42
CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This chapter summarizes the findings of the research from the videos and give the recommendations related to the findings for other researchers who want to
do the similar research. Therefore, this chapter consists of two sections which are conclusions and recommendations.
A. Conclusions
From the findings of the research, there are two major conclusions. First, the Japanese speakers, as represented by the singer of a group band, have the
different pronunciation process from English speakers in producing English words containing tense vowels, diphthongs, and liquids. These differences are caused by
the non-existence of some sounds in their phonological system. The second is that the linguistic strategies used by the Japanese speakers when they face non-exist
sounds in their phonological system. As mentioned before, the results from the analysis of the live performance
videos indicated that the Japanese speakers as represented by the singer of the band called
L’Arc-en-Ciel have different pronunciation process in pronouncing the English words. The differences came when the singer produced English words
containing tense vowels, diphthongs, and liquids. When the singer produced English words containing tense vowels the data showed that the singer pronounced
them in lax. For example when he pronounced the words me, knee, and see as m
ɪ,
43 n
ɪ, and sɪ in which they were supposed to be mi, ni, and si. The difference of pronunciation process appears because the vowels in Japanese
phonology system do not have contrast sounds in nature as the English lax or tense vowel pairs Vance, 1987.
Secondly, the singer also pronounced diphthongs in different pronunciation process. In this case, the singer produced the diphthongs without
pronouncing the glides j or w. The evidences could be seen when the singer
pronounced the words snake, cold, and twilight. He pronounced them as snek,
k ɔld, and tw :let instead of sneɪk, koʊld, and twaɪlaɪt. The evidences
indicated that the singer produced the diphthongs only in a single sound which was monophthongs. It means that the singer only pronounced the simple vowels
without the glides. In fact, Fromkin, Rodman, and Hyams 2007 had stated that diphthong is two sounds containing vowel and glide which are produced in
sequence. This problem appears because the limited vowels of Japanese which only have five vowels ten sounds compared to English with five vowels twenty
four sounds Tsujimura, 2007. The third difference came from the production of liquids. When the singer
pronounced the liquids r or l, he did not pronounce them clearly. For example,
when the singer said the word rolling and asphalt, he pronounced them as l
ɔ:lɪŋ and
ᴂsf :t. In the word rolling the singer exchanged r to l and even omitted the liquids in the word asphalt. This problem occured because of the dilemma
experienced by the singer since there is no clear separate r and l sounds in Japanese Suski, 1931.
44 The final conclusion is related to the linguistic strategies done by the
Japanese speakers when they face non-exist sounds in their phonological system. From the data, it can be concluded that the singer who represents the Japanese
speakers had done sound substitution and sound simplification as the strategies used in producing non-exist sounds in Japanese. The sound substitution often
occured when the singer produced the tense vowels and liquids. The examples of
sound substitution were when the singer said the words me and knee, he changed
i into ɪ. Then the singer also replaced r sound into l sound when he produced
the words rolling and grown which became l
ɔ:lɪŋ and glon. The other example is sound simplification. It came when the singer
pronounced the words containing diphthongs. The singer simplified the diphthongs
sounds. As a result, when the singer produced the words cold and taste, he did not
produce vowels and glides in a sequence and they became k ɔ:ld and test. It is
the same as McMahon 2002 statement that the sound simplification occurs within short and long vowels.
B. Recommendations
Based on the result of the analysis, the researcher wants to give the insights of the diversity in English accent to the EFL English as a Foreign Language
teachers. The researcher hopes, the EFL teachers can consider the barriers faced by Japanese learners when they speak in English because of their first language. It
can also widen the information and knowledge for EFL teachers in Indonesia that this case can happen in this country, Indonesia. Therefore, this will help EFL
Kategori