Designing Phonetic Alphabet for Bahasa Indonesia (PABI) for the Teaching of Intelligible English Pronunciation in Indonesia
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INDONESIAN JOURNAL OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS Vol. 9 No. 3, January 2020, pp. 724-732 Available online at: https://ejournal.upi.edu/index.php/IJAL/article/view/23223 doi: 10.17509/ijal.v9i3.23223 Designing Phonetic Alphabet for Bahasa Indonesia (PABI) for the teaching of intelligible English pronunciation in Indonesia Yeni Karlina*, Amin Rahman, and Raqib Chowdhury Faculty of Education, Monash University, 19 Ancora Imparo Way, Melbourne, VIC, 3800, Australia ABSTRACT The sociolinguistic development of English has placed a greater emphasis on intelligibility as the ultimate goal of pronunciation instruction. However, various studies have indicated that English pronunciation of Indonesian English learners was not satisfactory due to difficulties in learning English pronunciation and lack of emphasis given to the teaching of English pronunciation in English classrooms in Indonesia. In this paper, we propose the development of Phonetic Alphabets for Bahasa Indonesia (PABI). This practical instrument allows English teachers and students in Indonesia to transcribe the pronunciations of English words into phonetic transcription with locally-appropriate readability and accessibility without compromising the pronunciation intelligibility. The development of PABI started with a contrastive analysis of common phonemes in the two languages, i.e., English and Bahasa Indonesia (BI). Next, we identified the English phonemes missing in Bahasa Indonesia which English learners in Indonesia have to conceptualise. We then located those English sound ‘pairs’ which seem identical to Indonesians and are thus used interchangeably in BI. A corpus of 30,000 commonly used English words was transcribed in PABI using a computer software IPA to L1PA developed by Rahman and Bhattacharya (2020). Proposals to modify the IPA to suit the BI sound system entailed the adjustments in the consonant phonemes, vowel phonemes, and cluster sounds. These adjustments are expected to improve the readability and accessibility of the conventional IPA in facilitating the teaching and learning of intelligible English pronunciation in Indonesia. Practical uses of the PABI guidelines are drawn to improve its utility. Implications for the development of context-sensitive and locally-appropriate pronunciation teaching and learning are drawn based on the findings. Keywords: Bahasa Indonesia; English; intelligibility; phonetics; pronunciation First Received: Revised: Accepted: 30 September 2019 20 November 2019 18 December 2019 Final Proof Received: Published: 19 January 2020 31 January 2020 How to cite (in APA style): Ong, W. A., Swanto, S., & Alsaqqaf, A. (2020). Engaging in reflective practice via vlogs: Experience of Malaysian ESL pre-service teachers. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 9, 726-734. doi: 10.17509/ijal.v9i3.23223 INTRODUCTION most important subjects in the schooling system since Indonesia is a country with an intriguingly complex elementary school. However, as the language skills linguistic ecology. With Bahasa Indonesia (BI) as the tested in the national examinations are only reading and official national language, more than 700 local listening skills, it results in a washback that makes languages and several foreign languages simultaneously schools diverge their attention from the teaching of exist in the society (Lamb & Coleman, 2008). However, productive English skills, including speaking skill English has steadily gained its position as the first and (Furaidah, Saukah, & Widiati, 2015; Sukyadi & preferred foreign language in Indonesia since early Mardiani, 2011). independence days in 1945 due to its role as the In developing speaking skills, pronunciation is one international language (Hamied, 2012; Manara, 2014). of the most important elements for successful oral English is given a gatekeeping role in society, especially communication amongst English speakers (Jenkins, in education and economics (Lamb & Coleman, 2008). 2005). This has reappraised the importance of teaching In the school setting, English is positioned as one of the and learning English pronunciation in the English * Corresponding Author Email: [email protected] 724 Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 9(3), January 2020 classroom in Indonesia (Abrar, Mukminin, Habibi, In general, Indonesian English learners struggle to Asyrafi, & Makmur, 2018; Suwartono, 2014). However, correctly pronounce phonetically complicated words various studies have indicated that English such as rough, dough, hiccough, and psalm (Jannah et pronunciation of Indonesian English learners was not al., 2018). Consequently, one needs to consult an satisfactory due to difficulties in learning English English dictionary which has transcriptions of pronunciation and lack of emphasis given to the pronunciations of the words in the international teaching of English pronunciation in Indonesian English phonetic alphabet symbols or IPA (see Jones, 2011; classrooms (Abrar et al., 2018; Moedjito, 2008). Wells, 2008 for examples of IPA transcriptions). Difficulties in learning English pronunciation However, IPA has the following shortcomings: (a) It is encountered by English learners in Indonesia are not a very large and difficult language to learn and master; unique from those prevalent among speakers of other (b) It is not feasible to teach IPA to all English learners LOTE (languages other than English) and can be in an NNS country because of shortage of expertise and attributed to the stark difference between the phonetic the cost involved; (c) IPA is suitable for academics and alphabets used in English and Indonesian (Abrar et al., researchers of phonetics and phonology– not for 2018). Unlike English, Bahasa Indonesia is a phonetic ordinary English learners (Rahman, 2016). language, that is a language with a direct relationship We argue that the above-mentioned problems between spelling and pronunciation. One can look at a associated with the accessibility and readability of IPA written Indonesian word and know how to pronounce it, could be addressed by developing a phonetic or we can hear an Indonesian word and know how to transcription guideline which is sensitive to Indonesian spell it. In Indonesia, although there are about 700 English students and teachers’ linguistic repertoire. This dialects, and speakers of all these dialects may not be is the case particularly in a resource-poor environment able to speak BI fluently, people from different regions in rural and remote areas in Indonesia where access to of Indonesia can read the BI script and decipher the the internet and the digital media as well as a dictionary correct pronunciation of a word from BI writings. This is scarce. is true for both Bahasa Indonesia (Appendix A1.1) and To complicate the issue further, pronunciation Arabic language (Appendix A1.2). learning is a practical (Roach, 1998), rather than On the contrary, English is a non-phonetic theoretical activity. Just like driving a car, swimming, language which implies no direct correspondence or singing or playing a musical instrument, ample between the letters and the related sounds. There are 26 opportunities to practice different pronunciation letters in English (a non-phonetic language) while the learning activities is compulsory for successful number of the sounds is 36 (excluding diphthongs). EFL pronunciation learning. However, the curriculum learners, therefore, must also focus a great deal of structure and national examination of English subject in attention on spelling and pronunciation in addition to Indonesian school facilitate more emphasis on reading grammar and vocabulary. The learner, in predicting the and listening skills (Furaidah et al., 2015). Limited time correct pronunciation of most English words, cannot and resources allocated for the teaching of rely on the spelling of a word. One of the main reasons pronunciation call for practical and authentic for that is because the spellings of English words come innovations to help Indonesian EFL learners improve to reflect a word's morphophonemic (sound changes that their English pronunciation (Hamied, 2012). Although take place in morphemes) structure rather than its purely it is not possible to provide practical lessons on such phonemic structure (for example, the English regular topics in a book, easy-to-learn and accessible-to-use past tense morpheme is consistently spelled -ed in spite tools and techniques, along with self-learning guide of its different pronunciations in various words, i.e. /d/, books, CDs and software, could be provided to support /t/ and /Іd/ and /әd/). students’ self-learning and pronunciation practice on The consequence of the phonetic characteristics of their own. Bahasa Indonesia which is in contrast with the Supporting EFL learners in Indonesia to learn relatively less phonetic pronunciation of English words English pronunciation independently with the provision has further complicated pronunciation teaching and of practical resources becomes an important aspect if learning in Indonesian EFL classrooms (Jannah, the improvement of pronunciation skill is desired. In the Hidayati, & Setiawan, 2018; Mathew, 1997). Indonesian context of Bangladesh, for instance, Rahman (2016a) EFL students who are used to a Bahasa Indonesia compiled the English Pronunciation Dictionary for system where there are 26 phonemes represented by 26 Bangalis (EPDB) as introductory/guidance materials for letters are often confused when they try to pronounce users to learn the Bengali Phonetic Alphabet (BPA) on English words,