A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education

  

ELESP STUDENTS’ PROBLEMS IN PLACING VERB STRESS

A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

  By Lucia Niken Tyas Utami

  Student Number: 081214046

  

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION

FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

2012

  

ELESP STUDENTS’ PROBLEMS IN PLACING VERB STRESS

A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

  By Lucia Niken Tyas Utami

  Student Number: 081214046

  

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION

FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

2012

  

ABSTRACT

Utami, L.N.T. (2012). ELESP Students’ Problems in Placing Verb Stress.

  Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Department of Language and Arts Education, Faculty of Teachers Training and Education, Sanata Dharma University.

  For the English Education Study Program students, mastering English speaking skill is a must. It is very important to create a good communication, especially to conduct a teaching learning process with their students. One aspect which should be mastered in order to acquire a good speaking skill is pronunciation, including stress, rhythm, and intonation.

  There were two research questions to answer, namely (1) What are the problems in verb stress which are encountered by the sixth semester students of the English Education Study Program? and (2) What are the causes of the problems in verb stress which are encountered by the sixth semester students of the English Language Education Study Program? In answering the first research question, the researcher used the data obtained from the recording of the students’ presentations in their Sociolinguistics classes. Meanwhile, the researcher conducted an interview to answer the second research question. Therefore, it was a qualitative content analysis research.

  The participants of this research were the sixth semester students of the ELESP who joined Sociolinguistics course classes C and D in the 2011/2012 academic year. They were chosen because in their sixth semester studying in the ELESP, it was assumed that they had had a good speaking skill. There were fourteen groups of presentation from those two classes. The data were obtained by recording the participants’ presentations in their classes and conducting an interview involving six participants.

  From the data, it could be concluded that there were two kinds of problems in placing verb stress which are encountered by the sixth semester students of the ELESP, namely the students misplaced the stress and the students put double stresses on a verb. Most students put the stress on syllables which could not obtain any stresses, such as suffixes. Meanwhile, some students put double stresses on trisyllabic verbs or verbs with four or more syllables whereas double stresses could only be obtained by disyllabic verbs. From the interview results, it was concluded that there were four factors which became the causes of the problems, namely the students’ laziness in searching any information or theories about stress placement and to correct their inappropriate stress placement, the students’ lack of awareness about the importance of verb stress placement, the students’ lack of theories and information about stress placement, and the students’ friends’ attitude toward verb stress. Keywords: problems, verbs, stress, syllable

  

ABSTRAK

Utami, L.N.T. (2012). ELESP Students’ Problems in Placing Verb Stress.

  Yogyakarta: Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Jurusan Pendidikan Bahasa dan Seni, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

  Mahasiswa Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris sangat perlu untuk menguasai keahlian berbicara Bahasa Inggris. Hal ini dikarenakan agar komunikasi dalam Bahasa Inggris berjalan lancar, terutama ketika mengadakan pembelajaran dengan para siswa. Salah satu aspek berbicara yang harus dikuasai adalah pelafalan kata dengan benar, termasuk penempatan tekanan, ritme, dan intonasi pada kata.

  Ada dua pertanyaan yang perlu dijawab dalam penelitian ini, yaitu (1) Apa permasalahan dalam penempatan tekanan pada kata kerja yang dialami oleh mahasiswa Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris semester enam? dan (2) Apa penyebab terjadinya permasalahan tersebut? Untuk menjawab pertanyaan pertama peneliti menggunakan data dari rekaman presentasi siswa di kelas Sociolinguistics. Sementara pertanyaan kedua dijawab dengan menganalisis hasil wawancara dengan beberapa siswa. Maka dari itu, penelitian ini adalah penelitian dengan metode konten analisis yang bersifat kualitatif.

  Partisipan penelitian ini adalah mahasiswa PBI semester enam yang berada di kelas C dan D mata kuliah Sociolinguistics tahun ajaran 2011/2012. Hal ini dikarenakan bahwa dalam semester keenam mereka di PBI, mahasiswa semester enam diasumsikan telah mempunyai kemampuan berbicara Bahasa Inggris yang bagus. Ada empat belas kelompok presentasi dari kedua kelas tersebut. Data penelitian diperoleh dengan cara merekam presentasi para partisipan di kelas mereka serta melakukan wawancara dengan enam partisipan.

  Dari data yang diperoleh dapat disimpulkan bahwa ada dua masalah dalam penempatan tekanan pada kata kerja yang dialami oleh mahasiswa Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris semester enam, yakni penempatan tekanan pada suku kata yang tidak tepat dan penempatan dua tekanan pada sebuah kata kerja. Sebagian siswa menempatkan tekanan pada suku kata yang seharusnya tidak bisa memperoleh tekanan, seperti imbuhan. Sementara itu, beberapa siswa memberikan dua tekanan pada kata bersuku tiga atau empat padaha tekanan ganda hanya bisa diberikan kepada kata bersuku dua dengan kriteria tertentu. Berdasarkan hasil wawancara, dapat disimpulkan pula bahwa ada empat faktor yang menjadi penyebab masalah dalam penempatan tekanan pada kata kerja tersebut, yakni siswa malas untuk mencari informasi atau memperdalam teori tentang penempatan tekanan serta untuk membenarkan tekanan yang kurang tepat, siswa kurang menyadari akan pentingnya penempatan tekanan yang benar pada kata kerja, siswa kurang memiliki informasi dan teori yang cukup, serta sikap teman-teman di sekitar para siswa yang kurang menyadari pentingnya penempatan tekanan yang benar pada kata kerja, yang menyebabkan mereka bersikap acuh pula terhadap hal ini.

  

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I would like to express my gratitude to Jesus Christ, who makes everything easier and worth it for me. I believe that whatever happens to me is the best thing and He has provided beautiful plans for my future. Hopefully, at the end I could say “I have used all He gave to me.” I thank my beloved advisor,

  

Made Frida Yulia, S.Pd, M.Pd. for her patience, time, attention, suggestion,

  motivation, and guidance in finishing this thesis. Her smiles could comfort me whenever I had no idea of what to do with this thesis and was magically able to wake me up every time I started to “fall asleep.” I also thank Drs. Barli Bram,

  

M.Ed., Ph.D. for letting me interrupt his time and for giving me useful advice to

improve my thesis.

  My thanks are also for all PBI lecturers and staff who have given me great times during my study and great experiences dealing with so many tasks and projects. My special thank is also given to the sixth semester students in

  

Sociolinguistics course 2011/2012 academic year, particularly classes C and

  

D, for their cooperation and willingness in helping me to obtain the data. My

  greatest gratitude goes to my father Isidorus Suyitno and my mother Agata Sri

  

Sumarti for the prayers, supports, care, encouragement, patient, and protection

  until now. I also appreciate my brother Heribertus Jatmiko and my cute little sister Fidelis Kurnianingtyas for the laughs, tears, and every moment that we have. I would also express my gratitude to someone who has been accompanying me for the last six years, Ignatius Respati Adi Pamungkas. I thank him for being my fussy boyfriend, my loyal friend, and my ‘tireless reminder.’ I would like to say thank also to my best friends Didil, Sili, Cepci, Tiyen, and Miyu for our great times together and also to Mas Marshel, Mas Sisak, and

  

Mas Asoy for every ‘adventure’ we have had. They are really my good friends,

  my mood boosters, and my partners in crime. My thanks also go to someone who helped me to deal with the sophisticated media I used to analyze the data, Made

  

Desya, and my comrades in finishing this thesis, Pita and Nora. I would like to

  thank Dita for the time we have shared together and for the stories we have told each other. I would like to thank Yohannes Jatmiko Yuwono, S.Pd. and

  

Stefanus Eko Ardiyanto as well for letting me interrupt their leisure time to read

this thesis and to share their experiences dealing with this stuff.

  My special thanks go to my play performance team ‘Rendezvous,’ my SPD team ‘Blossom,’ my KKN team ‘Banaran’ and my big family ‘XV.’ I have learned so many things from them, such as friendship, courage, cooperation, communication, loyalty, commitment, and many more. They have made me become a better me.

  Last but not least, I thank everyone who asked about my thesis. Although sometimes it was annoying, without their questions I would not have extra spirit and energy to finish this thesis as soon as possible. I cannot write down all names on this paper, but I believe that God will write down all beautiful kindness which they have made.

  Lucia Niken Tyas Utami

  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE ............................................................................................... i

APPROVAL PAGES ................................................................................... ii

DEDICATION PAGE ................................................................................. iv

STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ........................................... v

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ........................... vi

ABSTRACT ................................................................................................. vii

ABSTRAK ..................................................................................................... viii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................... ix

TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................. xi

LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................ xiii

LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................... xiv

LIST OF APPENDICES ............................................................................. xv

  CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION A. Research Background .................................................................... 1 B. Research Problems ........................................................................ 4 C. Problem Limitation ........................................................................ 5 D. Research Objectives ...................................................................... 6 E. Research Benefits .......................................................................... 6 F. Definition of Terms ........................................................................ 7 CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE A. Theoretical Description ................................................................. 9

  1. English Word Stress ....................................................................... 9

  a. Definition of English Word Stress .................................................. 10

  b. Stress Placement in English Word ................................................... 10

  c. The Importance of Word Stress ...................................................... 15

  2. English Verbs ................................................................................. 16

  b. Stress Placement in Verbs .............................................................. 18

  3. Overview of Problems in English Stress Placement ........................ 21

  B. Theoretical Framework .................................................................. 22

  CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY A. Research Methods ......................................................................... 26 B. Research Setting ........................................................................... 27 C. Research Participants .................................................................... 27 D. Instruments and Data Gathering Technique .................................... 28 E. Data Analysis Technique ............................................................... 30 F. Research Procedure ......................................................................... 31 CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION A. Students’ Problems in Placing Verbs Stress ................................... 32 B. The Causes of the Problems in Placing Verbs Stress ...................... 48 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS A. Conclusions ................................................................................... 57 B. Recommendations ......................................................................... 58

REFERENCES ............................................................................................ 61

APPENDICES .............................................................................................. 63

  LIST OF TABLE

  Page Table 4.1: Summary of the Data................................................................. 32

  LIST OF FIGURES

  Page

Figure 4.1 : The Speaker’s Pronunciation on the Word ‘differ’ ................ 34Figure 4.2 : The Speaker’s Pronunciation on the Word ‘persuade’ ........... 35Figure 4.3 : The Speaker’s Pronunciation on the Word ‘deliver’ .............. 36Figure 4.4 : The Speaker’s Pronunciation on the Word ‘introduce’ .......... 37Figure 4.5 : The Speaker’s Pronunciation on the Word ‘analyze’ ............. 37Figure 4.6 : The Speaker’s Pronunciation on the Word ‘emphasize’ ......... 38Figure 4.7 : The Speaker’s Pronunciation on the Word ‘identify’ ............. 39Figure 4.8 : The Speaker’s Pronunciation on the Word ‘categorize’ ......... 40Figure 4.9 : The Speaker’s Pronunciation on the Word ‘differentiate’ ...... 41Figure 4.10 : The Speaker’s Pronunciation on the Word ‘dominated’ ......... 42Figure 4.11 : The Speaker’s Misplacing Stress in Disyllabic Verbs ............ 43Figure 4.12 : The Speaker’s Misplacing Stress in Trisyllabic Verbs ........... 44Figure 4.13 : The Speaker’s Misplacing Stress in Tetrasyllabic Verbs ........ 45Figure 4.14 : The Speaker’s Misplacing Stress in Verbs with more than 4 Syllables ........................................................... 46Figure 4.15 : The Speaker’s Double Stressing in Verbs .............................. 47

  LIST OF APPENDICES

  Page Appendix 1: The List of Errors in Disyllabic Verbs ........................ 64 Appendix 2: The List of Errors in Trisyllabic Verbs ........................ 66 Appendix 3: The List of Errors in Tetrasyllabic Verbs .................... 68 Appendix 4: The Blueprint of Interview Protocol ............................ 69 Appendix 5: The Samples of Interview Transcripts ......................... 70

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This chapter provides the introduction of the research. It consists of six

  parts. The first part is research background. It deals with the explanation of the underlying reasons of choosing verb stress as the topic of the research. The second part is research problem. In this part, it can be seen the research questions of this research. The third part is problem limitation. It limits the scope of the research related to the research questions which have been formulated. The fourth part presents the research objectives. This part answers the research questions of this research. The fifth part is research benefits, which explains the benefits and the contributions of the research for people or parties which have relationship with the topic. The last part of this chapter is definition of terms. In this part, there are definitions and explanations given for some terms which are important to understand this research.

A. Research Background

  Students of the English Language Education Study Program (ELESP) are expected to have four skills of English proficiencies; they are Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing. These four skills are very important for communicating with other people, especially for conducting a teaching learning process with their future students. The teacher candidates have to be able to not only recognize English language, but also produce a good English language because they have to

  One of the productive skills that should be mastered well by ELESP students is speaking skill. According to Brown (2004), speaking and listening are skills that have close relationship. Speaking is a productive skill in which the product of someone’s language can be seen and heard clearly by other people.

  People’s mastery on language can be seen directly from their speech. In writing, the errors are more on grammar and the choice of words, while in speaking there are more aspects to focus, such as the expression, body language, and intonation.

  In acquiring speaking skill, ELESP students have obtained many theories and they have been given chances to practice their speaking skills. Based on the 2006 curriculum, speaking courses are given at the first five semesters of studying at English Language Education Study Program. An important aspect of acquiring speaking skill is the mastery of pronouncing English words correctly. Pronunciation courses are given to ELESP students in the first two semesters in the beginning of the study. According to Prasetyo, Herawati, Prihatin, Budiraharjo and Adji (2007), there are many aspects of English pronunciation which are taught during the course, such as stress, rhythm, and intonation of words (p.73).

  Although the students have obtained what they need to be a good English speaker, the errors in their speeches are still visible. The most common error they do is in stressing words. Non-native speakers have a tendency not to pay attention to the word stress as long as they choose the right words to express their intention.

  However, errors in stressing English words can give a different meaning. For example, the stress of the word desert as a noun should be given on the penultimate syllable (DESSert / ' dez t/). When the speaker gives the stress on the ultimate syllable, it changes the meaning into dessert (dessERT /dɪ ' zɜ:t/), which is also a noun. Their meanings are very different. Desert means an arid land with little or no vegetation, while dessert means a dish served as the last course of the meal. Besides, putting the stress on the ultimate syllable causes the change of

  '

  the part of speech into verb. Desert (desERT /dɪ zɜ:t/) is a verb which means run away or leave behind. There is also deserts which means getting what you deserve and functions as plural noun. This word obtains stress on the ultimate

  ' :

  syllable and is pronounced as /dɪ zɜ ts/. Another common error is pronouncing some words which have two parts of speech. Present as a noun has a stress in the

  '

  penultimate syllable, so it becomes / prez nt/. While present as a verb has the stress in the ultimate syllable and is pronounced as /prɪ ' zent/.

  As teacher candidates, English Language Education Study Program students should know how to pronounce a word correctly, including to place where the stress is. Some mispronounced words will be very dangerous, especially when they are teaching their future students since teacher is the role model for the students. Instead of placing the stress on the penultimate syllable of

  '

  the word /dɪ vel p/, many students still pronounce it as /dev 'lɒp/. Later on, when they are teaching, that kind of error could lead their students astray.

  A good mastery of word stress will also be helpful for English as Foreign Language (EFL) students to listen to what a native speaker is saying. It helps them to understand English words in spoken form easier. When students have to listen to a native speaker who is speaking fast, they still can catch the words said by the speech, the speaker says the word photograph, but the students are confused whether they hear the word photograph or photographer. By listening to where the stress is given to those words, students can know what word the speaker said. The stress of the word photograph is given in the antepenultimate syllable / ' f ʊt .../, while the stress of the word photographer is given in the penultimate syllable /f ' tɒ.../.

  Not all English words should have a stress. Stress is given only for content words. Content words are verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs. This research focuses on observing students’ problem in placing stress for English verbs. Verb is chosen because the existence of the verb in a sentence is very important. A good sentence must have a subject and a verb, so the use of verb is easily found in a speech.

  The participants of this research are Sociolinguistic class students. In this class, the students have to make presentations about certain topics. Since they are in the sixth semester of the ELESP, it is assumed that they have been fluent in English because they have learned all the theories and even they have practiced how to pronounce English words well, how to put the stress of the words, or how to put the words correctly into a sentence. They must have a good speaking ability because they have to be a good model for their future students. However, there are some errors which are done by those teacher candidates in their presentations, especially in placing the stress of the words. That problem encourages the researcher to conduct a research to know problems which are still encountered by the sixth semester students of the English Language Education Study Program and what the causes of the problems are.

  B. Research Problem

  Based on the background, this research addresses two problems. They are:

  1. What are the problems in verb stress which are encountered by the sixth semester students of the English Language Education Study Program?

  2. What are the causes of the problems in verb stress which are encountered by the sixth semester students of the English Language Education Study Program?

  C. Problem Limitation

  This research focuses on the problems in verb stress which are encountered by the sixth semester students of the English Language Education Study Program. Accordingly, the other types of content words such as noun, adjective, or adverb will be ignored. It will not discuss the problems in word stress in general.

  Verb is chosen because its existence in a sentence is very essential. According to Brewton (1962), a sentence normally contains a subject and a predicate. This group of words also conveys one idea (p. 193). Furthermore, he states that the most important element in a sentence is the predicate verb (1962, p. 195). However, it does not mean that the other parts of speech are not important.

  Sociolinguistics course is chosen because the sixth semester students are expected to have good ability to speak in front of the class. In this course, every student should speak in their presentations. Therefore the researcher could obtain the data from the recordings of the presentations. The researcher will only include 2009 students in the 2011/2012 academic year since the similarity of the background of the participants is needed, so those who are not 2009 students will be ignored. Furthermore, the participants are categorized as having the same background if they have taken Pronunciation Practice 1 and 2 courses and they have finished all Speaking courses in ELESP, namely Interactional Speech I, Interactional Speech II, Transactional Speech, Public Speaking I, and Public Speaking II.

  D. Research Objectives

  This research aims to find out the problems in stressing verb which are encountered by the sixth semester students of English Language Education Study Program and what the causes of the problems are.

  E. Research Benefits

  This research is conducted in order to give contributions to the students and the lecturers of the English Language Education Study Program, and future researchers.

  1. The Sixth Semester Students This research shows the students’ problems in verb stress which are encountered during their presentation in Sociolinguistics course classes C and D.

  By knowing their problems, the students are expected to be more aware of their speech by encouraging themselves to improve their understanding on verb stress.

  Hopefully, this research also helps them to develop their knowledge about word stress, especially verb stress, so that they will not be confused anymore in placing the stress of the words and they will not make the same problems.

  2. The Lecturers of the English Language Education Study Program This research provides information for the lecturers, especially the lecturers who teach speaking and pronunciation, about students’ problems in learning stress placement of English words, especially verb. Besides, the lecturers can also know about the causes of the problems. As a result, they can help the students to overcome their problems in stress placement.

  3. Future Researchers This research also gives benefits to those who want to conduct further researches related to students’ problems in word stress. The researcher hopes this research could become a good reference for them. Future researchers could conduct an analysis on students’ problems in noun stress, adjective stress, or adverb stress. They can also analyze the sentence stress which is used by the students.

F. Definition of Terms

  This part explains the terms which are frequently used in this research in order to avoid misunderstanding. There are some terms which are considered as important terms. The terms and their definitions are explained as follows.

  1. Verb Stress According to Jones in An Outline of English Phonetics, stress “may be described as the degree of force with which a sound or syllable is uttered” (1987:

  245). This force includes the energetic action of the speaker and supported by the gestures as well. According to McMahon, stress “is a culminative property, signaled by a number of subsidiary phonetic factors, which work together to pick out a stressed syllable from the unstressed ones which surround it” (2002: 118).

  Stress is only given to content words, such as verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs, while articles, determiners, or prepositions are usually unstressed. In this research, the researcher only focuses on polysyllabic verbs in sentences which are uttered by the students of Sociolinguistics course while they are doing their presentations.

  2. The ELESP Students The participants of this research are the sixth semester students in

  Sociolinguistics course of the English Language Education Study Program. They are 2009 students in academic year 2011/2012. The sixth semester students are chosen because they have had enough knowledge of word stress and in this semester, they are doing their first teaching practice as a professional teacher.

  They have accomplished certain courses which support them to speak well in front of many people, namely Pronunciation Practice I and II, Interactional Speech I and II, Transactional Speech, and Public Speaking I and II. Considering their length of the study and their experiences which are not the same, those who

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE This chapter is divided into two parts: theoretical description and

  theoretical framework. Theoretical description deals with many theories which support this research. Meanwhile, theoretical framework synthesizes the theories mentioned in the previous part and tries to give a frame of how the two research questions will be answered.

A. Theoretical Description

  In this part, the researcher tries to obtain theories which support the research. The theories are used to answer the two research questions. This part has three subtopics, namely English word stress, English verbs, and overview of problems in English stress placement. English word stress discusses stress in general, English verbs discusses types of verbs in English and their rules of stress, and overview of problems in stress placement discusses problems in stress placement according to some experts.

1. English Word Stress This subtopic gives an overview of theories related to English word stress.

  This part discusses the stress in general and it has not focused on English verbs stress yet. It consists of three parts, namely definition of English word stress, stress placement system in English words, and the importance of English word stress.

  a. Definition of English Word Stress

  Stress can be described as the energy put on an uttered sound or syllable which is usually greater than the others (Jones, 1972, p. 245). Furthermore, Giegerich (1992) states that syllables which are uttered in sequences have different “degrees of prominence, or stress” (p. 179). Stress and prominence are not the same, although sometimes it is confusing to differentiate between those two terms. According to Jones (1972), “the prominence of a syllable is its degree of general distinctness, this being the combined effect of the tamber, length, stress, and (if voiced) intonation of the syllabic sound” (p. 246). Meanwhile, Jones (1972) explains that stress is not a combination of those three aspects but it only refers to “the degree of force of utterance” (p. 246). It does not have any relationship with length and intonation although sometimes they are combined. Most English words have one or more than one stressed syllables. When an English word – noun, verb, adjective or adverb – has more than one stressed syllables, there will be one “main stress” and the others are “subordinated” (Giegerich, 1992, p. 179).

  b. Stress Placement System in English Word

  Giegerich (1992) states that English stressed syllable is produced by giving more energy in pronouncing the words where the stress is given (p. 179).

  The energy is produced greater than in unstressed syllables. Furthermore, Giegerich (1992) also notes that “stress in English is phonemic” (p. 180). There are some words which are “segmentally identical” but actually different in nature there are three factors to predict stress, namely (1) stressed syllable is produced with higher frequency so that it produces higher pitch than the other syllables, (2) stressed syllable is uttered with longer time than the other syllables, and (3) stressed syllable is produced with greater intensity so it is louder than the other syllables (p. 118).

  Some English words only have one stressed and one unstressed syllables. However, in the word entertainment there are two stresses in the first and the third syllable. Both of them are pronounced with full vowels [ ] and [ei]. In that case, the third syllable of the word entertainment has the primary stress, while the first syllable has the secondary stress. The syllable where the primary stress is taken place obtains the main stress. The secondary stress is a lesser degree of stress elsewhere. Giegerich (1992) states that “secondary stress is stress that is weaker than the main (or ‘primary’) stress but stronger than that of an unstressed syllable” (p. 179).

  According to McMahon (2002), there are some general rules to make stress placement in English words become predicted, they are noun rule and verb rule (p. 180). Nouns are usually stressed in the penultimate syllable if the syllable is heavy. However, if the penultimate syllable is light, stress the antepenult. The examples are a'roma, a'genda, and 'discipline. The second rule is verb rule. Verbs are usually stressed on the ultimate syllable if the syllable is heavy. If the ultimate syllable is light, stress the penultimate syllable. The examples are o'bey, u'surp, 'tally, and 'hurry. According to Carr (1993), there are some structures of the syllables which can be described as heavy syllables, namely VV, VCC, or VVC. Those structures usually attract stress. Meanwhile, syllables which structures are V or VC are called as light syllables. Some light syllables must obtain stress if no heavy syllable exists. According to Giegerich (1992), when a light syllable take the stress, it becomes heavy through ambisyllabicity. Furthermore, he explains that ambisyllabicity is a device to make a light syllable become a heavy syllable if there is no heavy syllable available to take the stress (p.188). The examples of ambisyllabicity occur in the word de'velop, 'camera, 'discipline, and A'merica.

  According to Giegerich (1992), there are two possibilities of stress placement in English word, namely final stress and non-final stress (p. 183).

  There are predictions related to the final stress of English words. The first one is that all of final-stressed words do not end in a light syllable. The word ca'det, ca'nal, ca'noe, la'ment, and e'llipse have stress in the final syllable and all of them end in heavy syllables. There is a possibility when two-syllable words have two stresses. It means that there are stresses in every syllable. It happens only where the first syllable is also heavy, for example, compare bam'boo and ar'tiste with Ju'ly and ba'lloon (Giegerich, 1992, p. 183). Meanwhile, verbs and adjectives are more common with final stress, for examples o'bey, a'tone, bap'tise, ob'scene, di'vine, and se'cure (Giegerich, 1992, p. 184).

  Kenworthy (1987) states five rules of English word stress. Rule 1 is about placing stress in the first syllable when the first syllable is heavy (p. 63). This rule is applied in most nouns and adjective. Rule 2 talks about words which have two or three syllables and have a prefix. Most prefixes are never stressed, so that the stress for this type of word mostly falls on the second or third syllable. The majority of these words are verbs, e.g. infer, invite, understand, exhaust, and so on.

  Rule 3 says that suffixes are never stressed, the same as prefixes. In this part, Kenworthy (1987) also draws a conclusion that in words with four, five, or six syllables, the stress tends to fall in the middle of the words rather than in the first or the last syllable (p. 64). There are three points which are noted in Rule 3.

  First point is that there are many suffixes which cause the stress falls on the syllable before the suffix, they are –ive, -ient, -iant, -ial, -ion, -ic, -ian, -ious, -ical,

• -ity, iate, -iary, -iable, -ish, -ify, -ium, -ior, -io, -iar, and –ible. Second point is

  about the suffix ‘-able’which does not change the position of the stress from the base word. For example in the word ‘adapt’ the stress falls on the second syllable.

  When it becomes ‘adaptable’, stress will also be obtained by the second syllable. Third point occurs for words with four or more syllables. There are some suffixes which cause the stress falls on the fourth syllable from the end of the word. The suffixes are -ary (vocabulary), -ator (investigator), -mony (alimony), -acy (intimacy), and -ory (category).

  Rule 4 deals with compound words. Most compound words have stress on the first element, for example a newspaper, a grandfather, and a crossword.

  However, when the two words are used separately in a sentence, both obtain the same level of stress. For example, compare these two sentences: What a beautiful blackbird! What a big black bird!

  Rule 5 talks about words whose parts of speech are distinguished by the stress placement. Most of these words can function as a noun or a verb and, in only few cases, as a noun or an adjective. In this case, Rules 1 and 2 are applied. Most nouns will have stress on the first syllable and most verbs will have stress on the second syllable. The examples of the words are content, increase, import, export, and insult.

  Stress usually appears in spoken form of the words and it needs symbol to represent it in written text. Kenworthy (1987) mentions some notations which are usually used to symbolize the word stress (p. 29). There are some notations which are commonly used, they are (a) MENtion, (b) 'mention, (c) m ntion, (d) mention, and (e) O o. mention The notations above have their own advantages and disadvantages in the usage. The first notation (a) is difficult to use since the users should know the boundary of the syllable of each word so he can write in capital or not. Besides, it is not suitable for learners who are not accustomed to Roman alphabet, for example Chinese, Japanese, and Russian. The second notation (b) is widely used in many dictionaries and it is easy to use. However, some dictionaries define it differently. Some of them put it before stressed syllable while some others put it after. They who are not aware of this difference may be confused (Kenworthy, 1987, p. 29). The mark (ˇ) is also simple, but the users have to be careful to write it when there are two vowels in a syllable. In some other languages, putting that mark in two vowel letters means that they are pronounced separately.

  The underline mark is also easy to be used, but it has the same problem as the capitalization in (a). The user has to know the boundary of the syllable. The last notation is easily added and it can show the stress pattern whether the syllable is stressed or unstressed, for example o O, O o, and O o o. There is another notation to define a secondary stress. Most dictionaries use mark ( ) to note that a syllable has a secondary stress so that it acquires less energy than the main stress but greater energy than the rest.

c. The Importance of English Word Stress

  English is a language which has stress placement rules both for words and for sentences. In learning English, it is important to master word stress in order to acquire a good English skill, especially speaking skill. English listeners will need more efforts to understand the meaning of a sentence or even a word uttered by a non-native speaker if he pronounces it with the wrong stress pattern (Kenworthy, 1987, p. 28).

  In 1991, Sabater states that “stress and rhythm are suprasegmental aspects that give the overall shape to the word or sequence” (p. 146). Mastering word stress gives many advantages in learning English. Although some other languages do not put stress as a significant factor in learning language, English does not allow learners to give stress as they like (Giegerich, 1992, p. 180). Different placement of a stress could give different meaning of a word. By paying attention to stress placement, people can still understand the word although they do not hear it completely.

  Another consideration is that in mastering a language, learners cannot only master one aspect. Knowing how to pronounce a word is not enough. Learners have to concern also to various components of pronunciation such as sounds, stress, and variation in pitch (Kenworthy, 1987, p. 270). Those components help the learners to understand the function of the language in order to convey meanings.

2. English Verbs

  This subtopic consists of explanation about English verbs which is divided into two parts. The first part is types of verbs which tell about many types of verbs in English. The second part is stress placement in English verbs which gives explanation about how to put stress in English verbs.

a. Types of Verbs

  This part describes about many types of English verbs according to Bergman and Senn (1987). They divide verbs into four categories. The first category is action verbs, such as has, holds, and thought. The second is linking verbs, such as be, feel, and look. The third category is helping verbs or auxiliary verbs, such as be, have, and do. The fourth is verb phrase, such as are talking and

  have been performing.

  1) Action Verbs

  A verb is important in a sentence because without a verb, words cannot be united into a sentence (Bergman and Senn, 1987, p. 39). An action verb is a verb which tells about what is performed by the subject. To make sure whether the verb is an action verb or not, there is a question to ask, What is the subject doing?

  According to Bergman and Senn (1987), there are three things which can be seen in the use of action verbs, namely physical action, mental action, and ownership (p. 39). In the sentence “John holds his mother’s hand” there is an activity which is done by the subject. The activity is holds. The example of a sentence with mental action is “I thought about the physics test last night.”

  

Thought shows a mental action of the subject. While the word has in the sentence

“My little sister has a new bag” shows an ownership of the subject.

  2) Linking Verbs

  When there are verbs which show actions of the subject, there are also verbs which do not show actions. Those verbs are called state-of-being verbs.

  According to Bergman and Senn (1987), state-of-being verbs are often used as

  

linking verbs (p. 41). Those verbs are used to make statements about or to