Mini-Research LAD

Here, I would like to share my mini-research about Language Acquisition and Development that I've learned in the 2nd semester ago.. Hopefully this will be useful for anyone who learn linguistic.
:)

Title                : Error in Pronunciation of Consonant and Vowel by Learners of English as                            Foreign Language as Second Language in Indonesia

ABSTRACT

          Learn English in this globalization era is a demand for someone who wants to communicate with each other from different country. Because of the situation, Indonesian people who are not native speaker get some difficulties to learn English as foreign language. One of the differences is sounds of each language that involve consonants and vowels. Moreover, in Indonesia there are no consonants /θ/, /ʒ/, /ð/, and / tʃ/ also vowels /æ/, /ʌ/, /ɔ/, /ɔ:/, /ʊ/, and /u:/ in Indonesian vocabularies. In this occasion, researcher wants to do research that focus to pronunciation of Indonesian people who have learned English in few years, are they do error pronunciation or no.

          Subject of this research is 20 mathematics students of SSE who have been familiar with English. Researcher chooses them randomly which has fulfilled criteria of the research. Researcher uses quantitative design in this research through survey approach with uses check-list table. Meanwhile, the quantitative data is analyzed through quantitative descriptive.

            Result of the research explains that differences between sounds in Indonesian and English influence Indonesian’s pronunciation which is English as foreign language although they have learned English in few years. It is proved by majority of the participants as subject in this research who do same error pronunciation in words “paste”, “think”, “delete”, “even”, “event”, “she”, and “three”. That because differences inure in pronounce Indonesia and English words, which is in English language must be spoken clearly, especially the consonants at the end of the word.

INTRODUCTION

            In this globalization era, learn the English language is a demand. People who cannot speak English perhaps get difficulties to communicate with each other. It is supported by Huda (1999) that English become the winner in this global arena or globalization era. In fact, not all of the people easily learn English. Moreover, the people who have more than one language and they have to master some of the languages itself such as vernacular and nation language.

            According to some previous research, they said that English is difficult for some people to master it in the area of pronunciation. Those statements is given by Nesgoda (1980), he said that English is difficult for some learner when they learning to speak English well because several spelling may be represented by a single sound. Meanwhile according to Moeliono & Dardjowidjojo (2003) in Indonesian, language English sounds such as [v], [θ], [ð], [ʒ], [dʒ], and [t∫] cannot be found.

            English is foreign language in Indonesia that called second language. Acquire second language to Indonesian who have a lot of languages can be said easy or even difficult. That because, in Indonesia itself the populace of each province have to use and perpetuate their each vernacular or called mother language. The regulation is appropriate with UU 22/1999 on Regional Governance and UU 20/2003 on National Education System, which is sourced from the 1945 Constitution of the Education and Culture on the side in line with the 1999 UNESCO recommendation on the "maintenance of mother languages​​", and the Indonesian Government Regulation No. 19/2005 on National Education Standards, Chapter III Pasal 7 Verses 3-8, which states that of SD / MI / SDLB, SMP / MTs. / SMPLB, SMA / MAN / SMALB, and SMK / MAK be teaching the relevant local content. And then, all of that statement is appropriate with Lanteigne (2006) that difficulties in learning English occur due to the fact that some of English sounds do not exist in the mother tongue of the learners.

            Phenomena that occur in Indonesia especially for the people who learn English do error pronounce in some English words. For some people who do not learn a lot about English, perhaps it does not matter. In contrary, for native speaker or the people who do not know about Indonesia culture that becomes a problem. That because, it can be cause misunderstanding or miscommunication when they do communication each other. Meanwhile, the way to pronounce English word correctly is learned by phonology or study about form of sounds in a language (Yanti, 2009).

            Based on that phenomena, researcher wants to know about are there the people who have learned English in few years but they do not learn phonology do some errors in their English pronunciation. In addition, the purpose of this research is just want to know and make sure is there Indonesian people who have learnt about English a few years without learn about phonology do still error in pronounce or no. Hopefully this research is useful for researcher as English teacher in the future when implement the study about pronounce words in English.

THEORETICAL REVIEW

            According to Helle (1992) in Duanmu (2008), phonology of a language is a set of rules that can generate all and only correct phonological forms of a language. In phonology itself, there are some differences between phonology in English and Indonesia. In this research, researcher just focuses to vowels and consonants that have differences of sounds between English and Indonesia. One of factor error pronounce in some words as foreign language toward Indonesian is caused by habituation of Indonesian people who never found consonant /θ/, /ʒ/, /ð/, and / tʃ/ in Indonesian words (Moeliono & Dardjowidjojo, 2003).

            According to Gomez (2012), there are 12 vowels and 24 consonants in English which have some factors to consider during production for each sound. For vowels sound in English, they are /a/, /æ/, /e/, /i/, /I:/, /ə/, /ɜ:/, /ʌ/, /ɔ/, /ɔ:/, /ʊ/, and /u:/. Meanwhile in English consonants, there are /p/, /t/, /k/, /f/, /tʃ/, /θ/, /s/, /ʃ/, /h/, /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /b/, /d/, /g/, /v/, /ð/, /z/, /dʒ/, /ʒ/, /r/, /l/, /j/, and /w/. In Indonesia the vowels sound is less than in English, there are eight vowels such as /a/, /i/, /I/, /u/, /e/, /ɜ/, /ə/, /o/, and / / (Darwowidjojo, 2009). In addition, there are /p/, /t/, /k/, /f/, /s/, /ʃ/, /h/, /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /n/, /b/, /d/, /g/, /v/, /z/, /dʒ/, /r/, /l/, /j/, /x/, and /w/ as the consonants in Indonesia sounds.

            Based on the explanation, the differences between vowels in English and Indonesia vowels such as /æ/, /ʌ/, /ɔ/, /ɔ:/, /ʊ/, and /u:/ are not found in Indonesian vowels. In consonants, are not found consonants /x/ and /n/ in English sounds. However, consonants /θ/, /ʒ/, /ð/, and / tʃ/ are also not found in Indonesia consonants. If it is related with Moeliono & Dardjowidjojo (2003) research that mentioned above. It means that proper if Indonesian get difficulty to pronounce some English words. Moreover, according to Odlin (1989) noted some correlation between the rarity of a sound in Indonesian, such as /ð/ or / tʃ/ found in English and it is difficulty for some people who learn these second language.

            In researcher assumption, those differences influence how Indonesian pronounce some English words. The problem is caused of all the letters in the English language must be spoken clearly, especially the consonants at the end of the word (Sari, 2012). It means that the error in the pronunciation is reasonable because in the words of Indonesian, researchers did not find the final consonant in words which must be read clearly as in English.

           

METHODOLOGY

            In this research, researcher use quantitative research to get the data. The reason why the researcher uses quantitative design, because the researcher just want to give evidence about the phenomena that happens about error pronunciation in some student who have learnt English in few years.

            Population in this research is SSE students. Meanwhile, the participants who become subject in this research are students from mathematics department with use random sampling to choose as sample of the research. It is not a stereotype toward the math’s students. In here, researcher wants to know their pronunciation’s ability in English, because they do not learn phonology.

            For the procedure in this research first of all, the researcher selecting the participant by choosing 20 SSE mathematic students randomly. Second, researcher gives the participants 10 words in English such as “even, event, see, she, three, tree, etc.”, and then they have to pronounce the words one by one. Third, researches analyze result of the test as data with refers to theoretical review which use quantitative descriptive. The last, researcher concludes this research that refers to finding and discussion.

FINDING AND DISCUSSION

            According to Saksono (2008), there are some words that are considered difficult to pronounce by Indonesian. They are “paste, delete, enjiner, technology, architect, and so on”. In here, researcher just takes 2 words from Saksono’s opinion that are “paste” and “delete”. Another word that is considered difficult by researcher which is used in this research are “think, thing, see, she even, event, tree, three “. Researcher consider those word are quite difficult to pronounce for some people in Indonesia. That refers to Moeliono and Dardjowidjojo’s  (2003) research, that in Indonesian language English sounds such as [v], [θ], [ð], [ʒ], [dʒ], and [t∫] are not found.

            Based on that information, researcher chooses those additional words as a test in this research. For example in word “think”. According to Cambridge dictionary the transcription for “think” is /θɪŋk/. Meanwhile for “thing”, the transcription is /θɪŋ/. Some participants do errors pronounce in those some words, such as both of pronouncing /θɪŋ/ for “think” and “thing”, /ˈiːvən/ for “even” and “event”, /siː/ for “she” and “see”, also pronounce /triː/ for “three” and “tree”. Whereas, the correct pronunciation for “think” is /θɪŋk/, /ɪˈvent/ for “event”, /ʃiː/ for “she”, and /θriː/ for “three”. For “paste” and “delete”, some of participants pronounce those word such use Indonesian pronounce. When they mention “paste”, they pronounce /pastə/. Meanwhile when they mention “delete”, they pronounce /delet/ or /dɪlet/. Here, researcher attach table of the observation that is taken from 20 SSE mathematic students as the participant.

Participant	Words
	Paste	Think	Delete	See	Even	Thing	She	Tree	Event	Three
1		×	×	√	√	√	×	√	√	×
2	√	√	√	√	√	√	√	√	×	√
3	√	√	×	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
4	×	×	×	√	√	√	√	√	×	×
5	×	√	×	√	√	√	×	√	×	×
6	×	×	×	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
7	×	√	×	√	√	√	×	√	×	√
8	×	×	√	√	√	√	√	√	×	×
9	√	√	×	√	√	√	√	√	×	√
10	√	×	×	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
11	√	√	×	√	√	√	×	√	√	√
12	×	×	×	√	√	√	√	√	×	√
13	×	×	×	√	√	√	√	√	×	×
14	×	×	×	√	√	√	×	√	×	×
15	×	×	×	√	√	√	×	√	√	×
16	√	√	√	√	√	√	√	√	×	×
17	√	×	√	√	√	√	√	√	×	×
18	√	√	√	√	√	√	√	√	×	√
19	√	√	√	√	√	√	×	√	×	√
20	√	√	×		×	√	√	√	×	√

            Based on the table, researcher found that 43% of the participants do error pronunciation when pronounce “paste”, “think”, and “three”. For error pronunciation in word “she” there are 40% participants who do error pronunciation, 5% participants who do error pronunciation in “even”, 65% participants who do error pronunciation in “event”, and 70% participants who do error pronunciation in “delete”. Meanwhile when pronounce “see”, “thing”, and “tree”, there are no participants who do error in pronunciation.

            If the result is related to Sari’s research (2012) who explains that all the letters in the English language must be spoken clearly especially the consonants at the end of the word, that appropriate with the result of the data that is found by researcher. For example in word “think” and “event”, majority of the participants do error pronunciation when pronounce that words. It means, although the participants have learned English in few years, majority of them still do error pronunciation in some English words. It is proved that the differences in types of consonants and vowels in both languages​​ that are English and Indonesia are affecting the production of their pronunciation.

CONCLUSION

            This study has discussed about phonology and error pronunciation that do some Indonesian people although they have learned English in few years. Researcher found that majority of the participants do same error pronunciation in words “paste”, “think”, “delete”, “even”, “event”, “she”, and “three”. It proves that differences between sounds in Indonesian and English influence Indonesian’s pronunciation which is English as foreign language. Based on this research, researcher has suggestion for everyone who learn more about English that inuring to pronounce English word  have to correctly in order to misunderstanding and miscommunication when pronounce some English words not occur especially when do conversation.

REFERENCES

Dali, D. (2007, April). Stadar Kompetensi dan Kompetensi Dasar Mata Pelajaran Bahasa dan Sastra Sunda. Retrieved June 29, 2012, from Scribd: http://www.scribd.com/doc/82173100/2/SD-MI.

Gómez, P. (2010, March 12). Vowels. Retrieved July 1, 2012, from English Phonetics:                   http://www.webpgomez.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=227&Ite mid=202.

Itta. (2007). Kemampuan Berbahasa Inggris Anak dengan Pembelajaran Bilingual. Jurnal Pendidikan Penabur, 1.

Mathew, I. (2005). Errors in pronunciation of consonants by learners. Monash University   Linguistic Paper, 30-31.

Saksono, T. (2008, September 7). Common mistakes in pronouncing English words by Indonesian professionals . Retrieved July 1, 2012, from Intakindo: http://tsaksono.blogspot.com/2008/09/common-mistakes-in-pronouncing-english.html.

Sari, M. (2012, May 9). How To Improve English Speaking? . Retrieved July 2, 2012, from           zona_moeslem Green 29889: http://green29889.blogspot.com/2012/05/how-to-improve-     english-speaking.html.

Tiono and Yostanto. (2008, June). A Study of English Phonological Errors Produced by.   Retrieved June 29, 2012, from Petra Christian University:         http://www.petra.ac.id/~puslit/journals/dir.php?DepartmentID=ING.

Yanti. (2009). An Ananlysis of Pronunciation and Stress Placement Mistakes in Noun and Verb     Word Pairs Made. Retrieved June 29, 2012, from Bina Nusantara University.