THE MASTERY OF STRESS PLACEMENT OF NOUNS AMONG THE SECOND SEMESTER STUDENTS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM A Thesis Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education

  

THE MASTERY OF STRESS PLACEMENT OF NOUNS

AMONG THE SECOND SEMESTER STUDENTS

OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

A Thesis

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

  By Nina Kenyar

  Student Number: 041214083

  

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION

FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

  

THE MASTERY OF STRESS PLACEMENT OF NOUNS

AMONG THE SECOND SEMESTER STUDENTS

OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

A Thesis

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

  By Nina Kenyar

  Student Number: 041214083

  

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION

FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

  A Thesis on

THE MASTERY OF STRESS PLACEMENT OF NOUNS AMONG THE SECOND SEMESTER STUDENTS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

  By Nina Kenyar

  Student Number: 041214083 Approved by

  Date Carla Sih Prabandari, S.Pd., M.Hum.

  26 September 2009 Sponsor A Thesis on

THE MASTERY OF STRESS PLACEMENT OF NOUNS AMONG THE SECOND SEMESTER STUDENTS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

  By Nina Kenyar

  Student Number: 041214083 Defended before the Board of Examiners on 9 October 2009 and Declared Acceptable

  Board of Examiners Chairperson : Ag. Hardi Prasetyo, S.Pd., M.A.

  Secretary : Made Frida Yulia, S.Pd., M.Pd. Member : Carla Sih Prabandari, S.Pd., M.Hum. Member : Ag. Hardi Prasetyo, S.Pd., M.A. Member : Made Frida Yulia, S.Pd., M.Pd.

  Yogyakarta, 9 October 2009 Faculty of Teachers Training and Education

  Sanata Dharma University Dean,

  

STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY

  I honestly declare that this 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, 26 September 2009 The Writer

  Nina Kenyar 041214083

  

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN

PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

  Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma: Nama : Nina Kenyar Nomor Mahasiswa : 041214083 Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:

  

THE MASTERY OF STRESS PLACEMENT OF NOUNS

AMONG THE SECOND SEMESTER STUDENTS

OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

  Beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada).Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan 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 royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.

  Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggal: 9 Oktober 2009 Yang menyatakan, Nina Kenyar

  

ABSTRACT

  Kenyar, Nina. 2009. The Mastery of Stress Placement of Nouns among the Second

Semester Students of the English Language Education Study Program .

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

  This study aimed to investigate the mastery of stress placement of nouns among the second semester students of the English Language Education Study Program. There were two research questions: (1) How well is the students’ mastery of stress placement of disyllabic nouns, trisyllabic nouns, tetrasyllabic nouns, affix nouns, and compound nouns? (2) What errors do they make toward the disyllabic nouns, trisyllabic nouns, tetrasyllabic nouns, affix nouns, and compound nouns?

  To answer the research questions, the researcher used content analysis and library research. In content analysis, the writer analyzed the data which were the students’ speeches that had been recorded. The data were gathered by recording students’ speeches when they were doing Interactional Speech II test. Furthermore, library research was used to obtain the theory of stress placement of noun. Those theories were applied to analyze the data and to draw conclusion.

  After conducting the research, the writer discovered that the second semester students of the English Language Education Study Program had not mastered the stress placement of nouns yet. The conclusion was derived from the results of the study which were all below 49% and classified as ‘the students do not master nouns stress placement yet’. Moreover, there were three kinds of errors made by the participants. The first kind of word stress errors the participants made was misplacing the stress. The stress that was supposed to fall on the first syllable would fall on the second syllable. The second kind of word stress errors made by the participants was double-stressing the word that actually only have one stressed syllable. The trisyllabic word that was supposed to have stress on its first syllable would have stress on its first and third syllables. This error only happened to the words that had three syllables or more. The last kind of word stress errors found was the participants put the equal stress to the syllables, either both syllables unstressed or even stressed. Finally, the researcher expected the students to consult the dictionary in order to acquire knowledge about word stress placement.

  

ABSTRAK

  Kenyar, Nina. 2009. The Mastery of Stress Placement of Nouns among the Second

Semester Students of the English Language Education Study Program .

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

  Studi ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji penguasaan mahasiswa semester dua Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris terhadap penempatan tekanan kata pada kata-kata benda. Terdapat dua pertanyaan dalam studi ini: (1) Seberapa baik penguasaan mahasiswa semester dua Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris terhadap penempatan tekanan kata pada kata-kata benda yang memiliki dua suku kata, tiga suku kata, empat suku kata, imbuhan, dan gabungan dengan kata lainnya. (2) Kesalahan apa saja yang dilakukan oleh mahasiswa semester dua tersebut dalam menempatkan tekanan kata pada kata-kata benda yang memiliki dua suku kata, tiga suku kata, empat suku kata, imbuhan, dan gabungan dengan kata lainnya. Untuk menjawab pertanyaan-pertanyaan tersebut, penulis menggunakan metode content analysis dan library research. Dalam content analysis, penulis menganalisa data yang berupa pidato para peserta yang sudah direkam sebelumnya. Data tersebut diambil saat para peserta melakukan ujian

  

Interactional Speech II . Selanjutnya, library research digunakan untuk

mendapatkan data tentang teori penempatan tekanan kata pada kata-kata benda.

  Teori-teori tersebut diaplikasikan dalam menganalisa data dan menarik kesimpulan.

  Setelah melakukan penelitian, penulis mengetahui bahwa mahasiswa semester dua Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris belum menguasai penempatan tekanan kata pada kata-kata benda. Kesimpulan ini didapatkan dari hasil studi yang menunjukkan bahwa penguasaan para mahasiswa tersebut di bawah 49%. Hasil perhitungan di bawah 49% diklasifikasikan sebagai ‘siswa tidak menguasai penempatan tekanan kata pada kata-kata benda’. Kemudian, terdapat tiga jenis kesalahan yang dilakukan para peserta dalam menempatkan tekanan kata pada kata-kata benda. Jenis kesalahan pertama yaitu menempatkan tekanan kata pada suku kata yang salah. Tekanan kata yang seharusnya jatuh pada suku kata pertama ternyata jatuh di suku kata kedua. Kesalahan kedua yaitu memberikan dua tekanan kata pada kata yang seharusnya hanya memiliki satu tekanan kata. Kata bersuku kata tiga yang seharusnya memiliki tekanan di suku kata pertama ternyata diberi tekanan pada suku kata pertama dan ketiga. Jenis kesalahan ini hanya dapat terjadi pada kata-kata bersuku kata tiga atau lebih. Jenis kesalahan terakhir yaitu memberi tekanan yang sama pada semua suku kata. Tekanan tersebut bisa berupa tekanan yang lemah pada semua suku kata ataupun juga tekanan yang kuat. Akhirnya, peneliti mengharapkan siswa untuk mengacu pada kamus agar mengetahui penempatan tekanan kata yang tepat. Every endless night has a dawning day… Every darkest sky has a shining ray… I dedicated this work as a gift for my beloved parents my beloved sisters my beloved Oscar myself

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  First of all, I would like to express my greatest gratitude to the Almighty God for always giving shining rays over my darkest skies. Without His guidance, I would never find my strength to keep on fighting.

  I owe much to my sponsor, Carla Sih Prabandari, S.Pd., M.Hum., for giving me time, guidance, suggestions, attention, and motivation during the process of finishing this thesis. I thank her for her comments, corrections, and suggestions.

  I also would like to thank to all lecturers in the English Language Education Study Program especially Christina Lhaksmita Anandari, S.Pd., M.Ed. for giving me permission to obtain the data in her class. Moreover, my gratefulness also goes to all students in Interactional Speech II Class E 2007/2008 for their willingness to help me obtain the data. My next appreciation is for Mbak Dani, Mbak Tari, and all of the librarians for their support during my study.

  My greatest gratitude goes to my beloved parents and sisters. I thank them for the tears and laughs we have shared and all lessons I have been taught. I will never stop thanking God for my very best family.

  My deepest gratitude is for Oscar Setiyanto, my cumut. I thank him for accepting me the way who I am. “This is my turn, the next will be yours!” I also would like to offer my thankfulness to all friends in PBI, especially

  Aline, Rina, Evy, Novi, Indri, Putri, Festy, Vonny, Haris, Retha, and Adi for being together in this journey. I give my regard to Sekartaji family: Mbak Har, Mbak Iyus, Chui, Merita, Natalia, Nayang, Tithe, Ratih, Susan, and Siska for their friendship and support.

  My sincere thanks go to many other names that cannot be mentioned one by one, for their patience and for encouraging me to finish my thesis. May God bless them.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Page TITLE PAGE ……………….........………………………………………………. i APPROVAL PAGES …….........................……………………………………… ii STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ………..………………………… iv

  LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ……………………… v

  ABSTRACT ……………………………………………………………………. vi

  ABSTRAK …………….……………………………………………………….. vii

  DEDICATION PAGE ………………………………………………………… viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS …………………………………………………….. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS …………………………………………………….. x LIST OF TABLES ……………..……………………………………………….. xii LIST OF FIGURES ……..…………………………………………………… xiii LIST OF APPENDICES …….…………………………………………………. xiv

  CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION A. Research Background ……….………………………………………. 1 B. Problem Formulation ……..………………………………………… 4 C. Problem Limitation ……….………………………………………… 4 D. Research Objectives ……....………………………………………… 5 E. Research Benefits ……..……………………………………………. 5 F. Definition of Terms …………………………………………………. 6 CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE A. Theoretical Description .……………………………………………. 8

  1. Word Stress ………………………………………………………. 8

  a. Definition of Word Stress ………………………………….. 8

  b. The Importance of Word Stress ……………………………. 13

  c. Stress System in English …………………………………… 13 a. Function of Nouns .………………………………………… 28

  b. Types of Nouns .……………………………………………. 29

  3. A Brief Overview of Language Errors …….………………….. 31

  B. Theoretical Framework .……………………………………………. 32

  CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY A. Research Method ………………………………………………….. 34 B. Research Participants ……………………………………………… 35 C. The Nature and Source of Data …………………………………… 36 D. Research Instruments ………………………………………………. 37 E. Data Gathering Technique ………………………………………… 37 F. Data Analysis Technique .…………………………………………. 38 CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION A. Data Presentation …………………………………………………… 42 B. Discussion ………………………………………………………….. 52 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS A. Conclusions ………………………………………………………… 58 B. Suggestions ………………………………………………………… 59 REFERENCES ….……………………………………………………………..

  62 APPENDICES …………………………………………………………………. 65

  LIST OF TABLES

  Table page

  3.1.1 The List of Disyllabic Nouns …………………………………………….. 40

  3.1.2 The List of Trisyllabic Nouns …………………………………………… 40

  3.1.3 The List of Tetrasyllabic Nouns …………………………………………. 41

  3.1.4 The List of Affix Nouns …………………………………………………. 41

  3.1.5 The List of Compound Nouns ...………………………………………….. 41

  4.1 Summary of the Data ……………………………………………………… 44

  LIST OF FIGURES

  Figure page

  3.1 Example of the use of Sony Sound Forge 8.0.53™ ………………………. 38

  4.1.1 Example of the Students’ Production in ‘powder’ ………………………. 44 4.1.2 Example of the Students’ Production in ‘family’ ……………………….

  46

  4.1.3 Example of the Student’s Production in ‘accident’ ………………………. 47 4.1.4 Example of the Students’ Production in ‘intersection’ ………………….

  48 4.1.5 Example of the Students’ Production in ‘appearance’ ………………….

  49 4.1.6 Example of the Student’s Production in ‘government’ ………………….

  50

  4.1.7 Example of the Students’ Production in ‘bedroom’ ……………………… 51

  4.2.1 Examples of the First Type of Word Stress Error: Misplacing the Word Stress ……..……………………………………….. 56

  4.2.2 Examples of the Second Type of Word Stress Error: Double-stressing the Word ……...……………………………………….. 57

  4.2.3 Examples of the Third Type of Word Stress Error: Putting Equal Stress to All Syllables …………………………………….. 57

LIST OF APPENDICES

  Appendix page

  1. Surat Permohonan Ijin Penelitian ………………………………………… 67

  2. The Transcription of the Participants’ Speeches …………………………….. 68

  3. Example of the Students’ Production in Disyllabic Nouns, Trisyllabic Nouns, Tetrasyllabic Nouns, Affix Nouns, and Compound Nouns ………………………………………..…………………

  77

  4. The List of Disyllabic Nouns, Trisyllabic Nouns, Tetrasyllabic Nouns, Affix Nouns, and

  Compound Nouns ...……………………………………..…………………

  80

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This chapter consists of six major sections. There are the research

  background, the problem formulation, the problem limitation, the research objectives, the research benefits, and the definition of terms mentioned in this study.

A. Research Background

  Language is the most advanced form of communication. Compared to signals, signs, and symbols, language has an advantage that it can be used to communicate for long distance (Sharpe, 2000: 383). In their life, people definitely know at least one language and can use it for communication. It means that they have the capacity to produce sounds that signify certain meanings and to understand or interpret the sounds produced by others (Fromkin, Rodman, and Hyams, 2003: 4).

  Knowing a language includes mastering the vocabulary. It requires the ability to identify that certain sound sequences signify certain concepts or meanings (Fromkin et al., 2003: 5). Words in any language are the sound units that are related to specific meanings. People who know English know that school means an institution for educating children (Hornby, 1995: 1049). They also know that school is different from street because street is a public road in a city, town, or village with houses and buildings on one side or both sides (Hornby, 1995: 1180).

  Besides mastering the vocabulary, having sufficient knowledge about language phonology is also important. It means that the learners have to know what sounds are in that language and what sounds are not. Indonesians who learn

  I English may probably pronounce this as /d s/ although the initial sound is actually

  pronounced as /ð/. This could happen because there is no /ð/ in Indonesian sound system. Nevertheless, as soon as the learners are conscious about English sound

  I

  system that has /ð/ in this, they will learn to pronounce this as /ð s/. Knowing the sound system of a language helps the learners to have correct pronunciation.

  Moreover, Poldauf (1984: 1) underlines that another part of knowing a language is knowing not only its phonetic elements but also which of its syllables bears the peak of force with which the syllables are uttered. It especially happens in polysyllabic words. The presence of emphasizing a syllable in a word is called word stress. Widmayer and Gray (2007) state that word stress is the magic key to understand spoken English. Moreover, by paying attention to the position of the stress, people can still understand the word although they do not hear a word clearly. The example is the words democrat and democracy. Imagine that there are two English speakers speaking in a telephone over a very bad line. The first speaker cannot hear a word clearly and only hear the first two syllables, demo….

  He will be able to guess what the word is by identifying the word stress, either

  

DEmo… or deMO…. So without hearing the whole word, he probably knows

  whether the word is DEmocrat or deMOcracy. Native speakers of English are intuitively aware that certain syllables in each word and one word in particular, will be more phonetically prominent than others (McMahon, 2002: 118). Accurate word stress patterns are essential for the learner’s production and perception of English. If a non-native speaker produces a word with the wrong stress pattern, an English listener may have difficulty in understanding the word, even if most of the individual sounds have been well pronounced (Kenworthy, 1987: 28).

  Among English parts of speech, noun is one of the most important parts. Nouns may function in central core of a sentence as a subject of verb, a complement of verb, a subjective complement, and an objective complement.

  Besides, nouns can also be used in structures of modification as an object of preposition, a noun in apposition, a noun in direct address, and a noun adjunct.

  Stress placement in some words may indicate parts of speech they belong to. For example the word present. Stress on the first syllable indicates that the

  

present is an adjective or a noun. On the other hand, stress on the second syllable

  shows that the word is a verb. Another example is the word object. The noun of object has stress on the first syllable; however, the verb has stress on the second.

  Knowing that English word stress is a part of language that is important, the writer attempted to analyze the students’ mastery especially of nouns since noun is one of the most important parts of speech. The results will give an overview of how well the students master stress placement of nouns.

  B. Problem Formulation

  This research would like to address two questions. There are:

  1. How well is the students’ mastery of stress placement of disyllabic nouns, trisyllabic nouns, tetrasyllabic nouns, affix nouns, and compound nouns?

  2. What errors do they make toward the disyllabic nouns, trisyllabic nouns, tetrasyllabic nouns, affix nouns, and compound nouns?

  C. Problem Limitation

  To make the study easier, the writer divides the nouns into five parts: disyllabic nouns as table, window, and people, trisyllabic nouns as disaster,

  

privacy , and custody, tetrasyllabic nouns as pedestrian, affix nouns as business

  and legality, and compound nouns as T-shirt and T-junction. The first three parts are the stem nouns without any affixation or compounding process.

  The participants of the study are the second semester students of the English Language Education Study Program in the academic year 2007/2008.

  There are approximately 160 people.

  In this study, the writer analyzes the mastery of stress placement of nouns among the second semester students. In detail, she intends to obtain data about how well the students master the stress placement of disyllabic nouns, trisyllabic nouns, tetrasyllabic nouns, affix nouns, and compound nouns and also what errors they make toward the disyllabic nouns, trisyllabic nouns, tetrasyllabic nouns, affix nouns, and compound nouns.

  Since this study only focuses on stress placement of disyllabic nouns, trisyllabic nouns, tetrasyllabic nouns, affix nouns, and compound nouns, any other types of speech will not be analyzed. Moreover, any mistake in sound accuracy, sentence stress, and grammar will be disregarded.

  D. Research Objectives

  The objectives of this research are stated as follows:

  1. To find out how well the students master the stress placement of disyllabic nouns, trisyllabic nouns, tetrasyllabic nouns, affix nouns, and compound nouns.

  2. To find out errors that are made toward the disyllabic nouns, trisyllabic nouns, tetrasyllabic nouns, affix nouns, and compound nouns.

  E. Research Benefits

  This study tries to give an overview of the students’ mastery of stress placement especially of nouns. It gives some benefits to English learners, teachers, and future researchers.

  This study hopefully could help the English learners to develop their skill in placing the stress on the right syllable. Also, by reading this study, they could identify words that are commonly spoken with wrong stress pattern so that they could avoid doing the same mistake.

  Because this research gives an overview of the students’ mastery of word stress, the English teachers could discover how far the students master the stress placement. Also, the teacher would also find out the words that are commonly spoken with wrong stress pattern. This awareness helps the teacher in facilitating the students in acquiring the word stress.

  Moreover, future researchers could use this study as the basic knowledge to conduct another research in students’ mastery of stress placement. This research also includes its shortages so that the future researchers could find some way to avoid that.

F. Definition of Terms

  Some important concepts in this study are defined as follows:

  1. Mastery Stern (1983:346) argues that someone has the mastery of a language when she or he has a. the intuitive mastery of the forms of the language,

  b. the intuitive mastery of the linguistics, cognitive, affective, and sociocultural meaning, expressed by the language forms, c. the capacity to use the language with maximum attention to communication and minimum attention to form, and d. the creativity of language use Related to the topic of this research, mastery is defined as the ability to produce the appropriate word stress pattern in the form of speech.

  2. Stress Placement In this study, stress placement refers to word stress of nouns. Word stress is one main emphasized syllable in a word. The vowel sound in this syllable sounds higher in pitch, longer, and louder. Therefore, some particular syllables of nouns sound more prominent than others.

  3. Nouns Noun is one of the most important parts of speech. It could be functioned as a subject, object, or subjective complement in a central core of a sentence.

  Moreover, the nouns that are used in this study are only common nouns.

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE In this chapter, the writer tries to examine some theories that support this study. This study is about the students’ mastery of stress placement of nouns. Therefore, it is important to state some related theories as the bases of this study

  in order to achieve the results. There will be two major sections discussed in this chapter: theoretical description and theoretical framework.

A. Theoretical Description This subtopic consists of some theories that are relevant to the study.

1. Word Stress

  This chapter will give an overview of the definition of word stress, the types of word stress and the importance of word stress.

a. Definition of Word Stress

  English is not a tone language; it means that the raising and the falling tone of a word will not completely alter its meaning, instead it has a suprasegmental function which operates above the level of individual segments (Finch, 2000: 50). Suprasegmental features consist of four parts: stress, pitch, length, and juncture (Pateda, 1988: 65) furthermore stress is the most complicated try to identify what stress is. According to O’Grady, Dobrovolsky, and Aronoff (1989: 39), stress is a cover term for the combined effects of pitch, loudness and length as seen in some vowels that are uttered more prominent than others. This prominence always occurs in any polysyllabic words (Widdowson, 1996: 43).

  Poldauf (1984: 13) has the same opinion that word stress is the relative position of the force peak or peaks in a word opposed to other positions the force peak or peaks could occupy in a word in consideration of the number of its syllable. It implies that monosyllabic words cannot have word stress since it has no syllables to be compared to. Jones (1972: 245) concludes that stress may be described as the degree of force which a sound or syllable is uttered. Moreover, Fasold and Connor-Linton (2006: 31) state that stress is a prominence relation between syllables. Further he states that the certain syllables are longer, louder, higher, pitched or more clearly articulated than those around them.

  Furthermore, McMahon (2002: 118) states that stress in a word is a highest 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. Most dictionaries assume that stress is unpredictable and idiosyncratic property of each word (Liles, 1972: 209) but Chomsky and Halle (1968: 59-60) state that the placement of main stress within the word is predictable. Moreover, Widmayer and Gray (2007) state that word stress is not an optional extra that can be added to the English language only when the speaker wants to but it is part of the language.

  There are two main characteristics of the stressed syllable. The first one is about the production. The stressed syllables in English are produced with a stronger burst in initiatory energy (Giegerich, 1992: 179). It is using more muscular energy than the energy that is used for unstressed syllables (Roach, 1991: 85) and it pushes out more air from the lungs (Brazil, Coulthard, and Johns, 1980: 3). Based on experimental studies, when a speaker produces stressed syllables, the muscles he uses to expel air from the lungs are more active, producing higher subglottal pressure. Similar things probably happen with the muscles in other parts of the speech apparatus (Roach, 1991: 85). Moreover, these extra efforts cause a tightening and shortening of the vocal cords and a consequent higher pitch, also make the stressed syllables into schwa (Brazil et al., 1980:3)

  The second characteristic is the perception of the stressed syllable toward the listener. This characteristic is closely related to the first one but they are not identical. All stressed syllables are recognized as stressed because they are more prominent than unstressed syllables. There are four important points that make a syllable becomes prominent (Roach, 1991: 86). The first one is the stressed syllables are produced with greater intensity and therefore heard as louder than adjacent unstressed syllables (McMahon, 2002: 118). Loudness is one component of prominence but changing only the loudness will not give significant effect to the syllable.

  The duration of syllables also has an important role in prominence. The duration of stressed syllables is greater and then perceived as longer. If a syllable is longer than the others, that syllable tends to be the stressed syllable.

  The third point is the pitch. Every syllable has pitch, but when a syllable is produced with higher fundamental frequency, that is the vocal folds vibrate more quickly (McMahon, 2002: 118), that will be heard as spoken with higher pitch. When a syllable is said with a pitch that noticeable different from the others, that syllable can be marked as the stressed syllable.

  The last point that implies the prominence is the quality. If a syllable contains a vowel that is different in quality from the others, the syllable may be the stressed syllable. The most frequently encountered vowels in weak syllables

  I/

  are / , / , and the stressed syllable is often against the vowels in the ə/, and /

  ʊ/

  weak syllables. So the prominence of the stressed syllable is increased by contrast with these background qualities (Roach, 1991: 86). McMahon (2002: 118) has the same opinion that the stress has effects on vowels quality. Vowel in low stress will be reduced into schwa; nevertheless the stressed syllables have the full vowels as / :/, /a , and /i:/.

  ɑ ʊ/

  As a conclusion, prominence is produced by four main factors: loudness, duration, pitch, and quality. Experimental work has shown that the strongest effect is produced by pitch. Duration is also a powerful factor; however, loudness and quality have much less effect (Roach, 1991: 86). On the contrary, Avery and Ehrlich (1992: 63) define that word stress in English language is not only about higher pitch but also about making vowels longer and louder.

  In addition, there are simple rules about word stress. The first one is one word has only one primary stress. One word cannot have two primary stresses.

  One word may have two stresses that are primary and secondary, but the secondary is much smaller than the primary stress. The second rule is although syllable (Ladefoged, 1993: 249), the stress is in vowels, not in consonants (Widmayer and Gray, 2007).

  Some notations are often used to symbolize the word stress in the written text. Following are some marks that are used in books.

  a. TAble

  d. table

  b. 'table O o

  c. táble

  e. table There are some advantages and disadvantages from using each type of the notation. The first notation is not very suitable for learners who are not used to the

  Roman alphabet (Japanese, Chinese, Russian, etc). Also, the writer has to know the boundaries of the syllable of each word so he can write it in upper and lower case. The mark ( ' ) is a very quick addition to the written word, but dictionaries vary in the use of similar mark; some put it before the stressed syllable, some put it after, so this may be a source confusion (Kenworthy, 1987: 29). The third mark is so simple but the writer has to be careful when taking it in syllables with two vowel letters. In other language, putting ( ) in two vowel letters means that two vowels are pronounced as two separate syllables.

  The underline mark is also simple to be used and can be quickly added nevertheless the writer meets the same problem as the upper and lower case. He has to know the syllable boundaries of each word. The last mark is also quick to be written besides it has the advantage that it can be used to illustrate a stress pattern such as o O, O o, or O o o.

  b. The Importance of Word Stress

  Comprehending English word stress is a magic key to understanding the spoken English. Although the phonemic function of stress in English is not very significant as in some other languages, it is important to note that in the vast majority of English words where stress does not give rise to phonemic distinction, speakers are not at liberty to stress whichever syllable they like (Giegerich, 1992: 180). By paying attention to stress placement, people can still understand the word spoken although they do not hear the complete word.

  Indonesian learners will find it difficult to master all English word stress since there is no word stress in Indonesian language. It is important for English learner to acquire knowledge on English word stress since an English listener may have great difficulty in understanding the word if a non-native speaker produces a word with the wrong stress pattern, even if most of the individual sounds have been well pronounced (Kenworthy, 1987: 28).

  c. Stress System in English

  Placement of stress can be varied depends on the part of speech of the words also the number of syllables as well. Here are the patterns of word stress for some types of word regardless of the exceptions. 1) Disyllabic words (verbs, nouns, and adjectives)

  a) Verbs The stress on disyllabic verbs is more likely to fall on the second syllable

  (Avery and Ehrlich, 1992: 67). There are more than 60 per cent of all English

• The final syllable contains a short vowel and has only one (or no) final consonant. Example: gather
• The final syllable contains /

  / ə's

  m'pla

  ɪ

  /

  apply

  → /

  ə'pla ɪ / - The word ends with more than one consonant.

  Example: assist →

  

ɪ

  → /

  st/

  abound

  → /

  ə'ba

  ʊnd

  /

  attract

  ɪ

  imply

  verbs have stress on the second syllable. Although most of verbs are stressed on the second syllable, there are still some verbs that get stressed on their first syllable. Roach (1991: 89) defines that there are two basic rules to identify the stress on disyllabic verbs, whether it is on the first or second syllable.

  → /'hæpən/

  Roach (1991: 89) states that the first syllable of the verbs will be stressed if:

  → /'gæð

  ə/

  vary

  → /'ve

  əri/

  happen

  ə ʊ /

  ə'b ɔ :r/

  Example: follow → /'f ɒ l

  ə ʊ /

  borrow

  → /'b ɒ r ə ʊ /.

  The second rule is the second syllable will be stressed if: - The second syllable of the verbs contains a long vowel or diphthong.

  Example:

  abhor

  → /

  → / ə'trækt/. Giegerich (1992: 184) also has the same statement that the final syllable will be stressed if the word ends with:

• A heavy vowel (/æ/ and /e/) + a consonant.

  Example: distract 'strækt/ → /d

  ɪ - A long vowel or a diphthong.

  Example: rely 'la / → /r ɪ ɪ - A long vowel + a consonant.

  Example: assert :t/ → /ə's ɜ - A vowel + a cluster of two consonants.

  Example: resist 'z st/ → /r

  ɪ ɪ

  b) Nouns Unlike the stress on verbs, the stress on disyllabic nouns usually falls on the first syllable. More than 90 per cent of all English disyllabic nouns are stressed on their first syllable (Avery and Ehrlich, 1992: 67). Although nouns with final syllable are comparatively rare in English (Giegerich, 1992: 184) there are some nouns that have the stress on the second syllable.

  There are simple rules to identify the stress on disyllabic nouns (Roach, 1991: 89): if the second syllable contains a short vowel, the stress will usually come on the first syllable. For example: angel n st/, and agent

  → /'e əl/, cemist → /'kem

  ɪ ʤ ɪ

  ɪ ʤ

  n → /'e ənt/. Nevertheless, if the second syllable contains a long vowel, the second syllable will be stressed. This rule can be found in police → /pə'li:s/, bamboo →

  /bæm'bu:/ and balloon → /bə'lu:n/.

  c) Adjectives Like disyllabic verbs, most of disyllabic adjectives have stress on their second syllable. However, there are rules to identify the stress on disyllabic adjectives.

  The first syllable will be stressed if the final syllable contains a short vowel and has one (or no) final consonant (Roach, 1991: 89). For example handsome → /'hæns t /.

  əm/, clever → /'klevə/, and pretty → /'pr ɪ ɪ The second syllable will be stressed if the disyllabic adjectives end with a cluster of two or more consonants (Liles, 1972: 211). Moreover, Roach (1991: 89) states that the second syllable is stressed if the second syllable contains a diphthong or a long vowel. Abrupt pt/, alive v/, and robust

  → /ə'br ʌ → /ə'la ɪ → /r 'b st/ are the examples. ə

  ʊ ʌ

  2) Trisyllabic words (verbs, nouns, and adjectives)

  a) Verbs There are two rules applied to trisyllabic verbs. A verb will have penultimate stress if that verb ends in a non-tense vowel and followed by a single consonant

  (Chomsky and Halle, 1968: 69). Roach (1991: 90) has the same opinion by stating that stress will be placed in penultimate syllable if the last syllable contains a short vowel and ends with not more than one consonant. For instance consider