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C. The Objective of Research
The objective of the research is intended: 1. To know
whether minimal pair drills can improve the students‟ ability in pronunciation or not at the grade of VII.3, SMPN 66 Jakarta.
2. To discuss how minimal pair drills improve the students‟ ability in
pronunciation at the grade of VII.3, SMPN 66 Jakarta.
D. The Significance of Research
This research is hopefully used for: 1. The students, it helps them to practice more and distinguish the
English sounds and they come familiar with the new sounds that do not appear in their first language. Therefore, they are able to communicate
in English and expose it in their daily communication. 2. The teacher, it helps the teacher to apply the pronunciation activities
creatively, intensively and easily for students by introduce them how the different sounds of English words produced.
3. The school. School is as a facility in developing the English education will affect the students‟ competence in communicating foreign
language, mainly English language. By outcome the qualified students, it benefits the school to increase the quality of education as one of the
goals for the school. 4. The writer. This research helps the writer to enrich her knowledge and
to apply the theories that related to this research.
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CHAPTER II THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK
In this chapter, the writer will discuss pronunciation theory includes the definitions of pronunciation, the aspects of pronunciation that explain about
sounds of language, intonation, and stress. Next, the goals of teaching pronunciation, pronunciation problems, the factors that considered in teaching
pronunciation, and minimal pair drill will be also discussed.
A. Pronunciation Theory 1. Definitions of Pronunciation
Here are some definitions of pronunciation recommended by some dictionaries, firstly, based on Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
2004, “Pronunciation is the way in which a language or a particular word is pronounced and a particu
lar person‟s way of pronouncing a word or words
”.
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It explains that pronunciation is viewed as how people utter a word or words that created a good speech, so it be clearly and can be understood by
people. In other definition, pronunciation is also focused on people‟s manner to utter a word or words that appear in spoken, as it is defined in Oxford
Learner’s Pocket Dictionary 1995 “pronunciation is way in which a
7
Della Summer, et. al., Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, 2004 England: Pearson Education Limited, New Edition,p.1313
7
language is spoken and way in which a word in spoken”.
8
In addition, Echols and Sadily 2003 defines
„pronunciation‟ in Indonesian is a lafal, pelafalan, pengucapan and b cara mengucapkan, ucapan
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. This definition is as it same as with the two-previous definitions that those are still focused on
people‟s way to produce a word or words in their utterance or spoken. Actually, pronunciation is sometimes not easy to define by the
linguists, indeed they have the various definitions, and basically the aim is similar. As Kreidler 2004 viewed pronunciation is a terminology that is
correlated among speech and language. He noted “speech is an activity which
is carried on in numerous events; language is knowledge, a code which is known and shared by people who use their knowledge for transmitting and
interpreting messages in the events.”
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It means when someone delivers the message to the hearer by hisher voice, then its message could be received by
the hearer clearly and understandable, but the hearer sometimes does not understand that or even seems confusing about what the speaker said.
Therefore, shehe needs any knowledge to process what the message received to hisher eardrums. As the words that speaker delivered by hisher voice is
delivered by the wave of speaker‟s voice that created the different sounds from the words. To catch those sounds the hearer absolutely has a sense to
differentiate the word that speaker said by hisher knowledge or code. That is why the language is defined as knowledge or code.
On the other hand, Ur 1996 assumed pronunciation is “to say the sounds right, to use the words to express the appropriate meanings, or
construct their sentences in a way that sounds acceptable.”
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More and more, the aim of pronunciation is to ease the speaker and hearer in receiving
message on communication. The message will be easy to receive, if it delivers
8
Martin H. Manser, Oxford Learner’s Pocket Dictionary, 1995, Oxford: Oxford
University Press, New edition, p.331
9
John M. Echols and Hasan Sadily, An English-Indonesian Dictionary, 2003 Jakarta: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama, p.451
10
Charles W. Kreidler, The Pronunciation of English, second ed., USA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2004, p.4
11
Penny Ur, a Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, p.103
8
clearly and can be understood, so what the speaker wanted from the hearer can be received as its purpose.
According to those definitions, the writer concludes that pronunciation is the way of a person in which a word or language sounded and uttered and
one of the people‟s ways in pronouncing, uttering, even in communicating a language to deliver someone‟s desire in communication, so that the
communication is hopefully more clear and understandable.
2. The Concepts of Pronunciation
Pronunciation is not just a word that has the meaning how people pronounce or utter a word or sentence in language, but it has some aspects that
explain the ways in pronouncing the word that will be understandable in spoken language.
Ur 1996 stated “three concepts of pronunciation, those are: the sounds of the language or phonology, stress and rhythm, and intonation.”
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a. The sounds of language
Sounds of language or phonology, which is the symbols of language, heard which is produced by the organs of speech.
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English language has the numbers of sounds which produced by organs of speech.
Those sounds are classified in two categories, vowel and consonants. Avery an
d Erlich 2009 noted, “Consonants involve a narrowing in the mouth which in turn causes some obstruction of the airstreams. With
vowels, air passes rather freely through the mouth because there is very little narrowing”.
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It seems when people producing consonants are signed by the activity of the mouth narrows, there is pressing on the throat or
mouth when the word produced. On the other side vowel is produced
12
Penny Ur, a Course in …, p.47
13
Daniel Jones, The Pronunciation of English, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986, p.11
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Peter Avery and Susan Erlich, Teaching American English Pronunciation, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009, p.12
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