A GRADUATING PAPER Submitted to the Board of Examiners as a partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan (S.Pd) in English Education Department of State Institute for Islamic Studies (IAIN) Salatiga
A ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS ’ ABILITY IN PRONOUNCING VOWEL /æ/, / ə/ AND /ɛ/
(A Quantitative Study of The Eighth Semester Student of English Education
Department of IAIN Salatiga in The Academic Year of 2016/2017)
A GRADUATING PAPER
Submitted to the Board of Examiners as a partial fulfillment of
the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan (S.Pd) in
English Education Department of State Institute for Islamic
Studies (IAIN) Salatiga
By :
Dwi Astutik
113-13-101
ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTEMENT
TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY
STATE INSTITUTE FOR ISLAMIC STUDIES (IAIN)
SALATIGA
2017
MOTTO “DONE IS BETTER THAN PERFECT” (Sheryl Sandberg)
”In every life we have some trouble. But
when you worry, you make it double” (Bobby McFerrin)“If you believe in yourself, anything is possible”
DEDICATION
The writer would like to dedicate this graduating paper to : My mother and my father for their endless support and prayer My brothers, my sisters and all my family for their encouragement My best friends that I could ever had. Amel, Jeni, Wiji, thank you so much for everything.
All of friends. Thank you for being there. Myself. This graduating paper will remind me that it took a very hard effort to finish.
ABSTRACT Astutik, Dwi. 2017.
An Analysis of Students’ Ability in Pronouncing Vowel /æ/, / ə/ and /ɛ/(A Quantitative Study of the Eighth Semester Students of English Education Department, IAIN Salatiga, Academic Year of 2016/2017). A Graduating Paper.English
Education Department. Teacher Training and Education Faculty. State Institute for Islamic Studies Salatiga. Counselor: Faizal Risdianto, S.S, M.Hum.
This research investigated pronunciation errors made by the eight semester students of IAIN Salatiga in pronouncing vowel /æ/, / ə/ and /ɛ/.
The objectives of the research were to analyze the profile of students’ mastery in pronouncing vowel /æ/, /
ə/ and /ɜ/ and to describethe dominant vowel mispronounced by students. The methodology of this research was a descriptive quantitative study. The writer used an audio recording of each respondents’s recording to get the data. Respondents were asked to read some words which consist ofvowel/æ/, /
ə/ and /ɜ/. Based on the data analysis, the respondents’ ability in pronouncing vowel /æ/, /ə/ and /ɛ/ was good.The most difficult type of vowel /æ/, / ə/ and /ɛ/ faced by the respondents’ was vowel /ə/. From the computation, 45.83% of the respondents were incorrect in pronouncing it.The problems encountered by the respondents in pronouncing vowel /æ/, /
ə/ and /ɛ/ may be caused by their lack of knowledge of the pronunciation of vowel /æ/, / ə/ and /ɛ/.
It is also possible that they know the theory well, but they are not able to practice it orally.
Key words:Pronunciation, Vowel
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE ............................................................................................................................... i DECLARATION ............................................................................................................ ii ATTENTIVE COUNSELOR........................................................................................... iii CERTIFICATION PAGE ................................................................................................ iv MOTTO ........................................................................................................................... v DEDICATION ................................................................................................................. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ............................................................................................. vii ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... ix TABLE OF CONTENT ................................................................................................... x LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................... xii LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................... xiii
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study ................................................................................ 1 B. Problem of the Study ...................................................................................... 6 C. Objective of the Study .................................................................................... 6 D. Limitation of the Study ................................................................................. 6 E. Significance of the Study .............................................................................. 6 F. Definition of the Key Terms .......................................................................... 8 G. Research Paper Organization .......................................................................... 8 CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW A. Definition of Pronunciation........................................................................... 10 B. Speech organ ................................................................................................. 12 C. English Sounds ............................................................................................. 17 1. Consonant .............................................................................................. 18 2. Vowel ...................................................................................................... 20 3. Diphthong .............................................................................................. 27
D.
Problems in Pronunciation ........................................................................... 28 E. Previous Researches ..................................................................................... 33
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY OF THE RESEARCH A. Resesarch Approach ...................................................................................... 37 B. Research Design ............................................................................................ 38 C. Subject of the Study ..................................................................................... 39 1. Population ......................................................................................... 39 2. Sample ............................................................................................... 40 D. Location of the Study .................................................................................... 40 E. Research Instrument ..................................................................................... 41 F. Technique of Data Collection ...................................................................... 41 G. Technique of Analyzing Data ...................................................................... 42 CHAPTER IV DATA PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION A. Data Presentation .......................................................................................... 45 B. Discussion ................................................................................................... 46 1. Calculation of the Score ......................................................................... 53 2. Interpretation of the Data ........................................................................ 56 CHAPTER V CLOSURE A. Conclusion ................................................................................................... 58 B. Suggestion .................................................................................................... 59 REFERENCES APPENDICES
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1 English Phonetic Alphabet .................................................................... 17Table 2.2 List of English Consonants ................................................................... 18Table 2.3 Front Vowel .......................................................................................... 21Table 2.4 Central Vowel ....................................................................................... 22Table 2.5 Back Vowel ........................................................................................... 23Table 2.6 Diphthong Sounds ................................................................................. 28Table 3.1 Pronunciation Test ............................................................................... 42Table 3.2 Respondents’ Test Analysis .................................................................. 43Table 3.3 Students’ Mastery Level used in Tinambunan’s Criterion .................... 44
Table 4.1 Summary of the Respondents’ Test Result ........................................... 53Table 4.2 Profile of Respondents’ Vowel Test ..................................................... 54
LIST OF FIGURES
Figures 2.1 Pronunciation Features ....................................................................... 12
Figure 2.2 Speech Organs ...................................................................................... 17Figures 2.3 Place of English Sound ....................................................................... 20 Figures 2.4 Articulation of Vowel Sound .............................................................. 25
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study Language is a means of communication in everyday life. It is used
as a bridge of communication among people. People are able to share ideas, opinions, interests and many other things through language. One of most spoken language in this global world is English . For many years, English has been used globally by non-native speakers as an international language. Pennington (1996 : 12) argues that English has two functions in what may be called ‘un-English’ contexts covering a very wide territory, and is used in a variety of domains such social, cultural, educational, media-related, administrative and literary. It is used primarily for international communication’.
It is really important to learn about English, so that we can communicate with others, especially foreigners, without any obstacles. In Indonesia, English is considered as the first foreign language that is taught formally from elementary school up to university level. Even, now, some kindergartens also teach basic English to their students. Students only learn English at school, so it makes them get some difficulties when learning this language. As a result, students do mistakes and errors in learning this language both of skills and components.
English has four skills: reading, speaking, listening, and writing, and three components: grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation.In terms of speaking, teachers should be concerned about the micro skills. One of the micro skills is pronunciation. The aspects of pronunciation that can be taught consist not only the segmental features like how to pronounce vowels and consonants correctly but also the suprasegemental features such as rhythm and intonation. Teacher needs to realize how important pronunciation is. Students who cannot pronounce well cannot express what they really intend to and may lose their confidence.
Pronunciation is a very important element of foreign language learners. There are so many problems with understanding English spoken at a natural speed by native speakers who speak with various accents. Non-native English also have problems in speaking to and being understood by others. Some students still have problems. One of the problems is dealing with phonetic understanding. Because every English learner has their own phonetic words dealing with their native language such as Javanese, Indonesian, Chinese, Japanese, etc. (Hughes et al, 2003 : 4).
Realizing the importance of pronunciation, teachers should be able to convince students so that they have willingness to improve their English pronunciation. The pronunciation teaching is not expected to get students to have native-like pronunciation but the students can achieve at least the minimum requirement of good pronunciation.
According to Manser, pronunciation is defined as the way in which languages or words are spoken (Manser, 1991 : 330). It's also dealing with the way in which someone speaks of foreign language. Pronunciation is important in English because mispronunciations will make hearer misunderstand about the meaning of utterance. Pronunciation is clearly a central factor in people’s success in making themselves understood since it is the way of sounding those languages. Moreover, pronunciation is considered as one of the three components of languages, together with grammar and vocabulary. It plays an important part in listening, and speaking skill, so developing students pronunciation is one of the most important tasks for English teachers.
The general aim of teaching English to the students of English Department of School of Teacher Training and Education is to make them master all skills of language (listening, speaking, reading and writing).
Besides, it is master the content courses such as linguistics (phonology, morphology, syntax) and literature. When they are graduated from the university, they are expected to be proficient in English as well as professional in teaching it. To meet the goals, several different linguistics factors such as pronunciation, grammar, lexicon (vocabulary and idiom), style (appropriate to the situation), function and discourse have become the learners’ aim and the teachers’ task (Syafei, 1988 : I).
Pronunciation plays a significant part in our personal and social lives because the way we speak reflects our identities, and indicates our association to particular communities (Seidlhofer, 2001: 112). For university students, making errors when pronouncing English words can be embarrassing especially when they have to make presentations or oral reports of their assignments. As a result, many are self-conscious and this in turn affects their confidence when presenting.
As one of language components, pronunciation is a neccessity for students but, the reality, Indonesian learners could not produce English words correctly. They get confused when producing English words. It is because there are differences between Bahasa Indonesia and English. The first is differences in the number of vowel sounds. Bahasa Indonesia have six vowel sounds namely /i/, /u/, /o/, /a/, /e/, and /
ə/ while English has twelve vowel sounds; /i:/, / ɪ/, /ɛ/, /æ/, /ʌ/, /ɑ:/, /ɒ/, /ɔ:/, /ʊ/, /u:/, /ɜ:/, and /ǝ/.
The second is English is known as inconsistent language. For example words good this word should be pronounced as /g
ʊd/. Contrary, Bahasa
Indonesia is consistent language. The way words were spelling is the way to be pronounced. For example “dia” it should be pronounced /dia/.The third is teacher’s way of speaking. Students usually imitates their teacher. They speak as their teachers do, but sometimes teachers also make errors themselves. The fourth is students’ confidences. Some students are comparatively quiet and shy, which works to their disadvantage in speaking. They are afraid of making mistakes. They feel uncomfortable in their first attempt at speech in English and they are afraid of failure, laughter and ridicule ( Xu Li Hua, 1991 : 67 ). The ability of speaking
English embodies the correctness of pronunciation and intonation directly affects the appropriate communication in conversation.
Pronunciation refers to the description of sound symbol phonetically which described in alphabetical form. Alphabetical consist of two aspects namely consonant and vowel that has the differences in sounds and symbo ls. From the writer’s point of view, pronouncing English vowel seems to be more difficult rather than pronouncing English consonants. It is proved that there are still many students who do not success to pronounce English vowel correctly. For example, a lot of students still pronounce the word “that” as /thɛt/ or /thʌt/ instead of /thæt/.
For these reasons, the writer interested to conduct a research to find some common errors made by students of IAIN Salatiga in pronouncing some certain vowels of English. The writer does hope that the result of this research can be used as a feedback for the lecturer and students’ improvement in learning English pronunciation.
Based on the explanation above, the writer conducts a paper entitled “AN ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN PRONOUNCING VOWEL /æ/, /
ə/ AND /ɛ/ (A QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF THE EIGHTH SEMESTER STUDENTS OF ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF IAIN SALATIGA IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2016/2017.
”
B. Problem of the Study
Based on the background of the study above, the problems of the study can be formulated as follows:
1. What is the profile of students
’ mastery in pronouncing vowel /æ/, /
ə/ and /ɛ/?
2. What is the dominant vowel that mispronounced by students? C.
Objectives of the Study
Based on the problems of the study, the objectives of the study are : 1.
To analyze the profile of students’ mastery in pronouncing vowel /æ/, / ə/ and
/ ɛ/.
2. To describe the dominant vowel that mispronounced by the students.
D. Limitation of the Study
Based on the problem above, the writer focuses on analyzing the students’ ability in pronouncing English words that contain vowel /æ/, /
ə/ and /ɛ/ and describing the dominant vowel that mispronounced by students.
E. Significance of the Study
There are two kinds of importance of this research; theoretical and practical. The expected advantages of the study both theoretical and practical are:
1. Theoretical contribution a.
The writer does hope that this research can give a contribution in giving information on how to pronounce some English vowels correctly b. This study offers some advantages especially for the writer herself, the respondents, and all university students toward their pronunciation c. The result of this research can be used as the references for those who want to conduct a research in improving students ability in pronouncing English vowels 2. Practical contribution
a. For the lecturer The writer expects that the result of this research will help lecturer to teach how to pronounce English vowels appropriately.
b. For the students Students are able to know what errors that they made when they are pronouncing English vowels. They also can improve their pronunciation after realizing errors that they have made.
F. Definition of the Key Terms
To avoid misunderstanding, the key terms were defined as follow: 1.
Pronunciation The word pronunciation is defined as the way in which language or words are spoken (Manser, 1991 : 30). This term is closely examined in the study of phonetics and phonology.
2. Analysis The terms analysis is defined by Audi (1999) as a process of breaking up a concept, proposition, linguistic complex, or fact into its simple ultimate constituents.
3. Vowel According to Jones (1975 : 23), a vowel (in normal speech) is defined as a voiced sounds in forming which the air issues in continuous stream through the pharynx and mouth, there being no obstruction and no narrowing such as would cause audible friction.
G. Research Paper Organization
This graduating paper consists of five chapters. Each chapters are discussed as follows : Chapter I contains introduction which covers the background of the research, the statement of the problem, objectives of the study, limitation of the problem, significance of the research, definitions of the key terms and research paper organization.
Chapter II is literature review. It consists of the underlying theories that include the definition of pronunciation, speech organs, English sound, problems in pronunciation, and previous researches.
Chapter III is about methodology of the research which consists of research approach, research design, subject of the research, location of the research, research instrument, technique of data collection, and technique of analyzing data.
Chapter IV is data analysis. It presents the analysis of the data collected and the discussion the finding of the research. Chapter V is closure. It is the last part of this graduating paper which contains conclusion and suggestion.
CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW In order to support my research, large amount of information and ideas
are absolutely needed in carrying out this study. That is why, the writer used many reference textbooks that are related to the subject matter and other resources, such as materials from internet and the reports of previous studies and researches on similar topic. This chapter consists of definition of pronunciation, speech organs, English sound, problems in pronunciation and previous researches.
A. Definition of Pronunciation
English has four skills: reading, speaking, listening, and writing, and three components: grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. Pronunciation is the way in which language or words are spoken (Manser, 1991 : 30). It plays a significant role in our personal and social lives because the way we speak reflects our identities, and indicates our association to particular communities (Seidlhofer, 2001 : 23). The more good our pronunciation, the more easy for us to communicate with others. It is important for students to have a good pronunciation because students can convey their thoughts, opinions, ideas, feelings, so on clearly. It does not mean that students need to have a native- like pronunciation. As Levis (2005 : 310) states that “…aiming for nativeness was an unrealist ic burden for both teacher and learner”. It is impossible for non native to speak as perfect as native does but at least students have the minimum requirement of good pronunciation.
Meanwhile, Goodwin as cited in Celce-Murcia (2006 : 117) states that pronunciation is the language feature that most readily identifies speakers as nonnative. Since it can identify us as non-native, we do not need to pronounce like the way native speaker do. However, we need to be minimally intelligible while speaking. She added that when teachers find students who have difficulty in speaking, teachers need to assist them through improving their pronunciation. Seidlhofer (1995) as cited in Celce-Murcia (2006:117) says “Pronunciation is never an end in itself but a means of negotiating meaning in discourse, embedded in specific sociocultural and interpersonal contexts.” Producing sentences can have different meaning related to the way people pronounce sentences. Indeed, pronunciation needs to be taught to students.
There are many experts that have views what pronunciation in language teaching is. Kelly (2000:1) is one that views pronunciation through the constituent parts. He argues that pronunciation has two main features namely phonemes and suprasegmental features. He has broken down the main features of pronunciation and explains it by showing a diagram below.
Figures 2.1 Pronunciation Features B. Speech Organ
In speaking a language we use speech sounds as the signals to convey message. Ramelan, (2003 : 17) states that speech sounds are sounds produced by speech organs which include mouth and the respiratory organs. The human being has a mechanism of sound production in his body as stated by Indriani below:
“Man has, in common with any other animals, the ability to produce sounds by certain of body‟s mechanism. The most visual sources of energy for our vocal activity is provided by air stream expelled from the lungs. The air stream provided by the lungs undergoes important modification in the upper stages of respiratory tract before it acquires the quality of a speech sound. First of all, in the trachea or windpipe, its process to the larynx, containing the so-ca lled „vocal cords‟ “ (Indriani, 2003 : 1). It is clear that human has a sound production mechanism in his body. The term used to cover it, is called speech organs. On the basis of their function, Ramelan, (2003 : 18) divide the speech organs into three as follows:
1. Initiator: speech organ that sets the air in motion for the production of speech sounds. It is the lungs that play the role as the main initiator.
2. Phonator: refer to the vocal cords in the larynx, which are used to produce speech sounds called “voice”.
3. Articulator: involves what is available in the mouth and throat. All the sounds we make when we speak are the result of muscles contracting. The muscles in the chest that we use for breathing produce the flow of air that is needed for almost all speech sounds; muscles in the larynx produce many different modifications in the flow of air from the chest to the mouth. After passing through the larynx, the air goes through what we call the vocal tract , which ends at the mouth and nostrils. Here the air from the lungs escapes into the atmosphere. We have a large and complex set of muscles that can produce changes in the shape of the vocal tract, and in order to learn how the sounds of speech are produced it is necessary to become familiar with the different parts of the vocal tract. These different parts are called articulators , and the study of them is called articulatory phonetics .
a) The articulators 1.
The pharynx is a tube which begins just above the larynx. It is about 7 cm long in women and about 8 cm in men, and at its top end it is divided into two, one part being the back of the mouth and the other being the beginning of the way through the nasal cavity. If you look in your mirror with your mouth open, you can see the back of the pharynx.
2. The velum or soft palate is seen in the diagram in a position that allows air to pass through the nose and through the mouth. Yours is probably in that position now, but often in speech it is raised so that air cannot escape through the nose. The other important thing about the velum is that it is one of the articulators that can be touched by the tongue.
When we make the sounds k and g the tongue is in contact with the lower side of the velum, and we call these velar consonants.
3. The hard palate is often called the "roof of the mouth". You can feel its smooth curved surface with your tongue.
4. The alveolar ridge is between the top front teeth and the hard palate. You can feel its shape with your tongue. Its surface is really much rougher than it feels, and is covered with little ridges. You can only see these if you have a mirror small enough to go inside your mouth (such as those used by dentists). Sounds made with the tongue touching here (such as t and d ) are called alveolar.
5. The tongue is a very important articulator and it can be moved into many different places and different shapes. It is usual to divide the tongue into different parts, though there are no clear dividing lines within the tongue. Fig. 2 shows the tongue on a larger scale with these parts shown: tip , blade, front , back and root . (This use of the word "front" often seems rather strange at first.) 6. The teeth (upper and lower) are usually shown in diagrams like Fig. 1 only at the front of the mouth, immediately behind the lips. This is for the sake of a simple diagram, and you should remember that most speakers have teeth to the sides of their mouths, back almost to the soft palate. The tongue is in contact with the upper side teeth for many speech sounds. Sounds made with the tongue touching the front teeth are called dental .
7. The lips are important in speech. They can be pressed together (when we produce the sounds p , b ), brought into contact with the teeth (as in f , v), or rounded to produce the lip-shape for vowels like uù . Sounds in which the lips are in contact with each other are called bilabial , while those with lip-to-teeth contact are called labiodental . The seven articulators described above are the main ones used in speech, but there are three other things to remember.
Firstly, the larynx could also be described as an articulator
- – a very complex and independent one. Secondly, the jaws
Figures 2.2 Speech Organ C. English Sounds
In English, the phonetic alphabet is usually divided in two main categories, that are vowels and consonants. Generally, English phonetic alphabet can be described as follows :
Table 2.1 English Phonetic AlphabetA A [ei] N N [en] B B [bi:] O O [ou] C C [si:] P P [pi:]
D D [di:] Q Q [kju:]
E E [i:] R R [a:] F F [ef] S S [es]
G G [ji:] T T [ti:] H H [eich] U U [ju:]
I I [ai]
V V [vi:] J J [jei] W W [dablju:]
K K [kei]
X X [eks] L L [el] Y Y [wai]
M M [em] Z Z [zed] While Sahulata (1988:29) classifies English sounds into three categories. They are consonants, vowels, and diphthong.
1. Consonants
English has 24 consonants. They are /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/, /f/, /v/, / θ/, /ð/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /h/, /t/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/, /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /l/, /r/, /w/.
Table 2.2 List of English ConsonantsIPA Symbol
Dictionary Symbol
English Example /p/ P pay, apple, stop /b/ B bat, rabbit, tub
/t/ T top, cutter, cat /d/ D dog, ladder, bed
/k/ K car, cookie, cake /g/ G go, begin, egg
/f/ F fun, office, scoff /v/ V very, savory, have
Th think, bathtub, month /Ө/
/ð/ Th these, father, breathe /s/ S sit, whisper, kiss
/z/ Zh zoo, busy, buzz Sh shoe, luscious, wish
/∫/ / Zh rouge, vision, measure
ʒ/
/h/ H hat, behind /m/ M me, sophomore, slum
/n/ N no, running, gun / Ng swing, singer, swimming
ŋ/
/ Ch chair, catcher, witch
ʧ/
/ J jaw, magic, age
ʤ/
/w/ W we, away /j/ Y yes, emulate /l/ L lamp, pillow, pull
/r/ R red, marry, car
2. Vowels
According to Jones (1975 : 23), a vowel (in normal speech) is defined as a voiced sounds in forming which the air issues in continuous stream through the pharynx and mouth, there being no obstruction and no narrowing such as would cause audible friction.
Figure 2.3 Place of English SoundEnglish has 12 (twelve) pure vowels. They are /i/, / ɪ/,
/e/,/
ɛ/,/æ/, /ɑ/, /ə/, /Ʌ/, /ɚ/, /ɝ/, /u/, /ʋ/, /o/, and /ɔ/. Jackson (1980:
20) classifies vowels into three kinds, they are front vowels, central vowels, and back vowels: a.
Front vowel In articulation, front of vowel consist of six phoneme:
/i/, / ɪ/, /e/, /
ɛ/, /æ/ and /ɑ/. The manner of articulation of
these vowels are voiced such as consonant and the place of articulation also like consonants that is based on the location of the tongue within the mouth.
Table 2.3 Front Vowel Sounds DistinctionThis is the highest and most forward front
/i/ vowel.
Examples: beat /bit/, feed /fid/, city /sIti/, and sheep / ʃip/ / This is a bit lower and further back than /i/.
ɪ/
Examples: bit /b
ɪt/, fit /fɪt/, slid /slɪd/, and ship
/ ʃ
ɪp/ /e/ This is a mid-front vowel.
Examples: bait /bet/, raid /red/ and made /med/
/ This is a mid-front vowel that is beginning to ɛ/
get a little low. Examples: bet /b
ɛt/, red /rɛd, lead /lɛd, and bed
/b
ɛd/
/æ/ The tongue is getting quite low here, but it is sill near the front of the mouth.
Examples: bat /bæt/, ladder /læd/, fad /fæd/ / This is the lowest and furthest back of the front
ɑ/ vowels. Examples: body /b
ɑdi/, pot /pɑt/, and hobby /hɑbi/ b.
Central Vowel In articulation, central vowel consist of four
/ə/, /Ʌ/, /ɚ/ and / ɝ/. There is really only one central vowel in English, but we have different signs for stressed and unstressed
:
sounds
Table 2.4 Central Vowel Sounds Distinction/ This is the unstressed central vowel. It is so ə/ important a sound it even has a name: schwa.
Examples: America / əmɛrɪkə/, and Korea
/k əriə/ This is the stressed central vowel. /Ʌ/
Examples: lucky /lɅki/, up /Ʌp/, and but /bɅt/ / ɚ/ This is the r-colored unstressed central vowel.
Examples: lover /lɅvɚ/, and sister /sɪstɚ/ / This is the stressed central vowel. ɝ/
Examples: dirt /d ɝt/, herb /ɝb/, and fur /fɝ/ Basically, / ə/ and /ᴧ/ are the same sound. The difference in location of the tongue when they are produced is tiny.
They have been given different symbols because, in English, it is very important that we distinguish between stressed and unstressed sounds.
c.
Back Vowel In articulation of back vowel consist of four /u/, / ʋ/, /o/, and /
ɔ/. Back vowels in English are rounded. The basic problem with this is that they are not all rounded to the same degree. The place of articulation for back vowels, like front vowels and consonants, is based on the location of the tongue within the mouth. Because the tongue does not touch any thing, this makes finding the location much harder.
Table 2.5 Back Vowel Sounds Distinction/u/ This is the highest and most back of the English vowels. This is a tense sound in that the lips are taut when you are making the sound. Examples: you /ju/, dude /dud/, food /fud/, and fuel /fjul/ / ʋ/ This is a little bit further forward and lower than /u/. This sound is lax. Your lips are rounded but in a relaxed way. Examples: book /b
ʋk/, could /kʋd/, and wood /w
ʋd/ /o/ This is a central back vowel. This sound also has a longer more rounded version which is sometimes written /o/ Examples: boat /bot/, over /ovo/, drove /drov/, and show /
ʃo/ / ɔ/ This is the lowest and furthest forward of all the back vowels.
Examples: call /k ɔl/, awful /ɔful/, horse /hɔrs/, and halt /h
ɔlt/ Those categories of vowel above indicates that the vowels are more harder than consonant because vowels are include various part of tongue. Therefore, it needs special technique for English learners to learn how to correctly pronunce of vowels. Tomake easy pronunciation of vowels Gilbert (2008 : 27) states there are two rules how to correctly pronunce of vowels.
1) The two vowel rule: If there are two vowel letters in a short word, the first vowel sounds like its alphabet name. The second vowel is silent.
/ey/ /iy/ /ay/ /ow/ /uw/ cake these ice cone fruit main cream pie soap Sue
2) The one vowel rule: If there is only one vowel letter in a short word, it sounds like a relative of the alphabet vowel.
/æ/ / ɛ/
/I/ / ɒ/ /Ʌ/
Had bed his hot sun Jan Ben Kim John Russ
Beside those three categories above, there are three positions of lips which are used in describing the articulation of vowel sound :
Figures 2.4 Articulation of Vowel Sound
1. Rounded The lips are pushed forward into the shape of circle. Example sound : /u/
2. Spread The corners of the lips are moved away from each other as when smiling. Example sound : /i:/
3. Neutral The lips are not noticeably rounded or spread.
Example sound : /ə/
4. Vowel /æ/ Example Among all English vowels, the greatest problem for most learners poses “æ”. It is somewhere between “a” in “father” and
“e” in “bed”. It is usually pronounced slightly longer in American English than in British English. It is always represented by the letter “a” in a stressed closed syllable, but not all such occurrances are pronounced as [æ].
5. Vowel /ɛ/
Example This vowel is the closest one to the sound of the letter “e” in most other languages and is sometimes denoted by “e” in dictionaries (for example in the one I am linking to). It is usually represented by an “e” in a closed stressed syllable, but often also by “ai”, e.gand others.
6. Vowel /ə/
Example
Most learners of English learn very fast how to pronounce
“a” when it means an indefinite article, and this is exactly the pronunciation of [ə]. It can be represented by any vowel (a, e, i, o, u) in an unstressed syllable, see the examples above. When represented by “a” or “i”, it is often freely interchangeable with [ɪ]; for example “terrible” can be pronounced either /ˈtɛrəbl/, or /ˈtɛrɪbl/.
7. Diphthong
According to Ramelan (1999 : 81) diphthong is a kind of vowel sound with a special feature; that is there is a deliberate glide made from one vowel position to another vowel position, and which is produced in one syllable. Further, Ramelan classifies diphthong into two categories, they are closing and centering diphthongs.
a.
Closing diphthong occurs when the movement of the tongue is carried out from the position of open vowel to that of a closer vowel. There are five closing diphthongs in English. They are /e
ɪ/, /o ʊ, /aɪ/, /aʊ/, and /ɔɪ/. b.
Meanwhile, when the movement of the tongue is carried out towards the central vowel / ə/, the diphthong is called a centering diphthong. There are four centering diphthongs; /
ɪə/, /ɛə/, /ʊə/, and / ɔə/ (Ramelan, 1999: 82).
Table 2.6 Diphthong Sounds No Symbols Key-words Phonetic Writing1 /e Day /de ɪ/ ɪ/ 2 /o So /so
ʊ/ ʊ/ 3 /a High /ha ɪ/ ɪ/ 4 /a Cow /ka
ʊ/ ʊ/ 5 / Boy /b ɔɪ/ ɔɪ/ 6 / Here /h ɪə/ ɪə/ 7 / There /ð
ɛə/ ɛə/ 8 / Poor /p ʊə/ ʊə/ 9 / ɔə/ Your /y ɔə/
D. Problems in Pronunciation
In our country English plays as a foreign language. It means that people use English only in school when they have the lesson in the classroom. Since it is rarely used by people as medium of communication, students may find many difficulties in pronunciation of English. When a baby starts to talk, he does it by listening to the sound of his mother and he will automatically imitate his mother. Ramelan states that mother tongue has been deeply implanted in him as part of his habits (1999 : 4). Moreover Ramelan says that it will be difficult for him to change the habit of moving his speech organs in such a way as to produce the foreign sounds. It is understandable since the movements of his speech organs have been set to producethe speech sounds of his own language.
Kelly (2006 : 4) says that the set of sounds we acquire, however, may vary : a child brought up in an English-speaking environment will develop the phonemes of English, a French-speaking child will develop a different set, and so on. In other words, an Indonesian-speaking child also will develop the phonemes of Indonesian which are difficult to change.
The difficulty encountered by the student in learning a second language is caused by the different elements found between his language and the target language (Ramelan, 1999:5). Further Ramelan says that the degree of difficulty in learning is also determined by the degree of difference between the two languages. The greater the similarity between them, the less difficult it will be for the student to learn the foreign language. This opinion is the same as that of Lado (in Odlin, 1993 :15) which reads as follows :
We assume that the student who comes in contact with a foreign language will find some features of it quite easy and others extremely difficult. Those elements that are similar to his native language will be simple for him, and those elements that are different will be difficult.
Moreover, Ramelan (1999:7) points out the nature of pronunciation problems in learning a foreign language as follows : Firstly, the problem is concerned with the identification of the foreign sounds. Learners have to remember their acoustic qualities so that they will be able todirectly identify them in an utterance. Secondly, the problem is concerned with the production of sounds by their speech organs. They should be able to hear and identify the acoustic quality of the foreign sounds in order to be able to produce them. The last problem is concerned with the production of suprasegmental features like stress, length, pitch, and intonation.
According to Arini (2009), there are two common mistakes that a learner makes. First, they fail to make long vowels or diphthongs when it is followed by voiced consonants. Secondly, they fail to shorten long vowels or diphthongs when it is followed by voiceless consonants. Arini adds that there are other problems or difficulties related to pronunciation. One of them is hearing problem. People have different hearing ability. It affects people to make mistakes when pronouncing words. O’Connor (1998: 1) gives a good illustration related to how important our ears are. He says:
Language starts with the ear. When a baby starts to talk he does it by hearing the sounds his mother makes and imitating them. If a baby is born deaf he cannot hear these sounds and therefore cannot imitate them and will not speak.
So does English. If one cannot listen to English pronunciation well, he cannot produce it well too. Kelly (2000 : 8) makes a brief and clear explanation related to difficulties may be faced by individual learners. They are : 1.
The learner’s first language may have a one-to-one relationship between sounds and spelling. The concept of there not being such a relationship may be new.
2. Even if such a concept is not new for the learner, they will have to become familiar with new sound-spelling relationships.
3. There may be sounds, and combinations of sounds in L1, which do not occur in English.
4. There may be sounds, and combinations of sounds, used in English which do not occur in L1.
5. English may use stress and intonation patterns which feel strange to the learner.