12
to the meaning. This statement is supported by Jones 1986, “stress is one of the factors that may cause or help to cause a sound or syllable to be
„prominent‟.”
20
So, stress is a way to press whether the syllable of the words is as a pointer or not in a speech.
Stress is classified into word stress and sentence stress. Word stress is the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables within a word. Harmer
1991 presented that word stress affects the situation of the speaker said and the grammatical differentiate within its word. As he noted in the
practice of English Language Teaching New Edition 1991 as follows: For example, in the wo
rd in a word „photograph‟, we can divide it into three parts:
‘pho’, ‘to’, and ‘graph’. Competence speakers will say the word like this, „PHOtograph’, stress in the first syllable.
The situation changes with the words „photographer‟ where the stress shifts
to the second syllable, i.e. „phoTOgrapher‟. Stress in words also changes depending upon a word‟s grammatical
function: ‘perMIT’ is a verb, but ‘PERmit’ is a noun, and the same
is true of the words ‘imPORT’ and ‘IMport.
21
The samples that showed the stress syllable in a word could be changed its position based on the grammatical or word-form change.
Based on the previous explanation, sentence stress, which is stated as the speaker
‟s way to pronounce the certain word in a sentence, by using louder, stronger, and higher in pitch, is supposed to express the word that
is stressed. It serves as the clue or main point of the speech. Moreover, Kelly 2000 argued, “Sentence stress is an integral feature for the listeners
with vital clues as the salient points of the speaker‟s message.”
22
In this statement, stress in sentence is viewed as an important part in speech to
help the listener understanding about the message delivered. By stressing in the word point, it could ease the listener in catching the message
effectively. For example, ‘I can RUN’ means that I am probably able to
20
Daniel Jones, The Pronunciation of English …, p. 140
21
Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, New York: Longman, 1996, New Edition, p.12
22
Gerald Kelly, How to Teach …,p.84
13
run. But if „I CAN run’ is stressed that I am really able to run, someone could say it because maybe there somebody doubt his ability to run
23
. The other terminology in pronunciation is rhythm which is
commonly defined as stress in many languages.
24
Ashby and Maidment 2008 noted “Rhythm can be defined as the pattern of occurrence in time
of relatively „strong‟ and relatively „weak‟ events.”
25
Here, the strong is known as stressed syllable and weak is unstressed one. So, when the words
or phrases are pronounced, the strong syllable is usually spoken in highly pitched and clearly utterance, while the weak one is not.
c. Intonation
One of the prominent parts in pronunciation to express the meaning of word or sentence more clearly is intonation. Ashby and Maidment
2008 denoted that “Intonation is used to signal how a speaker intends his or her utterances to be interpreted.”
26
Intonation is regarded as a process where people play the tone of the language in communication. Intonation
also shows the speaker‟s emotion and attitude in hisher utterances, directs whether the speaker finish hisher speech or not yet, and explains about the
speakers‟ purpose in speaking if that is in statement or question.
27
In addition Ur 1984 agreed that intonation is characterized the speaker‟s
meaning in the utterance that shows the real situation and emotions of the speakers for example, certainty, doubt, irony, inquiry, seriousness, humor,
etc.
28
Even though, the word or sentence grammatically forms as a question, but intonation performs as a statement, so the meaning could be
different. The meaning expresses based on the speaker‟s aim in delivering
23
Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of …, New Edition, p.12
24
Michael Ashby and John Maidment, Introducing Phonetic Science, 2008, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p.160
25
Michael Ashby and John Maidment, Introducing Phonetic …, p.161
26
Michael Ashby and John Maidment, Introducing Phonetic …, p.154
27
Gerald Kelly, How to Teach ,…p.86
28
Penny Ur, Teaching Listening Comprehension, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984, p.13
14
something to the hearer. So that, the intonation could be clearly to avoid miss understanding in communication.
The writer assumes intonation also shows the meaning of the speakers‟ utterance, although the sentence structurally equals, but if the
speaker pronounces it in different intonation, it indicates changing in meaning. Intonation sounded by raising and falling tone, in symbols for
raising and \ for falling and symbols ˆ ˇ to show fall-rise and rise-fall. In
line, stress may affect speed, volume, and the use of pause. Ur 1986 states this
assumption as follows: “the rhythm of English is, then, mainly a function of its stress patterns; these may also affect such aspects as speed
of delivery, volume and the use of pause.” For example, PEter, come HERE, please.
29
In this example shows that the prominent words are „peter‟ and „here‟, those express that the speaker wants the hearer to come
himher. This related to the stress, the syllable is stressed in “PE Peter” and “HERE”.
From the explanation, the writer concludes about the concept of pronunciation, there are 3 components in the concept of pronunciation. Firstly,
sounds of the language defined as the symbols of language which are produced by the organs of speech. Secondly, stress and rhythm, which is focused on the
speaker‟s way in sounding the certain word that has the main meaning in language. Thirdly, intonation is a sound wave to pronounce the wordssentence
to make sense in meaning. In the sounds of language, there are vowel and consonants. Vowel
involves air passes rather freely through the mouth because there is very little narrowing. Vowel divides into two; monophtong is single vowel sound and
diphthong is combination of two different vowel sound, whilst consonant involves a narrowing in the mouth which in turn causes some obstruction of the
airstream. It consists of voice and unvoicedvoiceless. In the stress and rhythm
29
Penny Ur, a Course in …, p.49
15
discussion, there is word stress, how the speaker made pointer in the syllable and sentence stress is how the speaker to stress the word as pointer within a
sentence, the stress is acted the different way both of them. And for intonation is assumed as the speaker‟s signal in delivering message. To ease reading this
discussion, the writer tries to visualize the Penny Ur‟s concept in
pronunciations into a figure as follows:
Figure 2.1. Penny Ur’s Pronunciation Concepts 1996
30
3. The Goals of Teaching Pronunciation
In teaching English pronunciation, a teacher is desirable have the goals that should be achieved. One of the teacher‟s goals is to help the student to
pronounce English word accurately. So, they know how to communicate what they want to say
properly. Therefore, the students‟ spoken can be understood by listener. This means their pronunciation should be at least adequate for that
purpose.
31
30
Penny Ur, a Course in …, p.47
31
Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English …, New Edition, p.21
Sounds of the language
Stress and rhythm
Intonation
CONCEPTS OF PRONUNCIATION
Vowel Consonant
s
Monophthong s
Diphthong s
Word Sentenc
e Speaker‟s
Signal
Voice d
Unvoice d
