Research Problem Problem Limitation

5 the sixth semester students of the English Language Education Study Program and what the causes of the problems are.

B. Research Problem

Based on the background, this research addresses two problems. They are: 1. What are the problems in verb stress which are encountered by the sixth semester students of the English Language Education Study Program? 2. What are the causes of the problems in verb stress which are encountered by the sixth semester students of the English Language Education Study Program?

C. Problem Limitation

This research focuses on the problems in verb stress which are encountered by the sixth semester students of the English Language Education Study Program. Accordingly, the other types of content words such as noun, adjective, or adverb will be ignored. It will not discuss the problems in word stress in general. Verb is chosen because its existence in a sentence is very essential. According to Brewton 1962, a sentence normally contains a subject and a predicate. This group of words also conveys one idea p. 193. Furthermore, he states that the most important element in a sentence is the predicate verb 1962, p. 195. However, it does not mean that the other parts of speech are not important. 6 Sociolinguistics course is chosen because the sixth semester students are expected to have good ability to speak in front of the class. In this course, every student should speak in their presentations. Therefore the researcher could obtain the data from the recordings of the presentations. The researcher will only include 2009 students in the 20112012 academic year since the similarity of the background of the participants is needed, so those who are not 2009 students will be ignored. Furthermore, the participants are categorized as having the same background if they have taken Pronunciation Practice 1 and 2 courses and they have finished all Speaking courses in ELESP, namely Interactional Speech I, Interactional Speech II, Transactional Speech, Public Speaking I, and Public Speaking II.

D. Research Objectives