Jelt : Journal Of teaching, Vol 5 No.1 Tahun 2021

An Analysis of Students’ Difficulties in Pronouncing English at the Eleventh Grade of SMA Negeri 1 Kota Jambi

Ratisa Adhani, Yanti Ismiyati, Efa Silfia

English Education Study Program, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Batanghari University

ABSTRACT This research was aimed to find out the students’ difficulties and factor causes students difficult to pronounce English fricative consonant at the Eleventh Grade of SMA Negeri 1 Kota Jambi. The research methodology of this study was quantitative descriptive research which involved population and sample. The total population of this research was the XI MIPA 1 students of SMAN 1 Kota Jambi, which consisted of 36 students. In collecting the data, the researcher gave test and interview at the class. The result of the research showed that the eleventh grade students of SMA Negeri 1 Kota Jambi got difficulties in pronouncing English fricative consonant sounds of dental and labiodental. The students’ difficulties in pronouncing fricative consonant are producing sound (/θ/, /ð/, and //). The highest percentage of the students score was 95% and the lowest was 15%. Where the mean score of the students’ test was 42,28% with a fair categories and percentage of students score test were /θ/ 76,11%, sound /ð/ 77,78%, /f/ 5%, and sound /v/ 57,22%. The factors of students’ difficulties in pronouncing English fricative consonant are; the influence of students’ mother language, the lack of students’ knowledge about English sound system and the unsuccessful in using borrowed English words. Key Words: Students Difficulties, Pronouncing, Fricative Consonant.

INTRODUCTION reasons is English language teaching and English becomes a compulsory learning in Indonesia schools more focuses lesson in Indonesia students start from on the written component at the expense of junior high school, senior high school and the spoken component than how to college. The students should master the four pronounce the word itself. Therefore, it is basic skills in English start from listening, understandable if the students will produce speaking, reading and writing. Speaking is a lot of mistakes and difficult in an activity where people can communicate pronouncing the words. Thus, from the with each other that are involved a speaker correct pronunciation, we can achieve the and a listener. Furthermore, speaking is the goal of speaking. productive skills that can deliver an Pronunciation itself includes many utterance and give a meaning. According to features for instance, supra-segmental Leong and Ahmadi (2017: 34), speaking is aspects which consist of stress, intonation, a mean of effective communication that and pitch. In segmental aspects consist of important to be developed and enhance. , diphthongs, , manner of Therefore, speaking in English is more articulation, and . There crucial need to learn by non-native learners are some elements in manner of like the students in Indonesia. articulation. One of them is fricative. Kelly There are some elements of skill in (2000: 50) says that fricative is a sound that terms of speaking. One of them that can occur when the movement of the air important is pronunciation. It means that attracts to the mouth and lips come close pronunciation is a field that crucial to learn together. It means that fricative consonants properly and having a good pronunciation are made by squeezing air in a small gap of of the language is essential for effective a throat and leaves it in the front mouth. communication and particular The sounds are articulated by forming a intelligibility. However, many English nearly complete stoppage of the airstream. language learners confront difficulties in In short, English fricative consonants are learning English pronunciation. One of the the sound that is articulated by hissing the

25 An Analysis of Students’ Difficulties in Pronouncing English Fricative Consonant at the Eleventh Grade of SMA Negeri 1 Kota Jambi

Jelt : Journal Of English Language teaching, Vol 5 No.1 Tahun 2021 that attract to the mouth and lips 3. Same Phonetic Feature in Both simultaneously. Language but Differ in Their Distribution PRONUNCIATION DIFFICULTIES Phonetic feature in English Ramelan (1999: 7) says that there and Indonesian are same, however both are five pronunciation difficulties faced by have a different in their distribution. That is Indonesian students when they learn where and when they may occur in an English pronunciation, they are: utterance. For instance sounds /b.d.g/ which 1. Transfer of Linguistic Habit are found in both English and Indonesian, In English learning process, most but differ in their distributions. In English of foreign language students found the those sounds occur at utterance initial, difficulties in speaking skill. In fact, medial, and final position such as in the learning process in Indonesia more focus on following words: “book” [bʊk], “ago” receptive skills than productive skills. [ǝˈgǝʊ], “sad” [sæd]. However, in Speaking is rarely to teach by teachers in a Indonesia, they occur only at word initial school when they learn English. Whereas, and medial position, but never at word final speaking is very crucial parts and needed by position, for instance in the words: beras, mostly students when they learn English, kabar, bubur. In Indonesian orthography the because the students have many difficulties letters b, d, g, are sometimes found at word background for pronouncing the words. final position such as in: sebab, abad, One of the backgrounds is mother tongue. grobag, but they are pronounced as Mother tongue is language that has been “voiceless stops‟ that is /p/, /t/, and /k/ used by students since childhood. It respectively. Therefore, not surprising that becomes a part of habit and has been Indonesian students have difficulty in embedded for the students. The movements pronouncing final voiced stops as in the of the students’ speech organs have been set words “bed” [bed], “pig” [pɪg], and “cab” for producing the speech sounds of his/her [kæb], own language. In this case, it is difficult for 4. Similar Sounds in Two Languages the students to change their habit for Which Have Different Variants or moving the speech organs when they produce the foreign sound. That is why for Sounds that have the same transferring a linguistic habit in the English qualities in both languages may constitute context is difficult to do for some of some learning problem if they occur in a Indonesian students. cluster or sequence of sounds. The sounds 2. Different Elements between Native /s/ and /p/, for instance, are familiar in both Language and Target Language Indonesian and English. It is no wonder that There are many kinds of sounds in Indonesian students will have difficulty in English. The English sounds are separate in pronouncing a cluster of sounds such as initial, medial, and final. For instance, the found in the following English words: medial sound of the English fricative speak, spring, stand, street, sky, scream, consonant sound word “birthday” twelfths, worlds, etc. From the brief /ˈbɜː(r)θdeɪ/. Indonesian students will find explanation above, we can see that the difficult to pronounce that sound since their Indonesians usually tend to use the speech organs have never been trained or sound after the consonant or in contrary. moved to produce it. Others example is on The example can be seen in the word the sound of /ð/. So, instead of pronouncing “school” [sku:l], In Indonesian, we call this /ð/ as in father [fʌðǝr] they will say /de/ one with “sekolah” or in English we say [fader]. Automatically, it can make “loud speaker” in Indonesian we say misunderstanding between the speaker and “sepeker”. Once again, consonant-vowel the listener because most of Indonesian sequence appears in this case. people clueless and familiar with some sounds in English.

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Jelt : Journal Of English Language teaching, Vol 5 No.1 Tahun 2021

5. Similar Sounds in Two Languages properly more when they speaking with Which Differ Only Slightly in Their English. Phonetic Features 2. The Lack of Students Knowledge In the following English words the About English Sound System italicized letters represent sounds in English The sound system between with slight phonetic differences from their Indonesian and English is different. In Indonesian counterparts: no [nǝʊ], may Bahasa Indonesia, the letter or word tends [meɪ], bad [bæd], tie [taɪ], now [naʊ], she to have similarity with its sound. So it [ʃi:], chain [tʃeɪn], Jane [dӡeɪn], very [veri], makes Indonesian students have many hard [ha:d], etc. In Indonesian usually apply difficulties in pronouncing English word. one letter- one sound, although there is a 3. Unsuccessful in using borrowed letter that has two sounds, in this case letter English words “e”. It 34 can be written [e] and [ẻ]. On this modern era, one language Whereas in English, there is a possibility at can easily take from other languages. It also one letter has some specific sounds, for happens to Indonesian that borrows some example letter „a‟. This letter has some words from other languages to enrich its specific sound, they are: [eɪ] as in “pain” vocabulary especially from English. When [peɪn], [æ] as in “bad” [bæd] and [a:] as in Indonesian uses that word they constantly “task” [ta:sk]. pronounce it with Indonesian Based on above explanation the pronunciation. researcher conclude that there are five difficulties faced by Indonesian students FRICATIVE when they learn English pronunciation, According to Rouch (1983: 37), they are: Transfer of linguistic habit, the are consonant where existence of the phonetic alphabets from the as long as person has enough air in a lung, foreign sounds, the different distributions of he/she can continue make a sound without sounds that similar in phonetic features, a interruption. It means that fricatives cluster of sounds in some English words, consonant will let the airflow out through two languages have similar sounds which the small passage. And then, when the differ only slightly in their phonetic sound is pronounced, it is like a hissing features. sound and person can feel the air push out when he/she puts the hand in front of PRONUNCIATION DIFFICULTIES mouth. Fuchs and Birkholz (2019: 77) say FACTOR that fricatives are a sound that results from According to Donal (2016: 20-21), narrowing of the vocal track. Meanwhile, there are some factors influencing students Corder (1978: 63) says that fricatives are have difficulties in pronouncing English sounds which are made by forming almost consonant sounds, as follow: full stoppage of the airstream. As claimed 1. The Influence of Students Mother by Katamba (1996: 7), fricative is kind of Language articulators that brought very close together The first language or mother tongue leaving only a very narrow through the air affects learners in learning second language squeezes on its way out, in the process especially pronouncing the sounds such as turbulence is produced.There are nine English sound. It is considered as the major fricative consonants in English: /f/, /v/, /s/, cause of the students problems in mastery /z/, /θ/, /ð/, /ʒ/, /ʃ/, /h/. the new language. The students often use the mother language when they LABIODENTAL FRICATIVE communicate in daily activity, either it with According to Rouch (1943: 49), friend, family, or neighbor. So that, when Labiodental is a consonant that articulated the students face with the foreign language, with contact between the lower lip and the they difficult to pronounce the word upper teeth. Further, Yule (2006: 244) defined labiodental as a consonant

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Jelt : Journal Of English Language teaching, Vol 5 No.1 Tahun 2021 produced with the upper teeth and the lower back of the teeth and the tongue is held lip. The sounds formed when the air is relatively flat so that the air escapes through obstruction by lower lips against upper quite a wide channel. For both /θ/ and /ð/ front teeth. Similar with the first and second the speech organ are in the position shown expert definition, Kelly (2000: 45) stated below. that labiodental is produced by using the lower lip and the upper teeth. It can be RESEACRH METHODOLOGY inferred that the main key of labiodentals This research chose quantitative as pronunciation is using of the lower lip and a research design and descriptive as upper teeth. research methodology of this study. The lower lip of labiodental According to Creswell (1994: 117), fricatives is near contact with the upper quantitative research is a research design front teeth resulting in labiodental friction. that provides a numerical description trough In pronouncing the sounds, the friction is the data collection process by asking the created at the lips and teeth, where a narrow people of the population and sample. passage permits the air to escape. That is Meanwhile, according to Gay (1981: 217), why they are called labiodental fricatives. descriptive is focused on the current status Labiodental consist of /f/ and /v/ symbol. of the subject of the study for involving Both symbols do not have a very different collecting data to test hypothesis and sound from each other and there is no answer the questions. Based on the expert variety of English exploits the difference opinions, the researcher concluded that the because /f/ and /v/ are made without descriptive quantitative research is the involvement of the tongue. Fortis /f/ has research design and methodology that apply potential voiceless and lenis /v/ has the collection of data as accurately as potential voiced. For both /f/ and /v/ the possible numerically. In this research, the speech organ are in the position shown researcher used descriptive research below. because the researcher described the students’ difficulties in pronouncing According to Rouch (1943: 67), English fricative consonants sounds that dental fricatives are described as if tongue mostly made by the students. Six classes of actually placed between the teeth. The XI MIPA SMA Negeri 1 Kota Jambi are tongue position is normally placed inside taken as a population of the research. This the front of teeth and the blade touching study used “simple random sampling”. inside the upper teeth. . It means that dental Based on Kerlinger (2006:188), simple fricatives are wide area at the front of the random sampling a research method which tongue. Meanwhile, Kelly (2000: 22) every member of the population has equal explained that the condition where the opportunity to be the participant. The tongue tip is used either between the teeth sample was XI MIPA 1 of SMA Negeri 1 or close to the upper teeth is called dental. Kota Jambi for the test and six students In this sound, the tongue is the active lowest score of the class that interviewed. articulator. Another definition stated by The techniques of data collection Yule (2006: 244), dental is a consonant that for this research were test and interview. produced with the tongue tip between the This research measured the students’ upper and lower teeth. Based on many transcript pronunciation by using test and definitions of interdental sounds that stated collected the data by using interview to by linguists above, it can say that dental know factors caused students difficulties in fricatives is a consonant that produce with pronouncing English fricative consonant at the place between or close to the lower and the Eleventh Grade of SMA Negeri 1 Kota upper teeth. Jambi. In this research, pronunciation test The dental fricatives symbol such a list of words which contained of consists of /θ/ and /ð/. In other hand, the English fricative dental and labiodental friction of dental are generated against the consonant sound. The test contained of 20

28 An Analysis of Students’ Difficulties in Pronouncing English Fricative Consonant at the Eleventh Grade of SMA Negeri 1 Kota Jambi

Jelt : Journal Of English Language teaching, Vol 5 No.1 Tahun 2021 words. In dental sound / θ/ had five words P: Percentage (Think, Thumb, Birthday, Math and North). F: The total number of subjects made In dental sound /ð/ also had five words mistkae (this, they, breathe, clothes, father). In N: The total number of the subjects labiodental sound /f/ had five words (fire, fan, effect, leaf enough). In labiodental This research enlighten the students sound /v/ had also five words (voice, pronunciation and calculating the score, the available, government, have, service). researcher had to account the mean of the These words were randomly taken by the students score , the Mean (X) formula as researcher based on the initial, middle and follow: final sounds in Longman Dictionary and online phonetic dictionary. In this research, the interview gave to 6 students at the XI MIPA 1 of SMA Negeri 1 Kota Jambi. The interview contains of nine questions which have been included environmental X bar: Mean of the score influences and personal background Sigma X: The sum of the students score question to interview the XI MIPA 1 of n: The total number of students SMA Negeri 1 Kota Jambi. The interview data were analyzed This research used certain criterion in the transcription form of interview based on Best’s (1981) criterion in order to questions and pronunciation test. The data know how well the students pronounce the of the interview collected in recording English vowel. The criterion as follows: respondents’ answers in Bahasa Indonesia. This research used a manual mathematic Table 1 formula to elaborate the percentage. This The Criterion of Students Difficulties research provided a rubric as the tool for Number Correct In Categories defining mistakes in participants. This Percentage research compared the participants’ Excellent 76-100% pronunciation with the standardized Good 51-75% pronunciation such as Longman online Fair 26-50% dictionary as the English standard Poor 0-25% pronunciation. Then, transcribed the data according to the participants’ voices in The data quantitatively to find out or International the students’ difficulties in pronouncing Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). To get English fricative consonant sounds. The quantitative result, the data would calculate reseach is made the transcripts all of the and drew up in the table as follow: interview result, summarize the interview result and classifies the data to analyze Score = correct pronunciation x 100 based on kinds of pronunciation difficulties. number of test/question

This research used the formula for FINDINGS counting the students’ percentage. In the The percentage of the students step, the data carried out by using formula difficulties is based on the result in from Sudjono (1989: 3) as follow: pronunciation tests. In analyzing the percentage of the students score, this research calculated the amount in each P = F x 100 English fricative dental and labiodental sounds of correct pronounced by 36 N students. The result of the students pronunciation test in English fricative

29 An Analysis of Students’ Difficulties in Pronouncing English Fricative Consonant at the Eleventh Grade of SMA Negeri 1 Kota Jambi

Jelt : Journal Of English Language teaching, Vol 5 No.1 Tahun 2021 dental and labiodental sounds describe in produced between the teeth of the forefront. the following table: The air escapes from tongue to teeth Table 2 through the cracks. A mispronounced of the Percentage of English Fricative Sound sound /θ/ are the largest, this occurred in Engl five words of the sound tested as much as Nu Nu ish Tot 76,11% of thirty six students that false and mbe mbe Fric al just 23,89% students that correct in r of % r of % ative Sou pronouncing the sound /θ. Cor Fals Soun nds Table 3 rect e d The Deviation of Sound /θ/ 23,8 76,1 Englis Respon /θ/ 43 137 180 9% 1% h dent 22,2 77,7 Posit Wor Phonet Phoneti Devia /ð/ 40 140 180 2% 8% ion ds ic c tion /f/ 171 95% 9 5% 180 Transc Transc 42,2 57,2 ript ript /v/ 77 103 180 8% 2% Initia Thin Tota 183, 216, l k /θɪŋk/ /tɪŋ/ /θ/ - /t/ 331 389 720 l 39% 11% Initia Thu l mb /θʌm/ /tʌm/ /θ/ - /t/ From the thirty six respondents, Medi Birth /ˈbɜːrθ /ˈbɜːrdd /θ/ - the table shows that respondents revealed al day deɪ/ eɪ/ /d/ the percentage of the sound /θ/ as much as Final Math /mæθ/ /met/ /θ/ - /t/ 23,89% correct and 76,11% false, the sound Nort /ð/ as much as 22,22% correct and 77,78% Final h /nɔːrθ/ /nɔrt/ /θ/ - /t/ false. The sound /f/ as much as 95% correct and 5% false, and the sound /v/ as much as The students tended to produce 42,28% correct and 57,22% false. The false mistakes in all positions regarding the percentage is 216,11% and correct absence of sounds. From the table, it could percentage is 183,3%. Moreover, the total be perceived the deviation produced is numbers of false that students did are frequently the changing of sound /θ/ with higher than a total numbers of correct. sound /t/ such as in ‘think’ that pronounced The statistic data using a manual as /tɪŋ/ instead of /tɪŋk/, ‘birthday’ that process. From the test that the student did pronounced as /tʌm/ instead of /θʌm/, to pronounce 20 words, it found that the ‘math’ that pronounced as / met/ instead of highest score was the student number 36 /mæθ/. The second deviation is the where he got the score 19 with the replacing of sound /θ/ with sound /d/ such percentage 95% and the lowest score was as in word ‘birthday’ then pronounced as the student number 10 where she got the /ˈberdeɪ/ instead of /ˈbɜːrθdeɪ/. This sound score 3 with the percentage 15%. The cannot be found in Indonesia phonetic Mean (X bar) was 43,19 where it was a fair system. The cause might be the sound is categories. From this evidence, it can unfamiliar for the participants since there is conclude that the students are difficult to no such sound in their mother language. pronounce the English fricative dental and labiodental consonant sounds properly. Further, to present detailed data, the The Production of Sound /ð/ pronunciation of each sound and its The sound /ð/ is produced the same deviation presented below. as sound /θ/, this sound also does not exist in Indonesia phonetic system. What The Production of Sound /θ/ differentiates it from sound /θ/ are the vocal The sound /θ/ is called dental cord vibration and the position of the voiceless fricative sound. This sound is tongue in a back of upper teeth. This sound 30 An Analysis of Students’ Difficulties in Pronouncing English Fricative Consonant at the Eleventh Grade of SMA Negeri 1 Kota Jambi

Jelt : Journal Of English Language teaching, Vol 5 No.1 Tahun 2021 is produced with more vibration of vocal Table 5 cords. Sound /ð/ is called dental voiced The Deviation of Sound /f/ fricative sound. As could be seen in Table Englis Respon 3, the sound /ð/ produced as sound /d/ in h dent initial and medial positions. Posit Wor Phonet Phoneti Deviat

Table 4 ion ds ic c ion The Deviation of Sound /ð/ Transc Transc ript ript Englis Respon Initia h dent l Fire /faɪər/ /faɪər/ - Posit Wor Phonet Phoneti Deviat ion ds ic c ion Initia Transc Transc l Fan /fæn/ /fen/ - ript ript Medi Effe Initia /ð/ - al ct /ɪˈfekt/ /ɪˈfekt/ - l This /ðɪs/ /dɪs/ /d/ Final Leaf /liːf/ /lɪf/ - Initia /ð/ - Eno l They /ðeɪ/ /deɪ/ /d/ Final ugh /ɪˈnʌf/ /ɪˈnʌf/ - Medi Fath /ˈfɑːðər /ð/ - al er / /ˈfɑːdər/ /d/ Due to this result, Only 5% mistake Clot /kləʊð in the sound /f/ pronounced by thirty six Final hes z/ /kləʊtz/ /ð/ - /t/ students. This might be because /f/ sound Brea /ð/ - can easily found in the Indonesian phonetic Final the /briːð/ /bred/ /d/ system.

The pronunciation of sound /ð/ The Production of Sound /v/ Sound /v/ categorized as voiced occurred in ten words of the sound tested as labiodentals fricative. This sound cannot be much as 77,78% students did a false found in Indonesia phonetic system. Table pronunciation and then just 22,22% 5 showed that the participants tended to students can able to pronounce it correctly. make mistakes in pronouncing this sound in For example, 'they' is pronounced as /ˈdeɪ/ all positions. They merely made one kind of instead of /ˈðeɪ/ and 'father' is pronounced deviation, that is sound /v/ replaced by as /ˈfɑːdər/ instead of /ˈfɑːðər/. In line with sound /f/. the previous sound, sound /ð/ also cannot be found in the participants' native Table 6 language. The sound /ð/ pronounced as /d/. The Deviation of Sound /v/ The participants often pronounce it as Englis Respo /d/due to their mother tongue language h ndent Posi Phonet Phonet Devia nearest sound. These mistakes seemed to be Words a problem for the participants. tion ic ic tion Transc Transc The Production of Sound /f/ ript ript Sound /f/ categorized as voiceless Initi /v/ - labiodentals fricative sound. This sound can al Voice /vɔɪs/ /fɔɪs/ /f/ be found in Indonesia phonetic system. Initi Availa /əˈveɪlə /əˈfeɪlə /v/ - Table 4 showed that the participants tended al ble bəl/ bəl/ /f/ less to make mistakes in pronouncing /f/ in Med Govern /ˈɡʌvər /ˈɡʌfər /v/ - initial, medial, and final positions. The ial ment mənt/ mənt/ /f/ deviation from the sounds /f/ didn’t replace /v/ - with any words, it just 5% students did the Final Have / hæv/ / hef/ /f/ false pronunciation and 95% is a total /ˈsɜːrvɪ /ˈserfɪs /v/ - percentage whose can pronounce this sound Final Service s/ / /f/ properly. 31 An Analysis of Students’ Difficulties in Pronouncing English Fricative Consonant at the Eleventh Grade of SMA Negeri 1 Kota Jambi

Jelt : Journal Of English Language teaching, Vol 5 No.1 Tahun 2021

As mentioned earlier, the mistakes know how the way to pronounce the words found in pronouncing this sound have one correctly. Moreover, even the students often deviation. It is the deviation of sound /v/ to to practice pronunciation without they sound /f/. /v/ sound does not exist in the know the correct one, they can continuously Indonesian phonetic system. The do the mistake in pronunciation. However, occurrences of these score are ten words out there is 1 student that never practices of thirteen words tested. The false pronunciation. The student number 29 says, pronunciation of this sound occurred “I never practice pronunciation 57,22% and then 42,28% that did a correct miss, and then also with the learning of of the pronunciation by the thirty six pronunciation”. students. This assumed that the students From the answer it can be the have a problem in pronouncing this sound answer why the student number 29 was got because the mispronounced happened in all a lower score in pronouncing dental and positions of sound. labiodental sound, because he never All in all, from the sounds /θ/, / ð /, practices pronunciation. In the next and /v/ that tested, scoring shows that the question, all the students answer that their percentage level of the students teacher is ever taught about pronunciation, pronunciation is still below 60%. It means but the teacher is seldom to teach it. It was that the students are difficult for the reason why many students are difficult pronouncing those words. Nevertheless, the to pronounce dental and labiodental sounds sound /f/ got a high score percentage of because not only from the students side that correct pronunciation because this sound is monotonous in the way practicing available in Bahasa Indonesia alphabet. pronunciation but the teacher also provides the background why the students faced it. The Students Difficulties Factors In case, the teacher must be aware not only Based on the interview that has in receptive skills but also the productive been done, there were several factors that skill like pronunciation. The effect of the made students difficult to pronounce both side, the students mostly are difficult English fricative sounds. The factor to pronounce dental and labiodental sounds. described below; Next is the question number 3, In the first question, “Do you often “Before this test is held, have you ever practice and learn about pronunciation in known about dental and labiodental?”, the English?” mostly the students said that they total of the students said that they were were quite often to practice pronunciation never know about dental and labiodental. in English but they were rarely to learn The factor that influenced this answer was about knowledge of pronunciation. The in the previous questions. students argue that they were practice All in all, from the first until third pronunciation mostly from listening to question the section of the interview music and watching movie. However, even proofed that the difficulties factor number 2 though they were often to practice the in chapter 2 about the lack of the students pronunciation, the way to learn was very knowledge about English sound system is monotonous. Listening music and watching valid. movie were not the proper answer for those After that, question number 4, who want to be the media to practice the “After you knew about pronunciation of pronunciation. As a result of the method, dental and labiodental sounds correctly, do they were get the difficulties and some you feel any difficulties to pronounce mistake in pronouncing dental and dental and labiodental? Five students labiodental sounds. In case, they could use answered difficult but one of them says, the media YouTube to watch the native “It is not really difficult miss” speaker pronounce the word properly. So, It means that from the first time the the students know their ability in students do not know the correct pronunciation and also the students can pronunciation, they felt easy to pronounce it

32 An Analysis of Students’ Difficulties in Pronouncing English Fricative Consonant at the Eleventh Grade of SMA Negeri 1 Kota Jambi

Jelt : Journal Of English Language teaching, Vol 5 No.1 Tahun 2021 and after they knew the proper habitual to pronounce English words pronunciation, they felt difficult. properly.” Next is question number 5, “What It means that not only the mother are the difficulties factors when you tongue that effected to the ability of the pronounce the dental sound changed into /t/ students pronunciation, but the habitual of or /d, mostly the students answered the the students communication using their difficulties of pronouncing dental sounds own mother language also effecting the because of less of knowledge about the students difficulties in pronouncing dental dental sounds and the habitual of students and labiodental sounds. In short, the itself in daily activity use their first influence of mother language is the language that effect to the target language. answered of the question number 7,8 and 9. Question number 6, What are the difficulties factors when you pronounce the DISCUSSIONS labiodental sound changed from /v/ into /f/, Based on the findings, it was the students mostly said that the difficulties shown that there are three kinds of English factors of labiodental sounds because of the fricative consonant difficulties that mostly student habitual in Bahasa Indonesia which made by the students. According to the is v is pronounced same like f. It is come result of the pronunciation test, it found that from the unsuccessful in using borrowed the sound which occupies the first place as English words. the most frequently encountered error in Next is question number 7, “Are students’ pronunciation is the /ð/ sound. your tongue, mouth and teeth difficult in The total of students who made an error in places to the proper position for pronouncing these sounds is about 77,78% pronouncing dental and labiodental sound?” students, where most of the students who the students all answered that yes, the made mistake in this sound changed it with tongue, mouth and teeth are difficult to another fricative consonant that sounds places in proper position. The reason of this similar /d/. answered actually came from the mother Meanwhile, the second place as the most tongue of the students that unfamiliar with error made by the students was followed by the sound of the dental and labiodental in the /θ/ sound. Where about 76,11% of English. difficulties are found in this dental Question number 8, “Are you voiceless fricative sounds. Most of the always use mother language on your daily students mispronounced the word changed communication?” and then all the students the /θ/ to be the /t/ sound, in other words, also said that yes, the students were always they pronounce it based on it written form. use mother tongue on their daily The same cases also happened in the communication either it with family or sounds /v/, where the most mistake in this friends. The first language or mother sounds occurs because the students language affects the students in learning pronounce this sound same like the sound English which considered as the major of /f/, it is the students habitual because of cause of students problems in mastery new in Bahasa Indonesia, those two sounds /f/ language. and /v/ are pronounced in the same way, And the last questions, Are your nothing differentiation. This kind of mother language that you use for mistake could be happening because of the communicating in your daily is affected lack of the students’ knowledge in into your difficultiness in pronouncing understanding the rules of pronouncing dental and labiodental sounds?” five fricatives sounds. Therefore, the students students answered yes but student 20 says, still got confused and made some mistake “It is not really effect miss. I think when pronounced the sound that do not that it is because of the lack of exist in the students’ mother tongue. knowledge in pronunciation so that After analyzed the result of the it is difficult, we just make this interview session, this research got

33 An Analysis of Students’ Difficulties in Pronouncing English Fricative Consonant at the Eleventh Grade of SMA Negeri 1 Kota Jambi

Jelt : Journal Of English Language teaching, Vol 5 No.1 Tahun 2021 information about the factor causes of English in their daily conversation. As difficulties by the students in pronouncing stated by Miller (1999: 39), non-linguistic English fricative consonant sounds. As factors related to the individual personality stated in chapter II, the influenced of and learning goals, attitude towards the students’ mother language were factor target language, culture, native speakers, caused of the interference of the students’ and type of motivation which are beyond mother tongue or native language. There the teacher control. In this respect, was a strong relationship between the changing and not changing speech patterns students’ native language and target is affected by how much responsibility the language which causes them intertwined student takes, how much the student with one another. In other words, practices outside of class, and how ready the comparing the language system that exists student is. In other words, the more often in students’ mother tongue and apply them their study or practice time the better their in the foreign language which has been pronunciation would be. Although there learning already becomes a common fact. are still several aspects which might be the As a result, interference of this matter will effect of their skill, such as situation and bring up a new problem. Of course, it process including students learning comes from the lack of understanding the environment, curriculum, educators, foreign language. facilities, etc. furthermore, this cannot The evidence could be seen at the always be the determining aspect. most errors found in the pronunciation test, Almost all the respondents where the errors have mostly happened in involved on this study stated that the sounds that do not exist in either pronunciation is one of difficult subjects Indonesian or their regional language. The but they were rarely to learn this skill in a voiceless /θ/ sound does not exist in Bahasa school so that they have a lack in Indonesia, therefore some students pronunciation knowledge. As stated by changed the consonant /θ/ into /t/. Aliaga (2019, 52) English pronunciation is Others the sound voiced /ð/ that also does one of the most difficult skills to acquire not exist in Bahasa Indonesia, so that the and learners should spend lots of time to most students changed the consonant /ð/ improve their pronunciation. Besides, into /d/. understandable pronunciation is one of the For the last, the students also made basic requirements of learners competence an error in fricative /v/ sound because of the because with good pronunciation leads to fricative /v/ do not exist in the students learning while bad pronunciation promotes native language. From this result, it can be to great difficulties in language learning. seen that the absence of certain sounds in According to Abbas and Mohammad on students native language was being their research, there are several factor that replaced with similar sounds. In other effecting pronunciation to become one of words, a mistake occurs because of the the most difficult parts for a language differences between the students native learner, such as; the interference of students language and target language. accent; stress, intonation, and rhythm; From the interview session, this different sounds and features; students‟ research found that the students who got motivation and exposure towards the high score in pronunciation test admitted subject; the attitude of students to the that they are quite often to speak English target language, and many more. with their friends or practice their However, many teachers still are not aware pronunciation by using a media like an App, of the importance of pronunciation. Mostly watching some videos or movies to teachers only pay enough attention to increasing their skill while the students who grammar and vocabulary in learning a got the lower score admitted that they did foreign language or only help learners to not have any specific time to study become skillful in listening and reading. As pronunciation and occasionally to use the result, this becomes one of the major

34 An Analysis of Students’ Difficulties in Pronouncing English Fricative Consonant at the Eleventh Grade of SMA Negeri 1 Kota Jambi

Jelt : Journal Of English Language teaching, Vol 5 No.1 Tahun 2021 reasons for the students pronunciation Teacher Training and Education Sriwijaya errors because they did not have enough University on the onset, in the middle and knowledge about this skill. coda of a word. His research showed the In the same way the students most difficulty that arised were replecement perfective on the subject are also suspicious of /t/, /d/ which is the closest equivalents of to be one of their lacks in pronunciation. the consonants in Bahasa. While other Their thought of pronunciation to be one of sounds /s/, /d/, /θ/, /ð/, also occurs but in difficult subject indirectly could limitations much lower frequency. their ability, because they program their brain to think so. Therefore, the students CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS have to monitor their self-talk, if the After doing the research, the students keep think and go around to telling researcher concluded that the students’ people that pronunciation is so difficult for difficulties in pronouncing English fricative them or their pronunciation is so horrible, consonant at the Eleventh Grade of SMA etc. It will surely inhibit the development of Negeri 1 Kota Jambi as follow: their pronunciation, as a consequence they 1. The students’ difficulties in can not improve their self-more. In pronouncing fricative consonant are conclusion, both teachers and students has producing sound (/θ/, /ð/, and /v/). The important role in developing student highest percentage of the students pronunciation skill. The teachers expected score was 95% and the lowest was to give more attention on this subject 15%. Where the mean score of the because expert guidance is extremely students test was 42,28% with a fair needed in this case. Likewise, the students categories and percentage of students also have to be more confident with their score test were /θ/ 76,11%, sound /ð/ ability and most importantly they should 77,78%, /f/ 5%, and sound /v/ 57,22%. take care with their self-talk because the 2. The factors of students’ difficulties in way they think could effects their ability pronouncing English fricative Isnarani (2016) in her research consonant are; the influence of found the similar difficulties with this students mother language, the lack of research, they were the replacement of [ð] students knowledge about English with [d], [θ] with [t], [v] with [f], [s] with sound system and the unsuccessful in [z] and [∫], [z] with [s], [∫] with [s], and using borrowed English words. replacement of [ʒ] with [∫] and [z]. Whereas, the factors of the difficulties were Based on the above conclusions, different. She stated the several factors the researcher gave some suggestions, causing students mistakes in pronouncing teacher suggested that he/she must more fricatives consonants; there 61 were no pay attention to teach speaking and examples to read the words correctly, the pronunciation, do not only focuses on unfamiliarity of students to say it in daily writing and reading skills, the students had conversation, the inconsistency between the have a picture of what difficulty they might written words in English to the sounds. face in acquiring pronunciation, especially This research also encouraged by in individual sounds. It is hoped the Ilham Syarifuddin (2017) about students should be aware of their ability in Makassarese student in English program. pronunciation and then try to overcome The respondent encountered difficulties to their problems or difficulties, future pronounce ð, θ, ∫, and ʒ. The factor of these researcher is suggested that further research difficulties is because Makassar language to focus not only on the segmental aspect only has two fricative consonant. He did a but also in supra segmental aspects in all bit different research, he attempted the parts of English fricative consonant sounds. research only focused on dental fricative The researcher expects that there will be consonants (/θ/ð/) by students of English other researchers who will investigate the Education Study Program Faculty of different types and causes relating to English difficulties pronunciation. The 35 An Analysis of Students’ Difficulties in Pronouncing English Fricative Consonant at the Eleventh Grade of SMA Negeri 1 Kota Jambi

Jelt : Journal Of English Language teaching, Vol 5 No.1 Tahun 2021 researcher also hopes that this research can be used as a reference to others.

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37 An Analysis of Students’ Difficulties in Pronouncing English Fricative Consonant at the Eleventh Grade of SMA Negeri 1 Kota Jambi