A study on articulation problems of the seventh grade of hearing-speech defective students of SLB Negeri 3 Yogyakarta.

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xiii ABSTRACT

Respati, Uri. 2011. A Study on Articulation Problems of the Seventh Grade of Hearing-Speech Defective Students of SLBN 3 Yogyakarta. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University.

Learning pronunciation of a foreign language brings different problems from learning pronunciation of the first language. The difficulties are due to interference of the first language to the target language. Students tend to hear all speech sounds in the target language in terms of their own language system. Due to their low hearing ability, hearing-speech defective students are not fully exposed to speech sounds both of the mother tongue and a foreign language. As a result, the students are confronted with the problems of recognizing and discriminating the sounds as well as the problems of producing the sounds.

This research aimed to investigate the articulation problems faced by the seventh grade hearing-speech defective students of SLBN 3 Yogyakarta.. There were three research questions: (1) What are the English articulation problems faced by the seventh grade of hearing-speech defective students of SLBN 3 Yogyakarta? (2) What are the possible causes of the English articulation problems faced by the seventh grade hearing-speech defective students of SLBN 3 Yogyakarta? (3) What are the possible solutions to overcome those articulation problems?

To answer the first problem, the researcher used the theory of misarticulation by Johnson(1967) and Cerney (2007). The students’ pronunciation was recorded using an audio-visual recorder and transcribed into the phonetic transcription. After recording, the researcher compared the phonetic transcription of the students’ pronunciation with the phonetic transcription based on the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2003). The researcher observed misarticulation phenomena. As for the second problem, Johnson’s (1967) and Casey’s (1981) theories were employed to find the causes of the misarticulation. Finally, the possible solutions to overcome the articulation problems were given by referring to the theories of Rusyani, Sahulata (1988) and Edja & Dardjo (1995).

The method employed in this research was a case study. The research participants were three students of the seventh grade students of SLBN 3 Yogyakarta. The researcher used observation and interview as the instruments in this research.

The collected data showed that each of the students experienced different articulation problems. The common problem faced by the seventh grade hearing-speech defective students of SLBN 3 Yogyakarta was misarticulation in pronouncing English phonemes. The researcher found four types of misarticulation, namely omission, sound addition, substitution and distortion. The difficulties could be seen

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when the students pronounced and differentiated voiced and voiceless sounds and pronounced several vowels and diphthongs.

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ABSTRAK

Respati, Uri. 2011. A Study on Articulation Problems of the Seventh Grade of Hearing-Speech Defective Students of SLBN 3 Yogyakarta. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Pembelajaran pengucapan bahasa asing membawa masalah yang berbeda dari pembelajaran pengucapan bahasa ibu. Kesulitan tersebut disebabkan oleh adanya pengaruh dari bahasa ibu ke bahasa asing yang akan dipelajari. Siswa cenderung untuk mendengar semua bahasa cakap pada bahasa asing tersebut dalam tatanan sistem bahasa ibu mereka. Sehubungan dengan rendahnya daya dengar siswa, siswa tunarungu tidak sepenuhnya terpapar pada bahasa cakap dari bahasa ibu maupun bahasa asing. Sebagai akibatnya, siswa dihadapkan pada masalah pengenalan dan pembedaan suara, demikian juga dengan produksi suara.

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengidentifikasi permasalahan artikulasi yang dihadapi anak-anak tunarungu kelas tujuh SLBN 3 Yogyakarta. Ada tiga pertanyaan dalam penelitian ini: (1) Permasalahan artikulasi apakah yang dihadapi anak-anak tunarungu kelas tujuh SLBN 3 Yogyakarta? (2) Apakah kemungkinan penyebab permasalahan artikulasi yang dihadapi anak-anak tunarungu kelas tujuh SLBN 3 Yogyakarta? (3) Solusi apakah yang dapat dilakukan untuk mengatasi permasalahan artikulasi tersebut?

Untuk menjawab permasalahn pertama, peneliti menggunakan teori kesalahan artikulasi oleh Johnson (1967) dan Cerney (2007). Pengucapan anak direkam dengan menggunakan audio-video recorder dan selanjutnya ditulis dengan menggunakan transkrip fonetik. Setelah merekam, peneliti membandingkan transkrip fonetik dari hasil pengucapan para siswa dengan menggunakan transkrip fonetik berdasarkan kamus Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2003). Untuk permasalahan kedua, teori Johnson (1967) dan Casey (1981) diterapkan untuk menemukan kemungkinan penyebab kesalahan-kesalahan artikulasi. Yang terakhir, solusi yang memungkinkan untuk mengatasi kesalahan artikulasi mengacu pada teori dari Rusyani, Sahulata (1988), and Edja&Dardjo (1995).

Metode yang digunakan pada penelitian in adalah studi kasus. Para partisipan dalam penelitian ini adalah tiga siswa tuna rungu kelas tujuh SLBN 3 Yogyakarta. Peneliti menggunakan observasi dan wawancara sebagai instrumen dalam penelitian ini.

Data yang terkumpul menunjukkan bahwa masing-masing anak mengalami permasalahan artikulasi yang berbeda. Permasalahan umum yang dihadapi para siswa tunarungu SLBN 3 Yogyakarta adalah kesalahan artikulasi dalam mengucapkan fonem dalam bahasa Inggris. Peneliti menemukan empat tipe fenomena kesalahan

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artikulasi yang terjadi pada para siswa. Kesalahan-kesalan tersebut adalah pengurangan bunyi, penambahan bunyi, substitusi, dan distorsi. Contoh kesulitan dapat dilihat ketika para siswa mengucapkan dan membedakan bunyi dengan vibrasi (voiced) dan bunyi tanpa vibrasi (voiceless), mengucapkan beberapa bunyi hidup (vowel) dan diftong.

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A STUDY ON ARTICULATION PROBLEMS OF THE SEVENTH GRADE OF HEARING-SPEECH DEFECTIVE STUDENTS OF SLB NEGERI 3

YOGYAKARTA

A THESIS

Presented as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

By:

By Uri Respati

Student Number: 031214139

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA

2011

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A STUDY ON ARTICULATION PROBLEMS OF THE SEVENTH GRADE OF HEARING-SPEECH DEFECTIVE STUDENTS OF SLB NEGERI 3

YOGYAKARTA

A THESIS

Presented as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

By:

By Uri Respati

Student Number: 031214139

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA

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Listen to the child well, to what he is saying, almost saying, and not saying at all. He has something he wants to tell you, something that has meaning for him,that is important to him.

Respect him as a speaker. Listen to him enough to hear him out. It is wonderful for him as a growing person to feel that he is being heard, that others care about what he is saying. Assume he is doing the best he can and that it is more important for him to want to talk to you than to sound correct.

-Wendell Johnson-

Suara Hati

Dengan keterbatasan diri yang ada, tidak akan menjadi penghalang untuk kita

tetap mampu mendulang keberhasilan. Itulah salah satu motivasi terbesar di saat

aku mulai menapakkan mimpi dan angan dalam kehidupan baru. Sebuah kehidupan

yang telah lama terbayang dalam setiap waktu. Di saat aku mencoba untuk

menemukan jati diri, di sinilah tempat yang telah lama kunanti dan kuimpikan.

Dan disinilah tempat dimana aku harus memulai meronce butiran harap dan mimpi

itu. Karena kuyakin bahwa disinilah tempat dimana ku mampu mengenakan

liontin keberhasilan.

-a poem by Bima, 17 year- old student with special needs-

This thesis is dedicated to: ¾ My beloved parents

Sukanti Rahardjo. B. & Hesti Susiati ¾ My dearest sister & brother

Mayang Rineksi & Kalis Darubeksi

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STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY

I honesty declare this the thesis, which I have written, does not contain the work or parts of the work of other people, except those cited in the quotations and the references, as a scientific paper should.

Yogyakarta, 29 July 2011 The writer,

Uri Respati 031214139

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LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:

Nama : Uri Respati

Nomor Mahasiswa : 031214139

Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:

A STUDY ON ARTICULATION PROBLEMS OF THE SEVENTH GRADE OF HEARING-SPEECH DEFECTIVE STUDENTS OF SLB NEGERI 3 YOGYAKARTA

Beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di Internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan royalty kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.

Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta

Pada tanggal: 29 Juli 2011 Yang menyatakan

Uri Respati

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This page is dedicated to the people in my life for their never-ending support, love, and pray during the time I finished my thesis.

I would like to address my first and greatest gratitude to Allah S.W.T who has guided me all the time and has given me strength to finish this work.

I address my deepest gratefulness to Veronica Triprihatmini, S.Pd., M.Hum., M.A., as my major sponsor for her assistance in guiding me through many confusing processes of this work. I would like to express my sincere appreciation for her patience to be the listener and advisor on my complaints and problems. I deeply thank her for the willingness to spare time in giving me precious criticism, advices, and many corrections on my work even during her busy days.

I would also like to extend my deepest thankfulness to all of PBI’s lectures for all shared knowledge and intellectual experiences and secretary staff for their support during my study.

I address my indisputable thanks to my father Sukanti Rahardjo Bintoro S.Pd., my mother Hesti Susiati, my sister Mayang Rineksi, my brother Kalis Darubeksi. I will never stop thanking God for my very best family.

My best gratitude goes to all teachers in SLBN 3 Yogyakarta, especially Mr. Setyo, Mrs. Puji, Mrs. Ratna, Mrs. Rahmi, Mrs. Merry for their support and opportunity to conduct the research in their school.

I also would like to offer my thankfulness to all friends in PBI, and many other names that cannot be mentioned one by one for giving a sincere love, patience, and support to finish my thesis.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE……….…….i

APPROVAL PAGES………...ii

DEDICATION PAGE……….…….iv

STATEMENT OF WORK'S ORIGINALITY……….…..v

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PUBLIKASI………..vi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS………...viii

LIST OF TABLES………...xi

LIST OF APPENDICES………..…...xii

ABSTRACT……….…...xiii

ABSTRAK………...xv

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ... 1

A. Research Background... 1

B. Problem Formulation ... 3

C. Problem Limitation ... 3

D. Research Objectives ... 4

E. Research Benefits ... 5

F. Definition of Terms ... 5

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW ... 8

A. Theoretical Description ... 8

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1. Pronunciation Acquisition ... 8

2. Mother Tongue Interference in the Foreign Language……….9

3. Description and Classification of English Speech Sounds ... ……,,.11

4. A Brief Overview of Hearing-Speech Defect ... 15

a. The Nature of Sound ... 15

b. Causes of Hearing Defect………17

c. The Level of Hearing-Speech Defective ... 18

d. The Effects of Hearing-Speech Defect on Understanding Language and Speech ... 20

e. Examples of Possible Hearing-Speech Difficulties ... 22

f. Speech Reading as Method for communication...………...23

5. Misarticulation ... 24

a. Causes of Misarticulation ... 24

b. Types of Misarticulation ... 28

B. Theoretical Framework ... 29

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ... 31

A. Research Method ... 31

B. Research Participants ... 32

C. Research Instruments ... 35

D. Data Gathering Technique ... 37

E. Data Analysis Technique ... 38

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CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION………..40

1. English Articulation Problems Faced by the Seventh Grade Hearing-Speech Defective Students of SLBN 3 Yogyakarta.………...….42

2. The possible causes of the English articulation problems faced by seventh grade hearing-speech defective students of SLBN 3 Yogyakarta ………...55

3. Possible Solutions to Overcome Articulation Problems………...59

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTION………70

A. Conclusions……..………...70

B. Suggestions………..………...72

REFERENCES……….73

APPENDICES………..76

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LIST OF TABLES

Page

Table 2.1. English consonantal articulation………....12

Table 2.2 English vowel sounds………..………..14

Table 2.3. English diphthong sounds….………...15

Table 3.1. Record students’ pronunciation...39

Table 3.2. Comparison of students’ pronunciation and expected pronunciation..39

Table 4.1. Misarticulation that were categorized as substitution………..43

Table 4.2. Misarticulation that were categorized as distortion……….46

Table 4.3. Misarticulation that were categorized as omission……….48

Table 4.4. Misarticulation that were categorized as sound addition…………....49

Table 4.5. Misarticulation that were categorized as substitution……….50

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LIST OF APPENDICES

Documented Students’ Pronunciation………76 Students’ Profile……….79 Letter of Permission ………..………...85

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xiii ABSTRACT

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when the students pronounced and differentiated voiced and voiceless sounds and pronounced several vowels and diphthongs.

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ABSTRAK

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1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This chapter deals with the introduction of the research and basic-terminologies. There are six major concerns addressed in this chapter. It covers research background, problem formulation, problem limitation, research objectives, research benefits and the definitions of terms used in the research.

A. Research Background

The world organization in the field of education under the United Nations, namely the UNESCO (United Nation Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization), carries out programs to support international education. One of the principles is Education for All. As a member country of the United Nations, Indonesia is also obliged to develop its national education.

As mentioned in its constitution, Indonesia has several visions in education, one of which is to educate the National Living. Article 31 verse 1 of the 1945 Constitution states that every citizen has the right to education. It means that there are no limitations for anyone to obtain an education. The same right is also given to children with disabilities, such as the hearing-speech defective students. Law number 4 Year 1997, verse 5 mentions that every person with disability/ies has the same rights and opportunities in life as other citizens.”

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One of the national visions in the field of education is that the Indonesian students are able to compete in the globalization era by developing their competency in the English language as an international language. Syafei (1988:1) says that the general aim of teaching the English language to students is to enable them to master all skills of the language, which include listening, speaking, reading, and writing. In terms of pronunciation as part of the speaking skill, learning the English language as a foreign language is quite difficult for most students in Indonesia. Learning pronunciation of a foreign language brings different problems from learning pronunciation of the first language. The difficulties are due to interference of the first language to the target language. Students tend to hear all speech sounds in the target language in terms of their own language system.

Due to their low hearing ability, hearing-speech defective students are not fully exposed to speech sounds both of the mother tongue and a foreign language. As a result, the students are confronted with the problems of recognizing and discriminating the sounds as well as the problems of producing the sounds. As stated by Bowd (1990: 91), children with hearing impairments or defects face difficulties in both production and comprehension of the spoken language.

The research focuses on the problems that hearing-speech defective students, who are weak in receiving information through their auditory sense, encounter when they learn the English pronunciation. This phenomenon also happens among the students of Sekolah Luar Biasa Negeri (SLBN) 3 Yogyakarta, specifically the seventh

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grade students. The students’ pronunciation is considered necessary to be identified, because their ability to produce English sounds influences students’ pronunciation.

B. Problem Formulation

Considering the fact that there are many elements of pronunciation in the English language, the discussion is limited on the articulation in which it covers whether the students pronounce English words correctly or not. The problems are formulated as follows:

1. What are the English articulation problems faced by seventh grade hearing-speech defective students of SLBN 3 Yogyakarta?

2. What are the possible causes of the English articulation problems faced by the seventh grade hearing-speech defective students of SLBN 3 Yogyakarta?

3. What are the possible solutions to overcome those articulation problems?

C. Problem Limitation

Hearing-speech defective students in SLBN 3 Yogyakarta are students with special needs because they have difficulties in receiving information which is given in the form of sounds. In learning pronunciation they also have difficulties in pronouncing English words.

This research is limited on identifying misarticulation in the pronunciation made by the seventh grade students of SLBN 3 Yogyakarta. After the identification of English articulation problems, this research focuses on the possible causes of

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misarticulation as well as the possible solutions to overcome the problems. Since there are many pronunciation elements in English language, the discussion is limited only on the articulation. It will not include the process of the pronunciation, which consists of phonation, nasal resonance, and prosody. According to Sattler (1992: 546) pronunciation as part of the speech system is divided into four major areas on the basis of a processing classification system: phonation, which contains duration, loudness, pitch and quality of the sound; nasal resonance, which contains vibration; articulation which is related to the production of consonant and vowel sounds in various sequences to form words; and prosody, which contains melody, rhythm and the rate of the speech flow.

This research is focused only on one group of students, namely the seventh grade hearing-speech defective students of SLBN 3 Yogyakarta. This research takes the seventh grade hearing-speech defective students of SLBN 3 Yogyakarta based on the consideration about the students’ background that they have never received specific lessons that assist their pronunciation.

D. Research Objectives

The objectives of this research are first, to find out English articulation problems faced by the seventh grade hearing-speech defective students of SLBN 3 Yogyakarta; second, to find out the possible causes of the problems; and third, to find out possible solutions to overcome pronunciation problems stated before. Based on the conclusions of the literary study and the research findings, several suggestions

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will be presented at the end of this thesis.

E. Research Benefits

It is expected that this research will be able to provide contribution to English teachers in SLBN 3 Yogyakarta in overcoming their students’ problems in pronouncing English words. For the seventh grade students of SLBN 3 Yogyakarta as the research participants, this research will hopefully assist in the improvement of their pronunciation. The researcher wishes she could give them valuable information how to minimize the difficulties in pronouncing English words. For other researchers especially students of English language education programs who are interested to conduct research on hearing-speech defective students, hopefully the results of this research could inspire them and encourage them to conduct deeper studies on hearing-speech defective students. Finally, this research is expected to change public opinions and beliefs that hearing-speech defective students are unable to learn to pronounce English words to an understandable level.

F. Definitions of Terms

This section presents the definitions of terms, which aim to avoid confusion. They are language, sound, hearing-speech defect, and SLB/B N 3 Yogyakarta.

1. Language

Sattler (1992:546) says that language is a system of symbol which is evaluated in terms of its receptive and expressive components. Sardjono (2005:4)

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mentions that language is a group phenomena that is generated and maintained in community living; a code or a tool or an instrument of communication. According to Pei (1966:141), language is a system of communication by sounds, operating through the organs of speech and hearing among members of a given community, and using vocal symbols possessing arbitrary conventional meanings. In this research, language is defined as a means of which persons with hearing-speech defect interact. They do not rely on using oral language as their primary language, but also using sign language and total communication (which is combination of both sign language and verbal communication).

2. Articulation

Articulation is the production of speech sounds in the mouth and throat (Richards, Platt, Weber; 1985: 17). In this research, Articulation refers to the production of speech sounds made by the hearing-speech defective students of SLBN 3 Yogyakarta when they are asked to pronounce English words.

3. Sound

According to Crystal (1987: 152), sound refers to the production (or articulation) in the vocal tract, acoustic transmission, or auditory reception. In this study, sound refers to what hearing-speech the defective students produce when they are pronouncing English words.

4. Hearing-Speech Defect

Hearing defect is a condition where an individual is not able to hear and it is seen through his speech or other sounds (Mangunsong, 1998: 68). Speech defect, on

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the other hand, is impairment in the production and the use of oral language. It includes disabilities in making speech sounds, producing speech with a normal flow, and producing voice (Hallahan, Kauffman, & Pullen, 2009: 304). In this research, hearing-speech defect is the condition where an individual has impairments in both hearing as well as speech, which leads to problems in his language development. 5. SLB/B N 3 Yogyakarta

SLB/B which is the abbreviation of Sekolah Luar Biasa bagian B (a special school for children with disabilities, part B). It is a special school for students who lose their hearing ability. As a comparison for a clearer description, SLB/A is the special school for children with visual impairments, SLB/C is for children with mental retardation, SLB/D is for children with physical disabilities and SLB/E is for children with difficulties in social adjustment. At SLB/B N 3 Yogyakarta there are 81 students who have different level of hearing. They begin to attend the school at the age of four or five years. The levels of education they attend are the kindergarten, elementary school, junior high school, and senior high school.

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8 CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, the researcher examines some theories that support this research. There will be two major sections of this chapter: the theoretical description and theoretical framework. The theoretical description provides a detailed discussion related to the research. The theoretical framework discusses a framework based on the theoretical description.

A. Theoretical Description

The theoretical description involves the discussion about pronunciation acquisition, mother tongue interference in the foreign language, description and classification of English speech sounds, a brief overview of hearing-speech defect, and misarticulation.

1. Pronunciation Acquisition

In language learning, the role of pronunciation is significant. Communication cannot be made if there is no intelligibility between the speaker and the listener. To be intelligible, someone has to be able to pronounce well. (Kenworthy, 1997: 13) mentions that intelligibility means the state of being understood by the listener at a given time in a given situation. The speaker needs to be intelligible so that he can communicate.

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Kenworthy points out that if teachers set intelligibility as the goal rather than native-like pronunciation, it means learners are aiming for pronunciation which is “close enough”. Hence, intelligibility is equal to understandability. The more words a listener is able to identify, the more intelligible the speaker is.

Communication involves more than simply sending a set of well-produced sounds into the air at the listener. Teachers should include pronunciation practice in their class in order to develop student’s competence. Teaching pronunciation is very important because if a non native speaker has a very bad pronunciation, he or she will not able to communicate orally no matter how good his or her control of the grammar and vocabulary of the target language might be.

2. Mother Tongue Interference in the Foreign Language

Brown (1987:38) states “we have all observed children acquiring their first language easy and well, yet the learning of a foreign language often meets with great difficulty and sometimes failure”. From this statement it can be seen that it is more difficult to learn a new language than to acquire the first language. It happens because when someone learns a new language, his or her first language will interfere with new language and this will hinder the success of the new language learning process.

However, it can also be seen that not all errors in the foreign language come from the interference of the first language. It is true that the first language can affect the process of foreign language acquisition. It can happen that the learner does not transfer all the elements of the first language into the foreign

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language. He may only avoid using the rules that are absent in his first language when he speaks the foreign language.

How the mother tongue influences the target language can be seen in Lado’s theory: (1957: 11):

a. Location and description of segmental problems. Does the native language have a phonetically similar phoneme? Experience shows that when the foreign language uses a phoneme which does not exist in the learner’s native language, he will substitute it with some other phoneme from his native stock and the consequences are that the learner will have the problem in hearing as well as producing the new phoneme.

b. Difficulty in pronouncing a phoneme versus difficulty in pronouncing a sequence. A sequence having one of the phonemes of the foreign language that cannot be found in the native language could be listed as a problem sequence.

c. Difficulty in pronouncing a word versus difficulty in pronouncing a phoneme or a phoneme sequence. Sometimes a student mispronounces a word although he has mastered the phonemes and sequences involved. This happens because he does not know how to pronounce that word.

d. Problems of spelling pronunciation. Student may mispronounce words

because of the influences from the writing system. When both the foreign language and the native language use the same alphabets, the problem could be laid in the same symbol that might represent two different sounds in the two languages. In such case the student tends to transfer the native language

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symbolization to the foreign language. The other possibility is when the symbol in one word that represents one sound turns out to represent a different sound in another word.

e. Pronunciation problems with words that show similarity in two languages. Since words having similarity in the form in two languages show patterns of correspondences between the foreign language and the native one, the student’s mispronunciations will often be predictable in terms of those patterns.

f. Unpredictable alternation between two potential substitutions. The Indonesian language lacks the phoneme [θ] that might approximate English [θ] as in think. The result is that Indonesian learners may substitute it with [s] or [t]. The reason for this is that the individual tends to transfer the sound system of his mother tongue.

3. Description and Classification of English Speech Sounds

According to Indriani (2005:8), the English speech sounds can be classified into consonants, vowels, and diphthongs.

a. Consonants

A consonant is a type of sounds used before or after a vowel or diphthong to form a syllable. According to O’grady (2001:7), there is constriction or complete closure in the vocal tract, which might be at the lips, at the back of the mouth and on the teeth, that interferes the flow air out the mouth when producing the

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consonant sounds. According to Indriani (2005:8), there are 24 consonants in English, namely:

Table 2.1. English consonantal articulation Consonant Word P Pig  b Book T Tea  d Day K Key G Go F Fine V Very S Sea Z Zoo ʃ She

ʒ Azure

Consonant word

ʧ chair

ʤ jail

θ thin

ð this



m man n now

ŋ sing

 h how l like r right w wait j you

In relation to the position of the vocal cords, the consonants can be divided into: 1. Voiceless : p, t, k, f, s, ʃ, _ʧ,_θ, h.

2. Voiced : the rest of the consonants.

In terms of the place/point of articulation, the consonants can be divided into: 1. Bilabial : the two lips are the primary articulators, e.g: b, p, m, w.

2. Labio-dental : the lower lip articulates with the upper teeth, e.g.: f, v. 3. Dental : the tongue tip and rims articulate with the upper teeth, e.g.: θ, ð. 4. Alveolar : the blade, or tip and blade, of the tongue articulate with the alveolar

ridge, e.g.: t, d, l, n, s, z.

5. Post-alveolar : the tip (and rims) of the tongue articulate with the rear part of the alveolar ridge, e.g.: r.

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6. Palato-alveolar : the blade or the tip and blade of the tongue articulate with

the alveolar ridge and there is at the same time a raising of the front of the tongue towards the hard palate, e.g.: ʃ, ʒ, ʧ, ʤ.

7. Palatal : the front of the tongue articulates with the hard palate, e.g.:j. 8. Velar : the back of the tongue articulates with the soft palate, e.g.: k, g, ŋ

9. Glottal : an obstruction, or a narrowing causing friction but not vibration, between the vocal cords, e.g.: h.

In terms of the manner of articulation, the consonants can be divided into: 1. Complete Closure:

Plosive: a complete closure at some point in the vocal tract, behind which the air pressure builds up and is released explosively, e.g.: p, b, t, d, k, g.

2. Affricate: a complete closure at some point in the mouth, behind which the air

pressure builds up; the separation of the organs is slow compared with that of a plosive, so that friction is a characteristic second element of the sound, e.g.: ʧ,

ʤ.

3. Nasal : a complete closure at some point in the mouth but the soft palate being lowered the air escapes through the nose, e.g.: m, n, ŋ.

4. Intermittent Closure:

Roll : a series of rapid intermittent closures or taps made by a flexible organ on a firmer surface, e.g.: r

5. Partial Closure:

Lateral: a partial closure is made at some point in the mouth, the air stream being allowed to escape on one or both sides of the contact, e.g. l.

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6. Narrowing:

Fricative: two organs approximate to such an extent that the air stream passes through them with friction, e.g.: f, v, ʃ, ʒ, s, z, θ, ð, h.

7. Glides:

Semi-vowel: they are usually included in the consonantal category on functional grounds, but from the point of view of phonetic description they are more properly treated as vowel glides, e.g.: w, j.

b. Vowels

According to Fromkin (2000:478), a vowel is a sound in which there is little construction is made in the vocal tract and the sound is louder and longer than the consonant. Vowel sounds are produced by different positions of the tongue within the mouth cavity and by the rounding and the surrounding of the lips.

According to Indriani (2005: 12), there are 12 cardinal vowels in English, namely:

Table 2.2 English Vowel Sounds Vowel word

i: tea Ι sit

E pen Æ sad ɜ: bird

ə ago

ɑ: art

ʌ up

u: food

υ foot

ɔ: war

ɒ not

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c. Gliding Vowels or Diphthongs

Diphthongs can be defined as some vowels that are represented as sequences of vowel symbols because the tongue and/or lips move from one position to another (Fromkin, 2000:509).

According to Indriani (2005:13), there are 9 diphthongs, namely: Table 2.3. English diphthong sounds

aɪ eɪ ɔɪ

ɪə ʊə eə

ɔə aʊ əʊ

4. A Brief Overview of Hearing-Speech Defect a. The Nature of Sound

Hearing is one important means for human beings to receive information. Although people are still able to learn through the senses of sight, smell, touch, taste, etc., the sense of hearing facilitates and enhances the learning process. Most children learn through their hearing from a very early age. Heward (1980: 177) states:

“A newborn infant typically responds to sounds by startling or blinking. At a few weeks of age, the infant listens to quiet sounds, recognizes his mother’s voice, and begins to enjoy hearing his own vocalizations. During the first year of live, the normal infant learns to recognize sounds. He can

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discriminate meaningful sounds from background noise, perceive loud and quiet sounds, and localize and imitate sounds.”

Heward (1980: 177) adds that as the hearing child grows, he develops language by constantly hearing language used around him and by associating these sounds with innumerable activities and events. He learns that people convey information, and exchange their thoughts and feelings, by speaking and hearing. The process of language acquisition appears to occur naturally and spontaneously in the hearing child.

The hearing defective child, however, is not able to participate in this process without special help. He misses many early and critical opportunities for developing language and awareness of the world around him. Hallahan and Kaufman (1978:243) explain that the child who is deaf from birth or is deafened before he has learned to speak is severely defected when it comes to the task of learning oral language. Because he cannot hear, he will have great difficulty in all areas of speech and language. He will have a voice with strange pitch, quality, and intensity. He will speak with an abnormal rhythm, and he will make misarticulation. Johnson (1967: 120) argues that a child whose hearing sensivity is definitely defected may be expected to exhibit misarticulations as one of the consequences of his auditory defect.

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b. Causes of Hearing Defect

As mentioned by Soemantri (1996:75), hearing defects can result from a number of factors, among others:

1) Prenatal factors

a) One or both parents of the children have a hearing defect or genetic abnormality.

b) The mother suffers from a disease during pregnancy, such as rubella and morbili, specifically during the first trimester, that is during the formation of the baby’s middle and inner hearing organs.

c) Poisoning of medicines that the mother suffers from during pregnancy. This happens if she takes too many or improper medicines, for example in the case of unwanted pregnancy and she tries to have it aborted. Poisoning can also happen if the mother is addicted to alcohol.

2) Perinatal factors

a) A prolonged process of delivery. If the process of delivery takes too long time, the baby might suffer from a lack of oxygen. Another possibility is if the doctor has to use a suction apparatus due to difficulty during the process of delivery. These might cause a defect on the baby’s hearing organ.

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b) Prematurity, that is when the baby is born earlier than the normal period of pregnancy.

3) Post natal factors

a) Hearing defect occurs due to infections, such as infections of the brain (meningitis)

b) The application of certain medications.

c) Accidents resulting in injury or defect of the individual’s inner hearing organ.

c. The Level of Hearing-Speech Defects

Deaf children and those who experience hearing problems cannot be classified in the same group. This is due to the differences in terms of the process, types, and cause of hearing defects, which makes each child has different problems of hearing.

In determining the level of hearing-speech defect, the term decibels or dB, namely the measure of intensity or loudness of a sound, is used. 0 dB is a point which represents the smallest sound the person with normal hearing can perceive. Hallahan, Kauffman, & Pullen (2009:348) classify the levels of deafness as follows:

1. Slight

This level refers to persons whose ability to hear is about 16 to 25 dB less than normal persons.

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2. Mild

This level refers to persons whose ability to hear is 26 to 40 dB less than normal persons.

3. Moderate

This level refers to persons whose ability to hear is about 41 to 55 dB less than normal persons.

4. Moderate-severe

This level refers to persons whose ability to hear is about 56 to 70 dB less than the normal persons.

5. Severe

The persons can hear the sounds only if they are 71 to 90 dB louder. 6. Profound

The persons who are considered to be in this level are the ones who can hear sounds that are 91 dB or more, less than the normal ones.

The terms slight, mild, moderate, moderate-severe, severe, and profound are used to refer to degree of hearing-speech defect, as measured by the intensity of sound a person requires before he or she can hear. Hearing defect or impairment is a general term referred to individuals with impairments ranging from mild to profound (Hallahan, Kauffman, &Pullen, 2009:340).

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In order to avoid the confusion in terminology, the hearing impairment or defect is divided into three namely the “hard of hearing”, “deafened”, “deaf” (Johnson, 1967: 408).

1. Hard of hearing (slight-mild): one who has sufficient hearing to learn to produce and to understand speech and language naturally by ear.

2. Deafened (moderate-moderate severe): one who has developed an awareness of speech and language naturally by ear but who no longer has sufficient hearing to enable him adequately to hear his own speech or that of others with or without a hearing aid.

3. Deaf (severe-profound): one who at the time of life when speech and language usually develop did not have sufficient hearing to make its natural acquisition possible.

d. The Effects of Hearing-Speech Defect on Understanding Language and Speech

Hearing and language development have close relationship and becomes a great problem for hearing-speech defective students. Hearing-speech defective people have problems in dealing with the use of language. Language structure used by hearing-speech defective people is different from the normal ones. Bowd (1990:91) said that children with impaired hearing are handicapped in regard to speech development because they cannot properly hear themselves vocalize, and thus receive inadequate feedback. Speech defect usually characterized by nasal

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voice, is not clear so that you cannot understand other people. This is because the occurrence of articulation errors and the effort to change the speech patterns (compensatory pattern.) Hearing defect is a cause of speech defect, because deaf hearing loss is the condition that cannot deliver stimulation to the central auditory perception in the brain.

In addition, he said that there are two important things that characterize barriers hearing-speech defective students in language aspects. First, the consequences due to hearing-speech defective lead to difficulty in accepting all kinds of sound stimuli from the surrounding. Second, due to limitations in receiving sound stimulation, they will have difficulty in producing sounds. Both conditions directly affect the development of language and speech.

Hallahan, Kauffman & Pullen (2009:348) explain the effects of hearing impairment on language development as follows:

1. Slight: In quiet environments, the individual has no difficulty recognizing speech, but in noisy environments, faint speech is difficult to understand.

2. Mild: In quiet conversational environments in which the topic is known and vocabulary is limited, the individual has no difficulty in communicating. Faint or distant speech is difficult to hear even if the environment is quiet. Classroom discussions are challenging to follow.

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3. Moderate: The individual can hear conversational speech only at a close distance. Group activities, such as classroom discussions, present a communicative challenge.

4. Moderate-Severe: The individual can hear only loud, clear conversational speech and has much difficulty in group situations. Often, the individual’s speech is noticeably impaired though intelligible. 5. Severe: The individual cannot hear conversational speech unless it is

loud and even then, cannot recognize many of the words. Environmental sounds can be detected, though not always identified. The individual’s speech is not altogether intelligible.

6. Profound: The individual may hear loud sounds but cannot hear conversational speech at all. Vision is the primary modality for communication. The individual’s own speech, if developed at all, is not easy to understand.

e. Examples of Possible Hearing-Speech Difficulties

This part presents some examples of possible hearing-speech difficulties (Sattler, 1992: 100), such as:

1. Difficulty in discriminating consonant sounds; for example, hearing mat for bat, tab for tap.

2. Difficulty in discriminating and learning short vowel sounds.

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3. Difficulty in sounding out a word, sound by sound; for example, difficulty saying k-a-t for cat.

4. Difficulty in sounding relating printed letters such as “f”, “pl”, and “ide” to their sounds.

5. Difficulty in separating sounds that make up blends; for example, difficulty determining that “fl” has the sound f-f…l-l.

6. Spelling and reading sight words better than phonetic words.

Those examples indicate their weaknesses. However, the examples can be used as the base to understand how hearing-speech defective students pronounce English sounds. Further, the teacher will be able to develop a teaching program or activities to help them minimize their weaknesses. Besides, these can be used as the starting points to link between the theory and facts whether it is true or not that all the examples mentioned above become obstacles for the students to learn a certain language.

f. Speech Reading as Method for Communication

The hearing-speech defective child may or may not have difficulty in producing normal speech, but he is likely to have significant difficulty in understanding the speech of others. With assistance he can learn to fill in the gaps through speech reading. Johnson (1967: 422) defines speech reading as the art of understanding a speaker’s thought by watching the movements of his lips, his face, and of his entire body, and it might be added by paying due attention to the related

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activities and the total situation in which communication is being carried on. The term speech reading is also known as “lip reading”.

Richards, Platt and Weber (1985:57) mention that lip reading or speech reading is a method used by deaf people and others to identify what a speaker is saying by studying the movements of the lips and face muscles. The use of facial expressions can help the students to interpret what is being said to them.

5. Misarticulation

a. Causes of Misarticulation

In learning English, children often experience a process of misarticulation. Most noticeably, misarticulation affects pronunciation and vocabulary. Some experts point out the causes of misarticulation as described in the following part. Johnson (1967: 120) explains the known causes why some children fail to develop good speech as follows:

1) Abnormalities of the Organs of Speech

The normal mode of producing a number of consonant sounds requires at least reasonably good dentition. If the teeth are badly spaced or misaligned, or if there is poor occlusion between the upper and lower dental arches, considerable difficulty in articulation may result.

Although such dental irregularities do tend to present obstacles to good articulation, it does not mean that people with this condition are impossible to

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make normal speech. The tongue, lips and other parts of the mouth are very adaptable, capable of considerable flexibility of movement and it is possible to produce normal sounding with articulatory movements that vary considerably from the typical pattern. Many persons have succeeded in developing adequate and sometimes even superior speech in spite of dental abnormalities.

Besides dental abnormalities, the roof of the mouth or hard palate and the tongue may also be important factors in the structure or functioning of the speech mechanism that can contribute to articulation difficulties. The tongue must establish contact with it in particular ways to form certain speech sounds in the normal manner. If the hard palate is unusually high and very narrow, the tongue may have difficulty in making the required contacts in the normal way, and certain speech sounds may be distorted as a consequence.

The tongue is the most important of all the articulatory structures. Faults of structure or function which interfere with its movements may result in misarticulations. In some cases the tongue cannot make the necessary movements to the teeth, the gum ridge, the hard and soft palates which are essential to normal articulation. The individual may have difficulty also in grooving the tongue so as to direct the air stream properly for the s, sh, and similar consonants. Another condition which commonly occurs to individual is known as “tongue-tie”. In this condition the little web of tissue lying underneath the front part of the tongue, by which the front of the tongue is attached to the floor of the mouth, is either too

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short or is inserted in the tongue too close to the lip. As a consequence, the movements of the front part of the tongue may be too restricted for purposes of good articulation.

2) Poor Speech Models

It is well established that speech is learned essentially through imitation. Most children learn to talk by imitating the speech of their parents and older siblings. Occasionally a parent or older child in the family has hearing-speech defected. An example of faulty learning from a poor speech model was shown in the case of one whose principal trouble was a substitution for the “r” sound. A father who accompanied his child to a clinic started the interview by saying “I bwought (brought) Danny heuh (here) because he can’t make his ah (r) sounds wight (right).” (Johnson, 1967:128).

3) Lack of Stimulation and Motivation

Infantile speech habits sometimes seem to persist because there is no motivation to change them, or because there is even positive motivation to retain them. Occasionally, however, environmental conditions are not adequate to motivate good speech learning. Sometimes very inadequate speech is sufficient to meet the child’s need for communication. Now and then a child is permitted to supplement his inadequate speech with gestures to the extent that he feels no need to develop better speech. A somewhat related situation is that in which the child does not receive enough good speech stimulation. He may be so isolated

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from other children, as well as adults, that he seldom needs to speak. Moreover, under such condition he does not hear much speech to imitate. This happens to the hearing-speech defective child. Frequently this lack of speech stimulation is a consequence of parental neglect, more often unintentional than malicious.

Casey (1981:120) also points out some factors that lead to misarticulation: 1) The Degree of Hearing Loss/Level of Deafness

The hard of hearing child with supplementary assistance of a hearing aid may in many cases develop adequate speech not markedly different from his hearing peers. The deaf child, on the other hand, has to be formally taught to speak, having no spontaneous speech.

2) The Age of Onset of Hearing Loss

The age of onset of hearing loss is also crucial in the acquisition of effective speech. The older a child is when he acquires hearing loss, the greater is his existing background of aural experiences and his established oral language. 3) Parents’ Attitudes

Parents’ attitudes considerably influence the language development of deaf children. If deaf child is not accompanied by their parents while studying or in daily communication, his language development will be greatly affected. The parents will find it difficult to understand and teach new vocabulary to their children. Limited mastery of sign language and delivery methods to the children

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who have hearing defects become the main cause of obstruction of access to children's learning in a family environment

4) Time of Intervention

Education is very influential on the language development of deaf children. The earlier a child is given education and training how to communicate, the more quickly the child will develop language.

b. Types of Misarticulation

Johnson (1967) and Cerney (2007) mention four types of misarticulation, as follows:

1. Omission

Omission is one type of misarticulation that often occurs in the language process. A speech sound may be more or less habitually omitted, as in saying pay [

peɪ

] for play [

ple

ɪ

]. Another example of a speech omission is saying “at” for

“hat” or “oo” for “shoe.” This process can be found in the initial, middle or final position of the word where one or more sounds (a vowel, a consonant or whole syllable) in a word or phrase are omitted.

2. Substitution

Substitution is the process of substituting certain a sound with another sound. The example is taken from the word run [wΛn] rather than [rΛn]. In this process the r sound experiences change into w.

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3. Distortion

Distortion is the type of misarticulation characterized by the changing of speech sounds to sounds that are not normally used or to change the whole meaning of the word or it does not contain meaning. Distortion occurs by turning the flip and change the sound of consonants as happened in the word morning [mɔ:nɪŋ] said to be [bɔ:dɪŋ] .

4. Sound Addition

Sound addition refers to the process by which an extra sound is added to a word. Sound addition is also called insertion. An example is the word something which is pronounced [sΛmpθIŋk] instead of [sΛmθIŋ]. In this case, two sounds are added, namely p and k.

B. Theoretical Framework

Pronunciation ability cannot be separated from the intelligibility aspect in communicative abilities. Learners need to understand and to be understood so they can communicate. Unfortunately, persons with special needs such as hearing-speech defective students have lack of pronunciation competence, resulting in articulation errors. The lack of pronunciation competence is also faced by the seventh grade hearing-speech students of SLBN 3 Yogyakarta.

The difficulties in receiving, recognizing, discriminating and producing the sounds as well as the fact that some English sounds do not exist in the Indonesian

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language make the students difficult to pronounce English words. In this case, the seventh grade hearing-speech defective students of SLBN 3 Yogyakarta experience the phenomena of misarticulation in learning English.

This research aims to find out the phenomena of misarticulation of the seventh grade hearing-speech defective students of SLBN 3 Yogyakarta. Further, it tries to find some possible causes of the problems and, finally, some possible solutions to overcome those problems.

Misarticulation cannot be avoided when one learns a new language. Misarticulation is one of the related problems to this research. To answer the first problem, the descriptions as pointed out by Johnson (1967) and Cerney (2007) are used to identify the kinds of articulation problems faced by the hearing-speech defective students of SLBN 3 Yogyakarta such as omission, sound addition, substitution, and distortion. In order to analyze the data, the researcher recorded student’s pronunciation and transcribed into phonetic transcription. As for the second problem, Johnson’s (1967) and Casey’s (1981) theories are employed to find the causes of misarticulation. Finally, the possible solutions to overcome the articulation problems refer to the theories by Rusyani, Sahulata (1988), Edja & Dardjo (1995).

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CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

This chapter discusses the methodology used in the research. There are five sections in the methodology, namely research method, research participants, research instruments, data gathering techniques, and research procedure.

A. Research Method

This research was conducted to identify the English articulation problems faced by the hearing-speech defective students of SLBN 3 Yogyakarta and their causes. It also concerned some possible solutions to overcome the problems. However, the object of the research, namely three students of SLBN 3 Yogyakarta, was not meant to represent the whole population of students with hearing-speech defects.

Since the focus was laid on only one group of students, the method of the research was a case study. A case study has the qualitative value of providing descriptive data. Ary, Jacobs, Razavieh (2002:440) define this type of research as follows:

“Case study is an in-depth study of a single unit, such as one individual, one group, one organization, one program, and so on. The goal is to arrive at a detailed description and understanding of the entity.”

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Further, they explain that in a case study the researcher tries to discover all the variables that are important in the history or development of the subject. The emphasis is on understanding why the individual or group does what he does and how behavior changes as the individual responds to the environment. A case study can establish cause and effect, indeed one of their strengths is that a case study observes effects in real context (Cohen & Manion, 2000:181).

This method was chosen because the researcher did not have enough subject to conduct pre-experimental research which required more research subjects. The small number of subjects in this research was due to the different levels of deafness and the difficulty in managing the class. Investigating the articulation problems was done by identifying types of misarticulation produced by the seventh grade hearing-speech defective students of SLBN3 Yogyakarta.

B. Research Participants

The main research participants were the seventh grade hearing-speech defective students of SLBN 3 Yogyakarta consisting of three students. There were three reasons for choosing them to be the subject of this study. First, they were fresh beginners of the English language as a foreign language. Second, they are better than other classes in terms of their ability to receive information and produce words. In addition, they were more active than those in the other classes. The other research participants were teachers and parents, who helped the researcher to find the information about the hearing- speech defective students.

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The research activities were conducted both at SLBN 3 Yogyakarta, which was located in Jl. Wates 147 Yogyakarta and in the participants’ houses. The data collection was carried out twice a week, starting from April 07 to June 14, 2009.

The presentation of students’ profiles containing the backgrounds and their history of the hearing loss was described below. This was helpful for analyzing the problems. This part consists of the names of the participants, the levels of deafness, the time when they began to show loss of hearing and their language development.

Student A:

At the age of 11 months she fell and got some head injuries. By the age of 2 she started to lose her hearing. After some examination, the doctor declared that she had a hearing defect. Her hearing was 73 dB - 81dB. The figures meant that this student was categorized as deaf. After acquiring the hearing defect, her language capacity still increased. The difficulty in hearing did not make her withdraw from her environment. This particular student was active. She asked many questions to her parents about everything. Her parents actively helped her in learning language, especially pronunciation in her first language. The assistance that her parents provided brought a positive effect on her development in improving her memory, making responses and receiving information.

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Student B:

As pointed out by his parents during the interview, this student had the hearing defect since the time he was born. He was born at 8 months of gestation. At the age of 2, he started to lose his hearing ability. After some examinations, he was declared to be deaf. His hearing was 101dB - 95 dB. The parents gave him assistance and trained him to talk rather than use sign language to communicate. After some time with his parent’s guidance and therapy in a specialized institution, his Indonesian language capacity developed. His pronunciation was clearer than before even though he encountered problems to produce some sounds. At the age of 5 he had an accident which caused head injuries and his teeth broken. The doctor’s examination showed that his head was badly injured. Again, at the age of 10, he had an accident. It was very probable that the series of accidents made his hearing deteriorate.

Student C:

This child acquired hearing loss since his birth. The level of his deafness was 86 dB – 95 dB. This meant that the child was classified as deaf. He was born premature and had visual impairment as well. His left eye was blind. To communicate, he relied on sign language and speech reading. His vocabulary was very limited, which made the parents and teachers difficult to communicate with him. The parents admitted that they could not provide active and effective assistance because they sometimes did not understand his language. They found it difficult to explain new words to develop his vocabulary and, furthermore, they did not know sign language.

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C. Research Instruments

The instruments of this research were observation and interview. 1. Observation

According to Ary, Jacobs, and Razavieh (2002:430), observation is the most basic method for obtaining data in qualitative research. The observation was conducted in three ways. The first observation was conducted in class where the students were attending English language lessons. The researcher was non-participant. She did not make any interaction with the students in the class. The purpose of this observation was to know how the students learned the English language in class and to know how the teacher delivered the learning materials to the students.

The second observation was done in the articulation class where the students learned how to pronounce Indonesian words. In this observation, the researcher paid attention to how the teacher gave the treatment to the students. As in the first observation, the researcher did not take part in the teaching-learning activities. Through this observation, the researcher expected to get more knowledge on how to deal with hearing-speech defective students and give possible solutions or speech training to the students.

The third observation was also conducted in the articulation class, where the researcher directly took part in the teaching-learning process. In this observation the researcher focused to observe student’s competence in pronouncing English words

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and gave necessary corrections when they made errors. Through this observation, the researcher achieved detailed information that the researcher needed because she saw directly the conditions of the students’ in terms of pronunciation. The activities were recorded with a audio-visual recorder. Later, the researcher transcribed the students’ utterances in phonetic symbols. Thus, there are two documents of the students’ pronunciation, namely audio-visual and written records.

2. Interviews

Besides observations, the researcher also conducted interviews. According Ary, Jacobs and Razavieh (2002:434), “the interview is one of the most widely used methods for obtaining qualitative data”. Interviews provide information that cannot be obtained through observation, or they can be used to verify the observation. There are three types of interview which can be differentiated by their degree of explicitness and structure. They are open, semi-open and semi-structured.

The researcher used open interviews to some teachers in SLBN 3 Yogyakarta and the parents of the research participants. They were asked about the students’ competence in learning the English language in class and their backgrounds including physical conditions and education backgrounds. Furthermore, the interviews were conducted to obtain the information about the conditions of the hearing-speech defective students and everything that had any relations with hearing-speech defects. Sattler (1992:429) points out that interviews with parents are designed to elicit information about their concerns regarding the child; the child’s problems and how

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they dealt with the problems in the past, the child’s medical, developmental, educational, social history, the family history, and the parents’ expectations for treatment and remediation.

The interviews were often similar to conversations between friends or relatives rather than formal interviews. The interviewees were given freedom to answer the questions and to give explanations. The researcher made the condition of the interview like sharing session. Several times the interviews were conditioned to be friendly and relaxing, especially with the parents, where they could also share their feelings and experience with their children.

D. Data Gathering Techniques

In order to collect data, the researcher observed, recorded and transcribed the pronunciation produced by the seventh grade hearing-speech students of SLBN 3 Yogyakarta. Each of the students was given a piece of paper containing 10 English words at a time and then the researcher asked the students to read the words themselves. When the researcher found some misarticulation, she directly made the corrections.

To obtain the data, the researcher recorded the student’s pronunciation using an audio-video recorder. Besides using the recorder, the phonetic transcription was also employed to collect the data. After the data were gathered, the researcher used the following tables to record the data.

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Table 3.1. Record students’ pronunciation No. Phoneme

(initial, middle, final position)

Word Expected pronunciation

Pronunciation of respondent 1

Pronunciation of respondent 2

Pronunciation of respondent 3

Table 3.2. Comparison of students’ pronunciation and expected pronunciation Words

Phonetic transcriptions Oxford Advanced Learner’s

Dictionary Students’ pronunciation

E. Data Analysis Technique

Data analysis is the process of organizing and ordering the data into patterns, or categorizing in such a way to find a theme (Moleong, 2000: 112). The researcher provided two analyses for analyzing the collected data. They were comparing the phonetic transcriptions of the students’ pronunciation of the given words and the expected pronunciation of the words by referring to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. The researcher chose that dictionary considering of the validity in which it uses the standardized symbols of English pronunciation transcription. After comparing the phonetic transcription of the students’ pronunciation with the dictionary, the researcher analyzed the articulation errors by using the theory of misarticulation by Johnson (1967) and Cerney (2007). It was followed by the

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explanation of the causes of the problems and some possible solutions to overcome the problems.

F. Research Procedure

This research was conducted through some steps:

1. Preparation. In this step, the researcher asked for formal permission from SLBN 3 Yogyakarta to conduct this research.

2. Identification of the participants, in which the researcher selected the seventh grade hearing-speech defective students of SLBN 3 Yogyakarta as the participant in this research.

3. Instrument development. In this step the researcher prepared the video recorder and phonetic transcription to gather the data.

4. Data collection. In this step, the researcher obtained the data by recording and transcribing the students’ pronunciation.

5. Data analysis. In this step the researcher compared the student’s pronunciation to the phonetic transcription based on Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 6. After comparing to those dictionary the researcher observed the students’ pronunciation using the theory of misarticulation by Johnson (1967) and Cerney (2007).

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CHAPTER IV

RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter discusses misarticulation, causes of the problems and some possible solutions to overcome the problems. The data in study were taken from the observation conducted on the seventh grade hearing-speech defective students of SLBN 3 Yogyakarta and interviews with their parents and teachers. The participants were three hearing-speech defective students. The following part is the findings and the discussion on the misarticulation problems made by each of them, an analysis of the causes of the problems and possible solutions.

1. English Articulation Problems Faced by the Seventh Grade Hearing-Speech Defective Students of SLBN 3 Yogyakarta

After conducting observation, the researcher found that there was a common problem of misarticulation in pronouncing English phonemes. The example of the difficulties could be seen when the students tried to pronounce and differentiate voiced and voiceless sounds and pronounce several vowels and diphthongs. As a result, these problems affected the shape of syllables and words. There are several types of misarticulation. The types of misarticulation would be discussed in this chapter as the classification of the students’ problems. The collected data showed that each of the students experienced different articulation problems. The discussion of

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articulation on each student along with the classification of types of misarticulation will be discussed bellow.

Student A

During the pronunciation process, the researcher found four types of misarticulation that happened in the initial, middle, and final position of sounds in the words. The types of misarticulation that occurred to this student were as follows: a. Omission

Omission is the process of omitting one or more sounds (a vowel, a consonant or the whole syllable) in a word or phrase. It can be found in the initial, middle, or final position of the word. The researcher found the sound which was omitted in the initial position as in the word usual [juʒʊəl]. This student omitted the [j] sound because the way how pronounced this sound in the Indonesian language was different from the English language. As the result, this student pronounced this word as [uʒʊəl]. This process happened because items in the Indonesian language were given a new shape in the English language. In this case, the Indonesian language as the first language influenced the way she pronounced English words. In the Indonesian language, the name of the letter and its sound were the same. [u] in the Indonesian language was pronounced as [u] but in the English language it was pronounced as [ju]. Other phoneme that can be categorized as items on the Indonesian language that were given a new shape in English were [v], [tʃ],[dʒ] and [z].

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The omission process also occurred in the middle position of the word. Omitting the sound in the middle position occurred in the word poor [pʊə/r] where the sound [ə] was omitted and in the word both [bəʊθ] / [boʊθ] where the sound [u] was omitted. This student pronounced those word as [pu:r] instead of [pʊə/r] and [boθ] instead of [bəʊθ] / [boʊθ]. Another omission occurred in the final position of the word. Pronouncing three words that contained two sounds, the student showed omission in the final position. There were the [p] sound as in the word pump [pʌmp]

which was pronounced [pʌm] and jump [dʒʌmp] which was pronounced [dʒʌm] and the [k] sound as in the word desk [desk] which was pronounced [des].

b. Sound addition

Sound addition refers to the process by which anextra sound is added to a word. The data collection showed four words that experienced sound addition. Sound addition occurred in the middle and final position of the word. The sound addition in the middle position occurred in the word often [ fn], where the sound [t] was added, the sound [g] was added in the word night [naɪt], the sound [w] was added in the

word answer [ :nsə] and the sound [ə] was added in the word church [tʃɜ:tʃ]. As the result, this student pronounced [ ftn] instead of [ fn], [naigt] instead of [naɪt], [answər] instead of [ :nsə/r], and [ʧərʧə] instead of [tʃɜ:tʃ].

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c. Substitution

Substitution is the process of substituting a certain sound with another sound. From pronunciation process, twenty-nine words underwent substitution, consisting of eight words that experienced substitution in the initial position, fifteen words that experienced substitution in the middle position, and six words that experienced substitution in the final position. The substitution occurred in the consonants, vowels and diphthong. There was a consonant which was substituted by another consonant, a vowel which was substitute by another vowel, a diphthong which was substituted by another diphthong or a single vowel. The substitution occurrence was presented in the table 4.1.

Table 4.1. Articulation errors categorized as substitution

Word

Pronunciation

Location of error Oxford

Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

Student’s

Copy [k pɪ] [c pi] Initial Shopping [ʃ pɪŋ] [s piŋ] Initial

Under [ʌndə/r] [undər] Initial

Apple [æpl] [apl] Initial

Voice [voɪs] [fois] Initial

Think [θɪŋk] [tiŋk] Initial

This [ðɪs] [tis] Initial

Out [aʊt] [out] Initial

Guess [ges] [gus] Middle

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Repeat [rɪpit] [repit] Middle

Young [jʌŋ] [joŋ] Middle

Table [teibl] [tæbl] Middle

Feel [fi:l] [fel] Middle

Stuff [stʌf] [stuf] Middle

Soon [su:n] [son] Middle

Note [nəʊt] [not] Middle

House [haʊz] [houz] Middle

Fear [fɪə/r] [Fear] Middle

Day [deɪ] [dai] Middle

world [wɜ:ld] [world] Middle

post [pəʊst] [post] Middle

Pound [paʊnd] [p nd] Middle

Give [ɡɪv] [Gif] Final

Zoo [Zu: ] [Zo: ] Final

Please [Pli:z] [Plis] Final

Have [Hæv] [Hæf] Final

Ago [əɡəʊ] [əgo] Final

Yesterday [jestədei] [jestədai] Final

NOTE: is used to symbolize the substitution process that occurred

Table 4.1 showed three sounds that experienced substitution from voiced sound into voiceless sounds. They were the sounds [z] substituted by [s], [v] substituted by [f] and [ð] substituted by [t], for example, the substitution of [z] as a voiced sound by [s] as a voiceless sound occurred in the word please [pliz], which was pronounced as [plis]. Another case of substitution was from a voiced sound [v]

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into a voiceless sound [f] in the word voice [voɪs] which was pronounced as [fois], give [ɡɪv] which was pronounced as [gif], and have [hæv] which was pronounced as [hæf]. According to Swan and Smith (2001:281) “The [v] sound is rare in Indonesian words. Indonesian students are likely to replace [v] by [f], especially at the end of word”. There was also substitution of the sound [ʃ] by the sound [s] in the initial position such as in the word shopping. As the result, the word shopping [ʃ pɪŋ] was pronounced as [s piŋ].

There were several sounds that did not exist in the Indonesian language such as [tʃ], [ʒ], [æ], [ʃ], [ə], [ ], [ʃ], [θ], [ð]. From the collected data, those sounds were changes from one sound into another sound which could be easily pronounced. The examples of this phenomenon could be found in the word think [θɪŋk] which was pronounced as [tiŋk] and this [ðɪs] which was pronounced as [tis]. It was very likely that an Indonesian native speaker who learned the English language would find that the sounds were unusual and he or she might not be able to produce them and replace them with sounds from the Indonesian language that were similar to [θ], namely [t]. According to Paulston and bruder (1976: 96) this phenomenon was called aural recognition. They mentioned that aural recognition of new sounds was a very difficult step for students in whose mother tongue the sound was absent or existed as an allophonic variant.

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d. Distortion

Distortion is the type of misarticulation characterized by the changing sounds of a certain language to sounds that are not normally used or that change the whole meaning of the word or that bring no meaning. Distortion phenomena were presented in the table 4.2.

. Table 4.2. Articulation errors categorized as distortion

Word

Pronunciation Oxford

Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

Student’s

Cup [kʌp] [cup]

Party [p :ti] [præti]

Ooze [u:z] [ose]

Thermometer [θəm mɪtə] [termometr] Nature [neɪtʃə] [nature]

Approve [əpru:v] [aprofe]

Husband [hʌzbənd] [husbʌn] Sunday [sʌndei] [sundai]

Chair [tʃeə(r) ] [cʌir] Picture [pɪktʃə] [pikturə] Budget [bʌdʒət] Budget

Huge [hju:dʒ] Huge

Agree [əɡri:] Agre

Television [teliviʒn] Telefision

method [meθəd] [metod]

although [ɔ:lðəʊ] [altoug] Sugar [ʃʊɡə] [sugʌr]