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Since this study investigates word stress errors, all the words with incorrect word stress in this study do not have the frequency of right occurrences.
In other words, the analysis of the data is focused on the errors only.
B. Discussion
This section covers the discussion of the result findings, answering the research questions which are stated on this study. The first part of the discussion
discusses the types of word stress errors which are produced by the students on their oral production. Meanwhile, the second part is aimed to find out some ways
to overcome the word stress errors, which are helpful for the learners. The answers were obtained by analyzing the data of the research.
1. The Types of Word Stress Errors Produced by the Students
In order to answer the first research question, the researcher attempted to find out the types of word stress errors produced by the students. It was done by
noticing the stress position on the words which were wrongly stressed by the students. From the data collection, it was found that there were two types of word
stress errors, namely misplaced word stress and unnecessary word stress. Based on the research findings done by Chi 2000 and Kenyar 2009
presented in Chapter 2, the type of word stress error which also occurs in this study is misplaced word stress, which means that the primary stress falls on the
wrong syllable. Another finding stating that “all the syllables are stressed” does not always occur in this study because the speakers tend to produce unnecessary
stresses on their oral production. It means that the word sounds like it has more
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than one primary stress including the correct stressed syllable so that the stress is unecessary. Therefore, in the second type of error, either all of the syllables of the
word are stressed or more than one syllable of the word is stressed. The details will be discussed as follows:
a. Misplaced Word Stress This type of error shows that the students placed the stress on the
wrong syllable. The researcher finds that the words produced are mostly nouns, followed by adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and finally compounds.
1 Nouns For the disyllabic words such as consent, machine, police,
the speakers misplaced the stress by putting the stress on the first syllable, i.e.
ˈ
consent,
ˈ
machine,
ˈ
police, which should be on the last syllable, namely, con
ˈ
sent, ma
ˈ
chine, po
ˈ
lice. For the disyllabic words contract, escort, markets, secret,
uproar, and worries, the speakers misplaced the stress by putting the stress on the last syllables, i.e. con
ˈ
tract, es
ˈ
cort, mar
ˈ
kets, se
ˈ
cret, up
ˈ
roar, wor
ˈ
ries. Those words should be stressed on the first syllables, i.e.
ˈ
contract,
ˈ
escort,
ˈ
markets,
ˈ
secret,
ˈ
uproar,
ˈ
worries. For the polysyllabic words committee, desire, idea,
intention, policeman, position, possessions, reduction, tobacco, the speakers wrongly put the stress on the first syllable, i.e.
ˈ
committee,
ˈ
desire,
ˈ
idea,
ˈ
intention,
ˈ
policeman,
ˈ
position,
ˈ
possessions,
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ˈ
reduction, while all of those words must receive penultimate stress, i.e. com
ˈ
mittee, de
ˈ
sire, i
ˈ
dea, in
ˈ
tention, po
ˈ
liceman, po
ˈ
sition, pos
ˈ
sessions, re
ˈ
duction. The speakers misplaced the stress of the words
exclamations, resolution, and understanding on the second syllable, i.e. ex
ˈ
clamations, re
ˈ
solution, un
ˈ
derstanding; and the word conundrum on the last syllable, i.e. conun
ˈ
drum, while the words also must receive penultimate stress, i.e. excla
ˈ
mations, reso
ˈ
lution, under
ˈ
standing, co
ˈ
nundrum. The polysyllabic words century and usury are wrongly
stressed on the second syllables, i.e. cen
ˈ
tury, u
ˈ
sury; the word multitude on the last syllable, i.e. multi
ˈ
tude; while all the words should be stressed on the first syllable, namely,
ˈ
century,
ˈ
usury,
ˈ
multitude. The speakers also misplaced the stress of the words
opportunity and sensuality on the first syllable, e.g.
ˈ
opportunity,
ˈ
sensuality, while they have antepenultimate stress, namely, oppor
ˈ
tunity, sensu
ˈ
ality. 2 Adjectives
For the disyllabic word discreet, the speakers misplaced the stress by putting it on the first syllable, i.e.
ˈ
discreet, while the word has last-stress syllable, i.e. dis
ˈ
creet.
