Background of the Study

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Language is one of important part in our lives. As the human, we cannot form and maintain communication with others without using language. Robins cited in Umami 2007: 1 states that “language is a unitary activity; people speak and write; and understand what is spoken and written in their own language, without necessarily being aware of such things as grammar and pronunciation.” English is one of international language which is almost used in around the world. English is a foreign language, while her mother tongue is Indonesian language. Because of English is a foreign language in Indonesia, it is surely has a difference in pronunciation or grammatical rules. Such differences will make the Indonesian students unable to comprehend easily the language being learned. They have to be trained both in written and oral exercise. As the learner of English, Indonesian people must be face some difficulties and they have to learn more about grammar, vocabulary, and etc. Leech 1982: 3 defines grammar as something in reference to the mechanism according to which language works when it is used to communicate with other people. Grammar can be defined as a theory of language, of how language is put together and how it works Gerot- Wignell 1994: 2. The differentiate structure between Indonesian language and English could make students make some mistake. Brown 1980: 165 states that an error is noticeable grammar from the adult grammar of native speaker, reflecting the interlanguage competence of the learners. As the learner of the foreign language, we find difficulties in our speaking, either grammatical errors or pronunciation errors. One of pronunciation errors is slip of the tongue. According to Fromkin in Clark, 1977: 273 slip of the tongue occurs when the speaker’s actual utterance differs in some way from the intended utterance. The researcher agrees with Fromkin’s ideas because actually when someone wants to say something, she or he has already planned what should be spoken. But when she or he speaks the intended utterance differs in way from the intended utterance. The researcher also encloses some transcription from the data that is used by the researcher. It can be seen below: The following utterances are categorized into slips of the tongue. 1... and this cisrit direct between Soegiyapranata sitrit Eeh street and Imam Bonjol street. The example above means that the speaker wants to pronounce city, in fact the speaker pronounces cisrit [ ꞌsIsri:t] and sitrit [ꞌsItri:t]. It is a fusing process between the word city and street. 2 …so sunan kudus forhibidid... so sunan kudus forbid people in kudus to kill cow. Forhibidid  forbiden + prohibition. ꞌfǝꞌbIden + ˎprǝʊIꞌbIʃn  fǝ´ʊI´bIdId The context above means that the speaker wants to pronounce forbid [ ꞌfǝꞌbId], in fact the speaker pronounces forhibidid [f ǝ´ʊI´bIdId]. It is a fusing or combining process between the word forbidden [ ꞌfǝꞌbIden] and prohibition [ˎprǝʊIꞌbIʃn]. Because both of the words have a close meaning, they forbidden : melarang, prohibition : larangan make the speaker confused to choose what word to use. 3 Like the previous guide Anggit, ‘she – he’ explained about Minaret Kudus mosque. The context above means that the speaker wants to explain that her explanation similar with her friend’s explanation, Anggit Anggit is a boy. Actually, the speaker knows that Anggit is a boy, not a girl but in fact, she said “she” as the personal pronoun of Anggit. She ought to say “he” as the personal pronoun of Anggit. Based on some examples above, we can see that when people find difficulties in their speaking, especially when they use foreign language, they may make errors in their speaking. The same case also often happens in around the researcher’s friends. The pronunciation errors phenomenon comes from the students which are friends of the researcher in English Department of Dian Nuswantoro University, remembering the background of the researcher as an English student. They often make mistakes when they speak although they are English students. So, it’s the underlying phenomenon that makes the researcher conducts this research. The errors may occur in pronunciation problems and slip of the tongue. So in this research, the researcher will examine the phenomenon of pronunciation errors which occur in the fourth semester students of English Department, Faculty of Humanities, Dian Nuswantoro University.

1.2 Statement of Problem