21
26 x
27 ny
This table displays the contrastive analysis of sound system between the students‟ native language Indonesian and their target language English. As
the writer discusses previously that one of the students‟ troublesome in
producing English sound is because of some the English sounds does not exist in their native language, contrastively even the sounds that exist in their native
language, it is pronounced differently. Based on the IPA International Phonetic Association and the other
resources for Indonesian‟ phonemic spelling, English has 20 vowels involving 12 single vowels consist of 7 short vowels and 5 long vowels and 8 diphthongs,
whilst Indonesian has 9 vowels only; it classified 6 single vowels and 3 diphthongs. Moreover, consonants in English are 24 and 25 consonants exist in
Indonesia. In conclusion, the common problems in teaching learning pronunciation
are because the different sound between their native language and target language that make the students face the difficulty in transferring their mother
tongue into target language and the difficulty in practicing new sound appeared in their target language.
5. Preliminary Considerations in the Teaching of Pronunciation
Teaching pronunciation needs some considerations that support teaching-learning activity run better, for example, how the sounds are
produced, how people create the words, what kind of sounds appear in English word or sentence, and what factors that courage the students to speak English.
Those may affect the students‟ improvement in practicing the pronunciation of their target language.
Avery and Erlich 2009 noticed some several factors to be considered in the teaching pronunciation in the EFL classroom that may influence the
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students ‟ encouraging in pronouncing the English words or sentences, there
are:
1. Biological factors
, the influence of the students‟ mother tongue in acquiring native-like pronunciation in a second language.
2. Socio-cultural factors, this factor are strongly influenced the
students in different culture that also influence their achievement in transferring the sound native-like pronunciation in LT.
3. Personality factors; the students who are out-going, confident, and
willing to take risks probably have the more opportunities to practice their pronunciation inside and outside classroom. These factors
affect the acquisition of the sound system of a foreign and second language.
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Biological factors are one of the factors that influence the students „pronunciation improvement. These factors are related to their organ of speech
as the set of speech productions. As the writer previously presented that the wordssentences as a collection of vowels and consonants are produced by
organ of speech. In supporting this assumption, Avery and Erlich‟s statement,
biological factor is stated as the influence by the students‟ mother tongue.
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As we know that tongue is one of the organs of speech production. Tongue
influences the student‟s acquiring in pronunciation because some of the sound system in English does not exist in their native language, so they seem quite
confuse how to pronounce the new sounds and it require lots of practice to make their tongue smoothly.
The second factor is socio-cultural. This factor may influence the student‟s desire and motivation in exposing their target language, preliminary
in practicing their English out side of classroom. They absolutely don‟t have
time enough if they just learn English inside classroom. But if there is no one help student to practice hisher language, it seems dilemma for student even
though the students have highly-motivated.
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The last factor recommended by Avery and Erlich is personality factor. This factor is considered as the main factor that influences people effort in
42
Peter Avery and Susan Ehrlich, Teaching American..., Second Edition, p.xv-xvi.
43
Peter Avery and Susan Ehrlich, Teaching American..., Second Edition, p.xv-xvi.
44
Peter Avery and Susan Ehrlich, Teaching American..., Second Edition, p.xv-xvi.
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doing everything, even less in le arning. In this case, student‟s intern
motivation and attitude is highly appreciated. Student is assumed who has a big desire, out-going, and confident could improve andor even expand hisher
English quickly. This student will practice and expose hisher target language into social-life, not only inside classroom.
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In this case the writer concludes, the considerations in the teaching of pronunciation are biological factor that is relating to the students‟ way in
pronouncing word, while Socio- cultural factor affects the students‟ effort in
developing their target lang uage, and personality factor in line the students‟
desire in expand practice their target language in the daily life.
B. Minimal Pair Drills
Many ways could be done by the language learner in improving their English pronunciation. One of the ways or techniques recommended by some
linguists is minimal pair drills. Michael Ashby and John Maidment 2008 argued, “In order to prove conclusively that a phonetic distinction is contrastive in a
particular language it is necessary to find a pair of words in the language that differ in only one segment.”
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It means minimal pair is one of the appropriate techniques to prove that the single phonetic sound in a pair of words is contrasted.
In addition, acc ording to Avery and Erlich 2009, “minimal pair refers to pairs of
words which have different meanings and which differ in pronunciation on the basis of one sound only.”
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. In this case, minimal pair is viewed as a technique to distinguish English sound in the words that have quite similar sound but indeed
have been different meaning. Furthermore, Bloomfield 1933 in Marianne Celce-Muria, et. Al 2009
defined, “minimal pair drill-drills that use words that differ by a single sound in the same position. This technique based on the concept of the phoneme as a
minimally distinctive sound, is used for both listening practice and guided oral
45
Peter Avery and Susan Ehrlich, Teaching American..., Second Edition, p.xv-xvi.
46
Michael Ashby and John Maidment, Introducing Phonetic …, p.136
47
Peter Avery and Susan Ehrlich, Teaching American..., Second Edition, p.207.
24
Production.”
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Bloomfield added that minimal pair is appropriately used for listening practice and oral production.
Basically, those arguments have the same aim which is minimal pair is a technique that is used in teaching pronunciation to distinct the quite similar sound
that have the same position in a word or sentence. Students sometimes don‟t
understand the difference of its sound and the effect of its differences. Eventhough this seems small problem, but it can affect the understanding, efficiency, and
fluency in communication. So, this practice is regarded useful for both the speaker and the hearer.
There are two kinds of sample in teaching materials of minimal pair, it demonstrates in word drills and sentence drills.
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Table 2.3 Sample Minimal Pair Teaching Materials
No. WORDS DRILLS
SENTENCE DRILLS A iy
B i Syntagmantic Drills
Paradigmatic Drills
1. 2.
3. 4.
5. Sheep
Green Least
Meet Deed
Ship Grin
List Mitt
Did
1. Don‟t sit in the seat.
2. Did you at least get the list?
1. a.Don‟t slip on the floor. b.Don‟t sleep on the
floor.
2. a. Is that a black sheep? b. Is that a black ship?
From the table, it can be seen that the sound differences in the words seem obvious, but it may seem strange and difficult to a foreign learner who does not
speak the target language. Minimal pair can be demonstrated in two drills: word drills and sentence
drills. In the word drills, teacher drills the students by contrasting two different words but the pronunciation seems similar, but actually sound of the words is
different in one sound. Whilst, in the sentence drills, there are two kinds of the
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Marianne Celce-Murcia, et. al. Teaching Pronunciation …, p.3
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Marianne Celce-Murcia, et. al. Teaching Pronunciation …, p.3
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materials that can be presented in teaching learning activity, they are syntagmatic drills and paradigmatic drills. Syntagmatic drills contrast two words within a
sentence, while paradigmatic drills contrast two words across two sentences.
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Minimal-pair drills helps the students to recognize the English sounds and contrast both the English sounds in their native language and their target language,
thus the sounds are able to be produced flexibility and smoothly. The advantage of minimal pair for students is the students perceive English pronunciation
accurately and fluently. In sum up, minimal pair drill is one of the ways in teaching pronunciation
by drilling the words that have the quite similar sound in pair. This drill is to train the students‟ tongue being smoothly and introduce them to recognize the
difference sound between the studen ts‟ native language and their target language.
Hopefully, they are familiar with English sound and practice its sound correctly.
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Marianne Celce-Murcia, et. al. Teaching Pronunciation, … p.4
