ISSN: 2302-920X

Jurnal Humanis, Fakultas Ilmu Budaya Unud

Vol 17.2 Nopember 2016: 228 - 234

Pronunciation Problems of English Consonants Encountered by Senior High School Students of SMAN 1 Tabanan

Putu Intan Meldy Umantari1*, Luh Putu Laksminy2, I Komang Sumaryana Putra3 123English Department Faculty Of Arts, Udayana University 1[[email protected]] 2[[email protected]] 3[[email protected]]

*Corresponding Author

Abstrak

Tidak adanya sejumlah konsonan bahasa Inggris di bahasa Indonesia menjadi masalah utama yang mempengaruhi kemampuan siswa dalam memproduksi pengucapan bahasa Inggris yang benar. Teori fonologi bahasa Inggris oleh Roach, teori “Contrastive Analysis” oleh Robert Lado diterapkan, serta penelitian lain yang terkait juga mendukung pembahasan studi ini. Temuan dari penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa ada beberapa absensi (kekosongan) suara konsonan bahasa Inggris di bahasa Indonesia, begitu pula sebaliknya. Ketidak adaan suara konsonan bahasa Inggris di bahasa Indonesia telah menjadi penyebab utama dari kesalahan dalam pengucapan yang dilakukan oleh subjek tes, yang dalam penelitian ini adalah siswa SMA dari SMAN 1 Tabanan.

Kata Kunci: pengucapan, bunyi suara konsonan, contrastive analysis.

  • 1.    Background of the Study

Being able to recognize the problems that make Indonesian students fail to communicate fluently, the contrastive analysis can be used to find out the differences and similarities between English and Indonesian phonemes. Contrastive analysis has been regarded as main pillars in the domain of second or foreign language acquisition, for example, the phenomenon of Inter-lingualism which happens in Indonesia. To acknowledge accurately that each language is a structurally distinctive system of communication, at least two languages are analyzed to find out their contrast. The comparative analysis of the phonological procedures either in L1 (the Indonesian language) or in L2 (the English language) should investigate how they differ respectively to seek the differences that might hamper the students in learning L2.

  • 2.    Problems of the Study

The problems of the present study are formulated as follows:

  • (a)    How the English consonants were pronounced by the students?

  • (b)    What linguistic factors affected the students when pronouncing the English consonants?

  • 3.    Aims of the Study

The aims of this study are:

  • a)    To find out the major differences between the phonological systems of English and those of Indonesian, especially in term of consonants.

  • b)    To recognize the problems encountered by the Indonesian students, the contrastive analysis can be used to find out the differences and similarities between English and Indonesian phonemes.

  • 4.    Research Method

The design of this study is a descriptive qualitative. It is qualitative in nature which means that this study was trying to explain, describe and analyze data and the result was displayed in the form of field-notes. The findings of this study were revealed not by tools of statistical procedures or other devices of quantification.

The population is a collection of data whose properties are analyzed. The population is complete or entire collection to be studied. It contains all subjects of interest. This project was conducted by involving 20 students of the 2nd grade of SMAN 1 Tabanan. Those students were selected from two classes; IPS 1 and IPS 2 class. There were 58 students who were entering the social class (IPS).

This study was conducted by doing field research involving 20 students of grade two of SMAN 1 Tabanan. To obtain accurate data, a number of words that contain 24 consonants in both English and Indonesia were chosen. Then the students were assigned to read the designated text in a queue, one by one. When each of them was reading, each student’s utterances were being recorded. In essence, each English word (based on the

24 consonants) spoken by those students in this activity was recorded and the result of the direct test was noted in a form of field note.

  • 5.     Result and Discussion

    • 5.1    Analysis of the Pronunciation Problems

To analyze the pronunciation problems of the students, the theory of contrastive analysis by Lado was applied in order to compare the two languages; English as the students’ foreign language and Bahasa Indonesia as their first language. Contrastive analysis investigates the differences between pairs (or small sets) of languages against the background of similarities and with the purpose of providing input to applied disciplines such as foreign language teaching and translation studies (Lado, 1957: 56).

These tables below are the result of phonetics transcription in each chosen English word that contains the English consonant which is designated for the students to

read aloud in order to recognize their pronunciation and problems:

NO

MANNERS OF ARTICULATION

PHONEME

PHONEMIC OPPOSITION

STANDARD PRONUNCIATION OF WORD

RESULT OF PRONUNCIATION PROBLEMS

1

Plosive

/p/

Initial

Pear:    /pæ(r)/

/pir/ /piə(r)/

Medial

Supper: /ˈsʌˈpə(r)/

/supər/ /sapə/

Final

Cop:    /kɒp/

/kop/

/t/

Initial

Toss:    /tɒs/

/tos/ /tosh/

Medial

Bottle: /ˈbɒtl/

/botəl/

Final

Spot:   /spɒt/

/spot/ /sepot/

/k/

Initial

Kill:    /ˈkɪl/

/kil/ (not aspirated)

Medial

Succumb: /səˈkʌm/

/sakem/

Final

Mock: /mɒˈk/

/mok/ /mɒk/ (not aspirated)

2

Affricative

/tʃ/

Initial

Chain:   /tʃəɪn/

/cain/ /cəin/

Medial

Culture: /ˈkʌl.tʃər/

/kalcər/

/dʒ/

Final

Initial

Medial

Match:  /mætʃ/

Bludgeon: /’blʌdʒ(ə)n/

Fudge: /fʌdʒ/

/metch/

/’blʌjən/

/blodjen/

/fʌtch/ /fuch/

3

Fricatives

/θ/

Initial

Think: /θɪŋˈk/

/tiŋ/

Medial

Mathematics: /ˌmæθˈmæt.ɪks/

/matematiks/

Final

South: /saʊθ/

/saut/ /soth/

/ð/

Initial

The: /ðiː/

/də/

Medial

Father: /ˈfɑː.ðər/

/fadər/ /pader/

/z/

Initial

Zoo: zoo /zuː/

/su/

Medial

Zigzag: /zigzæg/

/siksak/

/ʃ/

Initial

Shame: /ʃeɪm/

/seim/

Medial

Nation: /ˈneɪ.ʃən/

/nesiən/

Final

Flush: /flʌʃ/

/flʌs/

Initial

Measure: /ˈmeʒ.ər/

/meisər/ /meisəː/

/ʒ/

Medial

Beige: /beɪʒ/

/beɪs/ /beij/

According to the result of the direct test, some students made some mistakes-or can be indicated as problems-in their pronunciation. The words with problem are:

  • 5.1.1    Phoneme / p /

The phoneme / p / in Bahasa Indonesia was constantly unreleased when it occured in the final position before a pause or another consonant. Consequently, the aforementioned students of this study had difficulties in pronouncing the English words having the phoneme /p/ with aspiration. There were thirteen out of twenty students who failed to pronounce the word pear (phoneme /p/ in the initial of the word) as /ˈpæ(r)/.

They tended to pronounce it as /pir/ and the other students tended to pronounce the word as /piə(r)/, both without any aspiration.

  • 5.1.2    Phoneme / ʧ /

The phoneme /ʧ/ in English is a voiceless palato-alveolar while the phoneme / ĉ = ʧ/ in Bahasa Indonesia is a voiceless palatal stop. The phoneme /ʧ/ in English is pronounced with rounded lips, but the phoneme /ĉ/ in Bahasa Indonesia is uttered with the tongue that is usually very far back in the mouth, and is also pronounced with spread lips by the twenty students of this study. As a result, the students were having problems when articulating the final sound /ʧ/ phoneme in English because this sound in Bahasa Indonesia does not appear in this position.

  • 5.1.3    Phoneme / θ / and /ð/

These two phonemes / θ / and / ð / absolutely bothered the twenty students of this study to speak English and read an English text. They occupied three places in English words, for instance, they can appear in word initial, medial and final positions, but they do not in Bahasa Indonesia because they are not known and exerted in the phonological sound and writing systems of Bahasa Indonesia. As a result, it was very difficult for the twenty students of this study to pronounce English words having either / θ / or / ð /. The students were inclined to pronounce them as / t /, / d / and / s /. Generally, it is acknowledged that wherever Indonesian words in which the letters ‘th’ are involved, they are loan words from foreign languages.

  • 5.1.4    Phoneme /z/

Five students failed to pronounce the word zoo as /zuː/, the standard pronunciation is based on the IPA Oxford dictionary. Those students tended to pronounce the word zoo as /su/. There were also ten students who were unable to pronounce the word zigzag as /zigzæg/ but instead they pronounced it as /siksak/. In conclusion, these students tended to replace the sound /z/ with the sound /s/ as they were not really accustomed with the sound /z/ in their first language, Bahasa Indonesia.

  • 5.2    The comparison between English and Indonesian Consonants based on the manner of articulation.

There are 24 consonants in both English and Bahasa Indonesia. As mentioned in the scope of discussion, this study focused only on three manners of articulation, they are;

  • -    Plosive (/p/,/t/, /k/)

  • -    Affricative (/tʃ/, /dʒ/)

  • -    Fricative (/θ/, /ð/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/)

Based on the consideration and description of the consonants in English and Bahasa Indonesia, the distributional restrictions of the phonotactics of English and Indonesian consonants are described respectively:

English

  • 1.    Consonant sound fricative /ð/ does not occur as a word final.

  • 2.    Consonant sound fricative /z/ does not occur as a word medial and final.

  • 3.    Consonant fricatives /ʒ/, does not occur as an initial sound in English and is rare as a word medial and final.

Bahasa Indonesia

  • 1.    Consonant sound affricative /tʃ/ does not occur as a word final.

  • 2.    Consonant sound affricative /dʒ/ does not occur as a word final.

  • 3. Consonant sound fricative /θ/ does not occur in any of Indonesian words.

  • 4. Consonant sound fricative /ð/ does not occur in any of Indonesian words.

  • 5. Consonant sound fricative /z/ does not occur as a word final in Indonesian.

  • 6. Consonant sound fricative /ʒ/, does not occur in any of Indonesian words.

  • 7.    Consonant sound fricative /ʃ/ does not occur as a word final.

By observing these results and finding of contrasting the two languages, English and Indonesian, focusing on the term of consonants sound and their manners of articulation, we can conclude that each language has both similarities and differences. In result of those differences, there were gaps or absences of several English consonant sounds, for instance, the sounds /θ/ and /ð/ in Indonesian.

This gap might potentially become obstacle for EFL learners in Indonesia, especially for the native Indonesian. Despite the differences between the two languages, English and Indonesian surprisingly share a number of similarities in term of consonant sound. In Indonesian, there are plosives, approximant, nasal, fricative and affricative consonant sounds. These similarities have made some kind of an advantage for Indonesian EFL learner to produce the correct pronunciation of consonant sound as there are similar sounds that exist in their native language. Similarities in English and Indonesian might become a helping hand for the learner.

  • 6.     Bibliography

Chaer, Abdul. (2009). Fonologi Bahasa Indonesia (cetakan edisi pertama). Bandung: Rineka Cipta.

Echols, John M. and Hassan Shadily. (1997) An Indonesian-English Dictionary. USA: Cornell University Press.

Lado, R. (1957) Linguistics across cultures: Applied Linguistics for Language Teachers. University of Michigan Press: Ann Arbor.

Mahayani, Dian. (2009) The Analysis of English Pronunciation Error Made by 6th grade Students in SD Saraswati 2 Denpasar (Undergraduate Thesis). Denpasar: Udayana University.

Roach, P. (2000) English Phonetics and Phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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