37
suspect on the first syllable, i.e.
ˈ
conceal,
ˈ
exchange,
ˈ
exist,
ˈ
occur,
ˈ
prefer,
ˈ
present,
ˈ
replied, while the words must be stressed on the last syllable, namely, con
ˈ
ceal, ex
ˈ
change, e
ˈ
xist, oc
ˈ
cur, pre
ˈ
fer, pre
ˈ
sent, re
ˈ
plied. The stresses of the polysyllabic words committed and
continue are misplaced on the first syllable, i.e.
ˈ
committed,
ˈ
continue, while the words should be stressed on the penultimate syllable, namely, com
ˈ
mitted, con
ˈ
tinue. The polysyllabic words disappeared, intervene are stressed
on the first syllable, i.e.
ˈ
disappeared,
ˈ
intervene, while they should be stressed on the last syllable, i.e. disap
ˈ
peared, inter
ˈ
vene. The polysyllabic word recognize is stressed on the last
syllable, i.e. recog
ˈ
nize, while the word should be stressed on the first syllable, i.e.
ˈ
recognize. 4 Adverbs
The speaker misplaced the stress of disyllabic word somehow on the first syllable, i.e.
ˈ
somehow, while it should be stressed on the last syllable, i.e. some
ˈ
how. The stress of the polysyllabic word naturally is misplaced
on the last syllable, i.e. natural
ˈ
ly, while the word should be stressed on the first syllable, i.e.
ˈ
naturally. Another polysyllabic word, unobtrusively, is incorrectly stressed on the second syllable,
38
i.e. un
ˈ
obtrusively, while it should receive antepenultimate stress, namely, unob
ˈ
trusively. 5 Compounds
The stresses of the compounds background and backside are misplaced on the last syllable, i.e. back
ˈ
ground, back
ˈ
side, while they must be stressed on the first syllables, namely,
ˈ
background,
ˈ
backside. b. Unnecessary Word Stress
In unnecessary word stress error, the students tend to put the stress on more than one syllable, including the correct stress, so that the word
sounds like it has more than one primary stress. The researcher finds that the unnecessary word stresses are mostly nouns, then followed by
adjectives, and finally a verb and a compound with the same number of occurrences.
1 Nouns The speaker wrongly put the stress on all the syllables for
the disyllabic word distress, i.e.
ˈ
di
ˈ
stress, while the word should be stressed only on the last syllable, i.e. di
ˈ
stress. All the syllables of the disyllabic word colleague are also
incorrectly stressed by the speaker, i.e.
ˈ
col
ˈ
league, while the word should be stressed only on the first syllable, i.e.
ˈ
colleague. The speakers also wrongly put the stress on all the syllables
for the polysyllabic words incident and widower, e.g.
ˈ
in
ˈ
ci
ˈ
dent,
39
ˈ
wi
ˈ
do
ˈ
wer, while all those words should be stressed only on their first syllables, i.e.
ˈ
incident,
ˈ
widower. The polysyllabic words citizen and negligence also should
be stressed only on their first syllables, i.e.
ˈ
negligence. However, the speakers wrongly put the stress on the first syllable and on the
last syllable of those words, i.e.
ˈ
citi
ˈ
zen,
ˈ
negli
ˈ
gence. Next, the polysyllabic word conclusion is incorrectly
stressed on all syllables, i.e.
ˈ
con
ˈ
clu
ˈ
sion, while the word should receive penultimate stress, i.e. con
ˈ
clusion. The word
authorities is
wrongly stressed on the
antepenultimate and the last syllables, i.e. au
ˈ
thori
ˈ
ties, and the word “contributor” is
wrongly stressed on the first and antepenultimate syllables, e.g.
ˈ
con
ˈ
tributor, while all those words should be stressed only on their antepenultimate syllables, namely,
au
ˈ
thorities, con
ˈ
tributor. 2 Adjectives
The words interested and negligent are wrongly stressed on the first and last syllables, i.e.
ˈ
interes
ˈ
ted,
ˈ
negli
ˈ
gent, while they should be stressed only on their first syllables,
ˈ
interested,
ˈ
negligent. The speaker wrongly puts the stress on all the syllables of
the word serious, i.e.
ˈ
se
ˈ
ri
ˈ
ous, while the word should be stressed only on the first syllable, i.e.
ˈ
serious.
40
3 Verb The speaker wrongly puts the stress of the disyllabic word
conclude on both syllables, i.e.
ˈ
con
ˈ
clude, while the word should be stressed on the last syllable, i.e. con
ˈ
clude. 4 Compound
The compound whorehouse is incorrectly stressed on both syllables, i.e.
ˈ
whore
ˈ
house, while the word should be stressed only on the first syllable, i.e.
ˈ
whorehouse.
2. How to Overcome the Word Stress Errors
Generally, it is important for learners to study the rules of the word stress placement to indicate the appropriate stress and to know some theories about how
the word is stressed. However, as presented in Chapter 2, sometimes the rules of word stress are unpredictable. Based on the data analysis above, it is also found
that there are many irregularities on the stress of the English words which are found in the play performance, for instance, not all disyllabic nouns are stressed
on the first syllables since sometimes they are stressed on the last syllables. As a result, it might be difficult for the students to indicate or predict where to put the
stress on the syllable of the words. Here are some actions to overcome the word stress errors:
a. Master the phonetic transcription Whenever students learn a new word, it is important to learn its
transcription and its stress as well. Therefore, the students need to study and master the phonetic transcription based on IPA International Phonetic
41
Alphabet which is provided in some dictionaries in order to know how to pronounce a word and place the appropriate stress.
b. Consult the dictionary Because of the irregularities of the word stress rules, English
learners should consult the dictionary for every English word that comes across their mind or some words which the students have not known. This
action will give the students opportunities to not only learn the meaning of the words, but also to learn where to put the stress on the words.
c. Listen to the audio pronunciations and practice Students may also listen to audio pronunciations which are
available in some online dictionaries in the internet. In this study, the writer uses the online version Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary.
Listening to the audio pronunciations could help the students improve their pronunciation skills through self-study because the students can listen,
repeat, and practice the pronunciation by themselves until they are get used to placing appropriate stress of the words. However, not only
practicing by themselves, it is also good if the students practice with their friends or under teacher’s observation directly.
d. Be aware of different stresses Learners also need to raise their awareness or pay more attention to
words which have different part of speech or different meanings if the words are stressed differently. For instance, in this research the student
misplaces the stress of the noun “escort” on the last syllable, while it
42
should be stressed on the first syllable. It is incorrect because if the word is stressed on the last syllable, the meaning of the word changes since it is
perceived as a verb. As a result, it can create a miscommunication. Therefore, paying attention to this issue can overcome the
misunderstanding in communication due to the incorrect word stress.
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CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This chapter consists of two sections, namely conclusions and recommendation. The conclusions are derived from the results of this study taken
from the two research problems. The latter one, recommendations, is aimed for English teachers, students, and future researchers who might be interested in
conducting the similar study.
A. Conclusions
There are two conclusions based on the research results and the discussion in the previous chapter. Firstly, regarding the first question about the types of
word stress errors which are produced by the students, it is found that there are two types of word stress errors. The first type is misplaced word stress, meaning
that the stress falls on the wrong syllable. The second type is unnecessary word stress, meaning that the word has more than one primary stress, including the
correct stress. Furthermore, it is found that there are 77 words with word stress error and
the total number of errors which occur is 105. For misplaced word stress, there are 91 total occurrences. The word classes produced are mostly nouns with 53
occurrences, followed by adjectives with nineteen occurrences, verbs with fourteen occurrences, adverbs with three occurrences, and finally compounds with
two occurrences. Another type of error, unnecessary word stress, occurs fourteen
44
times. Nouns have the highest rank with nine occurrences, followed by adjectives with three occurrences, and finally a verb and a compound with respectively one
occurrence. There is no occurrence of adverb for this type of error. Answering the second research question, the researcher provides some
ways that are helpful for English learners to overcome the word stress errors. Firstly, students should master the phonetic transcription since it is important to
understand how to pronounce words based on the dictionaries which use phonetic symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet IPA. Secondly, students need
to consult the dictionary for the placement of the word stress. It is useful because the rule of word stress is irregular. Thirdly, it is important to listen to audio
pronunciations provided by some online dictionaries and to practice the pronunciation in order to develop the students’ pronunciation skills. The fourth
one is to be aware of different stresses of words since it is important to avoid misunderstanding in communication.
B. Recommendations
Based on the results of this study, there are some recommendations which are presented in this section. The recommendations are for teachers, students, and
future researchers. 1. For teachers
It is important for teachers to teach students about word stress and especially control the students’ word stress in performing the play performance.
Besides, teachers also need to let the students have more opportunities to practice
