CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
This chapter consists of two major sections. There are data presentation and discussion. The first section presents the data gathered from the study and the
second section deals with answering the two problems including the discussion.
A. Data Presentation
As already stated above, this study aimed to obtain the data about mastery of stress placement of nouns toward second semester students of English
Language Education Study Program. This research was conducted in Interactional Speech II Class with 22 participants. Each participant might have the same or
different topic with others. Although they had the same topic, they definitely used different vocabulary to express their ideas, or at least they share same vocabulary
but not a hundred percent. The topics given dealt with the things they experienced everyday such as describing people’s character, giving direction, describing traffic
situation in Yogyakarta, and describing things. Each student might speak for two minutes to eight minutes.
While the students did the test, the researcher tape recorded their speeches. The recorded speech would be used as the data to indicate how well the students
of second semester master stress placement of nouns. The recorded speech was then transferred into soft file in order to make the analysis easier. After that, the
42 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
writer transcribed students’ speech so she could obtain nouns spoken by the students.
The researcher then examined the transcript and classified the nouns into tables. Afterward, those nouns were cross-checked once again with the transcript
and the recorded speech. In order to obtain the stress placement of nouns spoken by the students, the writer played the speeches back several times and wrote down
their stress placement of nouns. In this stage, the researcher used Sony Sound Forge 8.0.53™
as the software to help her in identifying the word stress. By using this software, she could clearly observe the pitch and the length of each syllable
spoken by the participants. The students’ stress placement of nouns was then compared with Collins Cobuild English Dictionary for Advanced Learners and
The New Oxford American Dictionary 2
nd
edition as the references of the
appropriate English stress placement. The results from comparing students’ stress placement of nouns with stress placement of nouns from the dictionary were used
to answer the first and second problem. The researcher divided the nouns into five classifications. In order to make
the analysis easier, the writer set them into tables. The complete form would be presented in the Appendix 4; nevertheless the writer presented the summary in the
Table 4.1. The table would consist of nouns according to its type, the total number of the words, the frequency of how many times the nouns occurred, the frequency
of right occurrences and the frequency of inappropriate word stress occurrences. The classification would be like this:
Table 4.1: Summary of the Data
Freq. of Inappropriate Occurrences
Type of Nouns
Number of the
Words Freq. of
Occurrences Freq. of
Right Occurrences
Misplacing the Stress
Double- stressing
the Word
Putting Equal
Stress Disyllabic 82 194
40 73 NA
81 Trisyllabic 20 40
7 27 5 1
Tetrasyllabic 6 10
4 6
0 0 Affix 16
55 12
40 3
Compound 22 88 15
51 0 22
TOTAL 182 387
78 197 5 107
Disyllabic nouns occurred 194 times and consisted of 82 different words. However, among the 194 times of occurrences only 40 times were spoken with
appropriate stress pattern. The other 154 times were spoken with inappropriate stress pattern. It consisted of 73 times misplacing the stress and 81 times putting
equal stress. The example was the word powder in Figure 4.1.1.
Figure 4.1.1: Example of the Students’ Production in ‘powder’
The speaker uttered the word with appropriate
stress pattern The speaker misplaced
the stress by putting it on the second syllable
The speaker put equal stress on the syllables
Figure 4.1.1 consisted of three figures which were divided into three columns. All three figures sounded the word powder although they were spoken
with three different stress placements. The figure in the first column showed that the speaker uttered the word powder in an appropriate stress pattern which was on
the first syllable. This conclusion was derived from comparing the pitch and the length of the first part to the second part. The pitch and the length of the first part
were more prominent than the second one therefore it could be concluded that the word was spoken with the stress on its first syllable. In the second figure, it could
be seen that the pitch of the first and the second were quite the same however the length of the second syllable was significantly prominent than the first one.
Because of that, the writer concluded that the speaker stressed the second syllable more than the first syllable. The third figure showed that there were no significant
difference between the first and second syllable, both in the pitch and the length. Considering that, the writer drew conclusion that the speaker put equal stress on
the first and second syllable. From the table, the second classification was trisyllabic nouns which
consisted of nouns that had three syllables. In this classification, the writer found 20 different words which had 40 times as the total of occurrences. There were
only seven times of trisyllabic nouns which were spoken with appropriate stress pattern. The other 33 times occurred with inappropriate stress pattern: 27 times for
misplacing the stress, five times for double-stressing the word, and once for putting equal stress. The examples of students’ production in trisyllabic nouns
could be seen in Figure 4.1.2 and 4.1.3. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Figure 4.1.2: Example of the Students’ Production in ‘family’
The speaker uttered the word with appropriate
stress pattern that was on the first syllable
The speaker misplaced the stress by putting it on
the second syllable The speaker double-
stressed the word
Figure 4.1.2 consisted of three different figures which actually sounded family.
In the first figure, it could be seen that the pitch of the first and second syllable was almost the same. However, the length of the first syllable was longer
and more prominent than the second and third syllable so it could be concluded that the word family in the first column was spoken with appropriate stress pattern
which was on the first syllable. The second figure indicated a different phenomenon. The pitches of the first and second syllable were almost the same,
even the pitch of the first syllable a bit higher that the second. Nevertheless, it could not be concluded that the stress of that word fell on the first syllable since
the length of the second syllable in fact a lot longer than the first one. At first the researcher found difficulties in deciding whether the stress of that word fell on the
first or second syllable but then she listened the recording one more time and decided that the stress of that word fell on the second syllable. The third figure
showed rather unclear graphic, nevertheless the phenomenon of that word could PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
still be analyzed. The highest pitch of that word was shared between the second and third syllable. Since there was no significant difference of the length of the
second and third syllable, the writer then concluded that the stress on that word fell on the second and third syllable. In other words, the speaker was double-
stressing the word that was supposed to have a single stress.
Figure 4.1.3: Example of the Student’s Production in ‘accident’
The speaker put equal stress on all three syllables
The graphic in Figure 4.1.3 sounded accident. It illustrated that the speaker put equal stress on all three syllables. The conclusion was derived from analyzing
the pitches and the lengths of the syllables. There was no significant difference between the first, second, and the third syllable in the high of the pitches and the
length of those syllables. In this case, the speaker put equal stress on low level since the peak of the pitches did not reach the top of the bar.
The third classification in the table was tetrasyllabic nouns which consisted of nouns that had four syllables. Tetrasyllabic nouns occurred ten times
and consisted of six different words. From ten times of occurrences, four of them were spoken with the appropriate stress pattern. The others were spoken with
stress on inappropriate syllables. The examples of the students’ production could be seen in Figure 4.1.4.
Figure 4.1.4: Example of the Students’ Production in ‘intersection’
The speaker uttered the word with appropriate stress pattern that was on
the third syllable The speaker misplaced the stress by
putting it on the second syllable
The graphics in Figure 4.1.4 sounded intersection which were spoken with different stress placements. In the first graphic it could be seen that the pitch of
the third syllable was slightly higher than the second, however the length of the third syllable was longer. Considering this, the researcher decided that the speaker
put the stress on the third syllable in that word. The second graphic showed a different phenomenon. The pitches of the second, third, and fourth were almost
the same, however the length of the second syllable was longer and denser that the PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
others. Because of that, the conclusion was the speaker misplaced the stress by putting it on the second syllable.
The fourth classification was affix nouns. Affix nouns consisted of nouns that had prefix and or suffix in it. Affix nouns occurred 55 times and consisted of
16 different words. Affix nouns were spoken with appropriate stress pattern for twelve times and spoken with inappropriate stress pattern for 43 times; 40 times
were misplacing the stress and three times were putting equal stress. The examples were in the Figure 4.1.5 and 4.1.6.
Figure 4.1.5: Example of the Students’ Production in ‘appearance’
The speaker uttered the word with appropriate stress pattern that was on
the second syllable The speaker misplaced the stress by
putting it on the last syllable
Figure 4.1.5 consisted of two images. Both of them sounded appearance which were spoken with different stress placements. The first image showed that
the speaker uttered appearance with an appropriate stress placement which was on the second syllable. It was derived from analyzing the pitch that was higher
than the pitches of the other syllables. Also, the length of the second syllable was PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
quite longer than the others’. The second image indicated that the speaker misplaced the stress that was supposed to fall on the second syllable. The pitches
of the syllables were quite the same; however the length of the last syllable was significantly longer than the others. Considering that, the writer concluded that the
speaker put the stress on the third syllable rather than the other syllables.
Figure 4.1.6: Example of the Student’s Production in ‘government’
The speaker put equal stress on all three syllables
The graphic in Figure 4.1.6 sounded government. The speaker put equal stress on all three syllables. It could be seen from the pitches and the lengths of
the syllables that had no significant difference. The last classification was compound nouns. Twenty two words of
compound nouns occurred here and had 88 times as the total of occurrences. There were only fifteen times of compound nouns which were spoken with
appropriate stress pattern. The other 73 times occurred with inappropriate stress pattern: 51 times were misplacing the stress and 22 times were putting equal
stress. The examples were in Figure 4.1.7. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Figure 4.1.7: Example of the Students’ Production in ‘bedroom’
The speaker uttered the word with appropriate
stress pattern that was on the first syllable
The speaker misplaced the stress by putting it on
the second syllable The speaker put equal
stress on all syllables
There were three images in Figure 4.1.7 which sounded bedroom. The first image showed that the speaker uttered the word bedroom in an appropriate stress
placement. The stress was placed on the first syllable. This conclusion was derived from analyzing the pitch of the first syllable which was higher than the
second one. Also, the length of the first syllable was longer than the second. The next image indicated that the speaker put the stress placement on the second
syllable. It could be seen from the pitch of the second syllable which was higher than the first syllable. Moreover, the length of the second syllable was longer than
the first one. The last image illustrated that the speaker put equal stress on all syllables. It was shown from the pitches and the length of both syllables which
had no significant difference. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
B. Discussion
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