.
This case can be proved that most people around the world use English to communicate in international. English is also commonly used in many fields such as technology, politic, social, economy, culture, and education.
Besides that, most of TV programs, radio, internet, newspaper and magazines use English as a medium of communication. It is also used in international forum like seminar, festival and many events.
Considering the importance of English, it has been introduced from elementary school up to university. It is intended to increase English skills to the whole world communication. English is introduced from primary school level by recognize a number of English words and teaching to pronounce each word correctly. It is done because in Indonesia English is studied as a foreign language. Thus, every English word that pronounce is strange and difficult to be pronounced by the learners‟ mouth that are unfamiliar with the mother tongue.
Most of people who teach English in Indonesia, they use Bahasa Indonesia in formal situation. It causes Bahasa Indonesia is the national language of Indonesia, and they also use regional languages as their mother tongue in informal situation. They are not accustomed to use English in daily life conversation, thus this cause some people face many difficulties to use English in teaching.
Regional languages as mother tongue have an influence on the pronunciation of English teachers in pronouncing each word in English. “Indonesia has many local languages.
Every province has different regional or local language with different accent from the other provinces”(Rahman, 2012:244). For example the people of East Java province have the strong accent in pronouncing the letter d, so that every word sounds with letter d in English would describe their characteristic in pronouncing the word such as different and delete.
Meanwhile, in West Sumatera most of people speak Minangkabaunese language as their mother tongue. Nevertheless, this
2 language also has many accents. Each of the
region in this province speaks their own accent.
“In West Sumatera, the standard accent of Minangkabaunese language is the accent which is used in Padang city - the capital city of west Sumatera” (Hadi, Refnaldi and Noor, 2013:
245). Some areas in Padang have their own way in pronouncing words. Kuranji for example, has different way in pronouncing certain words. For example the Kuranji‟speople have the strong accent in pronouncing the letter ei, u, i, ou and ih. It can be seen in the table below:
Table 1: sample words of Kuranji accent characteristic.
Kuranji Accent
The Words Sample in
Padang language
The Words Sample in
English i – ei
ua – u ia – i u – ou s –ih
Padi (Rice) – Padei
Sayua
(Vegetable) - Sayu
Padiah (Pain) - Padih
Ibu (Mother) - Ibou
Tas (Bag) – Taih
He /hi/
Sure /sua:/
Here /hia:/
To /tu:/
Was /was/
The phenomenon relates to the teacher English pronunciation which is influenced by Kuranji language as mother tongue. It makes the researcher interest to describe the English teachers‟ accent in articulating English words at Padang West Sumatera. Besides, researcher also described the differences of accent in pronouncing English words between Standard English pronunciation and English teachers at Kuranji Padang West Sumatera. It makes English pronunciation becomes difficult to pronounce fluently, clearly and accurately.
Therefore, in this study researcher described the English teachers‟ articulation in English words. Thus, the researcher limited this study focuses on analyzing and describing the way of English teachers‟ accent in articulating English words and describe about the differences of the accent between Standard English pronunciation and the English teachers at Kuranji Padang West Sumatera.
The purpose that would be achieved in this research is as follows: to describe the sounds are distinctively pronounced by the English teacher from Kuranji comparing with
the Standar English pronounciation and to discuss the extend of the English teachers‟
local accent influence toward their English pronunciation.
PRONUNCIATION
Gomez (2013:2) explains returning the main areas of Standard English pronunciation based on International Phonetic Alphabet such as rhotic, vowel, consonant, stress and articulation.
a. Rhotic refers to the manner letter r is pronounced after a vowel within a syllable as in words such as hard, borne and here.
b. Vowel is divided into two types such as:
1) Monophthongs such as i-Pit, e-Pet, i:- bean, A:-barn, u:-boon, e:-bait 2) Diphthongs such as ai-bite, ei-bait, oi-
boy, aY-house, u-poor, i-ear, e-air.
c. Consonant such as p-pip, b-bib, t-ten, d- den, k-cat, g-get, f-fish, and v-van d. Stress is the production and placement
and division of speech stream into tone units or word groups.
e. Articulation is the movement of the tongue, lips, jaw, and other speech organs (the articulators) in order to make speech sounds.
Gomes explain that the main area typically of Standard English pronunciaton base on international phonetic alphabet such as rhotic, vowel, consonant stress and articulation. It can help the researcher to identify the standard of IPA and then compare with Indonesia language and also minang language.
RESEARCH METHOD
In this research the researcher conducted this study as a qualitative research.
However, in qualitative research there are many type of design qualitative. The researcher used content analysis as a method to do a research. The researcher reason to choose this methode because, the researcher want to analyse and expose a result of recording. This recording contain the teacher‟s pronunciation when the teachers reading the text.
The location of this research is conducted in Kuranji Sub district in Padang West Sumatera. There are several junior and senior high schools in this location. The researcher took several junior and senior high schools around the Kuranji sub district as the research location such as SMAN 16 Padang, SMAN 5 Padang, SMPN 18 Padang, PERTI
3 Padang, SMPN 28 Padang and MTSN
KURANJI Padang West Sumatera.
Referring to explanation above, the researcher chose several junior and senior high schools in Padang such as SMAN 16 Padang, SMAN 5 Padang, SMPN 18 Padang,PERTI Padang, and SMPN 28 Padang. The researcher‟s reasons in choosing English teachers from these schools because the location is near Kuranji which the researcher needs in finding the influence of Kuranji language during the teacher pronounce English words. Then, the researcher assumed that the teacher use strong Kuranji accent which influence their English pronunciation. From the entire schools the researcher finds 30 English teachers, but not all teachers who come from and live in Kuranji. Thus, the researcher found there is only 8 teachers who come from and live in Kuranji and the researcher takes all the teachers who come from and live in Kuranji as participants.
Thus in this research, the researcher uses inductive approach which evident in several types of qualitative data analysis to reach a conclusion about the extend of the English teachers‟ local accent influence toward their English pronunciation. Inductive approaches are intended to aid an understanding of meaning in complex data through the development of summary themes or categories from the raw data or data reduction.
Thomas (2003:5) the following procedures are used for inductive analysis of qualitative data such as:
1. Preparation of Raw Data Files (Data Cleaning)
Format the raw data files in a common format and in this research, the researcher format the recording data by hear the recording carefully and compare the Standard English recording which has prepared by the researcher before. It aims to find the differences pronunciation between teachers with the Standard English which shows Kuranji accent and also English vowel and consonant which do not appear in Minangkabau vowel and consonant. Each differences are found, would be marked by using cross (X).
2. Close Reading of Data
The data reduction is divided into two part:
first, differences which appear in Kuranji accent sound such i, ua, ia, u and s such as sea /si:/, taxi /taeksi/, poor /pua:/, sure /Syua:/, who
/hu/, do /du/ and to /tu/. For example: word taxi in Standard English read /taeksi/ the record pronunciation /teksei/, because the word with sound ending /i/ in Kuranji accent is also pronounced with /ei/. Then, word poor in Standard English read /pua:/ the record pronunciation /pu:/, because in Kuranji accent sound /ua/ also pronounce with /u:/. Second, differences appear in Strandard English pronunciation which do not appear in Minangkabau pronunciation such as ɔ, ɔ:, ɛ:, ɛu, ϕ, ɵ, dzand z. For example: word paint in Standard English read /ϕein/ the record pronunciation /‟pen/, word poor in Standar English read „/pɔ:/the record pronunciation /‟pu:/.
3. Creation of Categories
The research identifies and defines categories or themes. The upper level or more general categories are likely to be derived from the research aims. In this step, The researcher tries to present the data by describe the differences that appear in teachers‟ pronunciation for example: word do in Standard English read /du/
but the record sound /dou/, because in Kuranji accent /u/ sound ending also pronounce with /ou/. The Researcher describes each words with the cross mark such explains in the memoing step. Then, The researcher notes, determine and write each phonetic transcription appear based on the teachers‟ pronunciation record.
4. Continuing Revision and Refinement of Category System
Last, the researcher would find the conclusion of the characteristic of Kuranji and Minangkabau pronunciation. For example differences which appear in Kuranji accent sound shows Kuranji accent has strong character in pronouncing ua and u. However, differences appear in Strandard English pronunciation which do not appear in Minangkabau pronunciation shows Minangkabau accent also appear when the teachers pronouncing English pronunciation which do not appear in Minangkabau pronunciation such as ɔ:, ɛ:, ɛu, ϕ, ɵ and dz.
CONCLUSION
Dealing to the data analysis, this research show ome findings: First, the researcher fine that the teachers were not influenced by Kuranji accent while pronouncing English word in reading two of narrative texts which were provided by the researcher. It could be caused by the teachers pronounced written words. Reading messages
4 tended the reader be careful in pronouncing
each word in the texts. As the result of the recording on the teachers‟ pronunciation in reading narrative text which is aimed to find the Kuranji accent were not fine. Second, the researcher found that there were some different pronunciation appeared while the teachers pronounce English words in the narrative texts.
The differences categorized into five pronunciationsclassifying, because the English teachers pronounced different English pronunciation in the long vowel, stressed, diphthongs, rhotic, and fricatives which were classified into five. Last, the researcher found that English teachers in Kuranji pronounced major differences of English words based on Standard English in diphthongs. Almost all diphthongs in the texts were pronounced in different way by the teachers in Kuranji.
SUGGESTION
The result of this research had proven that the accent is not influenced when the pronunciation is produced in reading form.
Thus, the researcher gives some suggestions in the following:
1. The researcher suggests to the other researchers who want to conduct a similar research about accent and regional language, which affects the peoples‟ pronunciation. Choose another instrument research such as produce the English words or pronunciation in oral form. It is caused by the accent would be shown spontaneously in spontaneous and direct conversation. Thus, reading pronunciation did not show Kuranji accent during pronouncing each word of the text.
2. The researcher suggests that, the teachers need to recognize again the
Standard English Pronunciation and pay much attention to teach the Standard English Pronunciation for students during English teaching learning process.
3. For the readers, the different accent was not a problem to the teachers and also all of peoples, but pay attention to pronounce English word based on Standard English Pronunciation.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The writer would like to express his deepest gratitude to his advisor; Sri Imelwaty, Ph.D and Dra. Yelliza. M, M.Pd who have patiently given meaningful suggestions, comments, corrections, great willingness, and time to support him in completing this journal.
REFERENCES
Ary, Donald, Cheser, Lucy, Jacobs, Sorensen, Chris and Razavieh,. 2010. Introduction to Research in Education. Canada:
Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Gay and Airasian. 2000. Educational Research Competences for Analysis and Application. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Company.
Gay, L. R, Mills, Geoffrey, E, Airasian, Peter, W. 2012. Educational Research Competencies for Analysis and Application. New York: Pearson.
Thomas, David, R. 2003. Ageneral Inductive Approach for Qualitative Data Analysis.
New Zealand: University of Auckland.
Zhang, Qian-Mei. 2009.Affecting Factors of Native-Like Pronunciation: A Literature Review. Chung-Ang University:
Department of English Education.
