EEJ 9 (3) (2019) 334 - 341

English Education Journal

http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/eej The Effect of Buginese Language Transfer on Students’ English Pronunciation: A Case Study at SMAN 4 Barru

Lisa Binti Harun, Januarius Mujiyanto, Abdurrachman Faridi

Universitas Negeri Semarang,

Article Info Abstract ______Article History: Indonesia is a country consists of various cultures and possesses hundreds of Recived 10 February native language. Therefore, in the process of l2 acquisition, the impact of L1 2019 on English articulation certainly is seen as a tough obstacle for the Accepted 04 July Indonesian EFL learners. In SLA, it is known transfer. Buginese 2019 Published 15 language as one of the native language existed in South also gave September 2019 positive and negative transfer towards English pronunciation. It was proven ______through a qualitative case study employed towards 20 students from XI IPA Keywords: 2 at SMAN 4 Barru. To obtain the data, several methods were undergone Language transfer, such as questionnaires, students’ recording, interview and observation. The Second language results of the study showed that Buginese language gave major negative acquisition, English transfer towards vowels /ə/ and /æ/, diphthongs /ɪə/, /eə/, /ʊə/ and /əʊ/, pronunciation consonants /p/, /f/, /ŋ/ and /n/, and also clusters skr/, /spl/ (initial), ______/sk/, and /bl/. Moreover, this language gave minor negative transfer towards long vowels /i:/, /ɑ:/, /ɔ:/, and /u:/ and vowels /ɒ/, also consonants /ʤ/, /ʒ/, /z/, /v/, /ð/, /θ/, /ʧ/, and /ʃ/. It did not give any transfer towards diphthongs /eɪ/ (initial), /aɪ/ (initial and final) and /aʊ/. Besides that, Buginese language also gave minor positive transfer towards; vowels /ʌ/, /ɪ/, /e/, /ʊ/ and /ɔ/, diphthongs /ɔɪ/, /eɪ/ (middle and final), and /aɪ/ (middle), and also consonants /b/, /d/, /g/, /h/, /k/, /l/, /m/, /r/, /s/, /t/, /w/ and /y/. Last, the role of the teacher in improving students’ pronunciation was considered lack and need to be improved.

© 2019 Universitas Negeri Semarang

Correspondence Address: p-ISSN 2087-0108 Kampus Pascasarjana Unnes, Jl.Kelud Utara III Semarang 5023, e-ISSN 2502-4566 Indonesia Email: [email protected]

Lisa Binti Harun, Januarius Mujiyanto, Abdurrachman Faridi/ EEJ 9 (3) 2019 334 - 341

INTRODUCTION Indonesia consists of various cultures and Language is inseparable from human possesses hundreds of native language. In being as it is road for communicating to the process of acquiring the second each other. As we live in the globalization language, the influence of the prior era, the demand for learning foreign language is called language transfer or language especially English is increasing as cross-linguistic influence. It is in line with it becomes a communication tool among Saville-Troikes’ (2006) argument that in people around the world. To fluently acquiring second language there is a speaking in English, a number of sub-skills general agreement that cross-linguistic are a must for the EFL learners to master influence, or transfer of prior knowledge involving vocabulary, grammar, from L1 to L2 is one of the processes that is pragmatics, pronunciation and others involved in Interlanguage development. (Fraser, 2000). The most supporting sub- The language transfer brings positive and skill according to Fraser is pronunciation, negative effect towards second language as for the speaker with good pronunciation acquiring. It is described as positive is still understandable even it contains transfer when an L1 structure or role is errors within, and speaker with bad used in an L2 utterance and that use is pronunciation leads to misunderstanding in appropriate or correct, meanwhile when an communication. L1 structure or role is used in an L2 However, like any other aspects of utterance and that use is inappropriate and English, certainly there will be many considered as error, it is considered as affecting factors that might become negative transfer. obstacles for the learners during learning There were several studies that pronunciation. Kenworthy (1978) divided investigated the positive and negative the factors that affect the pronunciation transfer from L1 towards L2. For instance, learning into the native language, age Dewi (2013) who investigated the influence factor, amount of exposure, phonetic of Brebes Javanese Dialect comes into ability, attitude and identity, and conclusion that the dialect gives negative motivation. Zhang (2009) on the other transfer on the vowel sound [ɪ], and hand, proposed that factors affecting diphthong /eɪ/, /aɪ/, /ɔɪ/ and /ɪə/. It also pronunciation are categorized into two gave positive transfer on the consonant areas, which are named internal and sounds final [b], final [d], and final [g], external factors. Internal factor focuses on meanwhile it did not give any transfer to L2 learner themselves, and involves the English initial cluster /st/, /spr/, and biologic factor (i.e. age, ear perception, and /str/. Moreover, Mulya (2018) found out aptitude) and individual differences (i.e. that Serawai Melayunese dialect gave personality, attitude, motivation, identity, strong influence towards sound /aʊ/ and individual efforts, and goal setting). two syllable word stress on final position. External factor involves L2 learner’s In addition, the dialect did not strongly learning environment, and relates to gave negative transfer on the substitutions learner’s native language, exposure, and of long vowel sounds [I’], [ɒ], [ʌ], [ɔ], and educational factors. [e]. The sounds that did not strongly The impact of native language on received positive transfer from the dialect English articulation is certainly a tough are vowels [ʊ],[ɒ],[ʌ],[ə],[e], consonants obstacle for the Indonesian EFL learners as [p], [b], [t], [d], [f], [ʃ], [k], [h], [s], [m], [n], 335

Lisa Binti Harun, Januarius Mujiyanto, Abdurrachman Faridi/ EEJ 9 (3) 2019 334 - 341

[l], [r], and diphthong [ɔɪ]. Falahuddin expected to be a beneficial discovery for the (2019), on the other hand, found out that teachers and students especially in South students with Mid-East Sundanese dialect Sulawesi. tended to change sound [æ] with [ʌ], and [e] as well as sounds [əʊ] and [eə] that METHOD replaced with sounds [ʌ], and [ɜː] as the negative transfer from L1. The consonants This is a qualitative case study that that received negative transfer from L1 using field note to obtain the data needed. could be seen on sound [θ], [ð], [ʧ]. The participants of the study were the Moreover, L1 also positively affected the students of class XI IPA 2 of SMAN 4 cluster sounds [pr], [kw], [bl], and [str]. Barru. The total number of students in the The realization of language transfer class was 24 that later being limited to 20 also happened to one of native language in as the requirement of the research were the namely Buginese language. students who originally come from Barru are bilingual speakers as Regency. they use Indonesian in formal settings and Various ways are undergone to get Buginese language in informal context such the data for instance; questionnaires that as daily communication. The strong accent employed to obtain the data about and different phoneme production usually students’ origin and background, students’, become obstacles for them to learn new recordings to get the data about their language (Nasir, 2016). The same matter pronunciation. The students are required to also goes to English as second language, read an English text, a list of sentence, and thus, a throughout investigation related to target words that represented initial, which phonemes in segmental features that middle and final position of each sound, affected by Buginese language need to be interviews to obtain information related to done. Previously, several studies have been the role of the teacher in helping the conducted to examine sounds that were students to improve their English difficult to be uttered by Buginese speakers pronunciation, and last, observation to get for instance, /f/ and /v/, /θ/ and /d/, /s/ information related to teacher’s and /ž/, vowel /æ/ and diphthongs /iə, contribution in real situation. uə, əu, eə/. The reasons lead to the The data later analyzed according to obstacles are the different sound system few stages such as: (1) designing, (2) between Bugis and English and also selecting, (3) recording, (4) transcribing, (5) strong/heavy accent from the dialect. categorizing, (6) analyzing and interpreting (Nurpahmi, 2013; Padilah et.al, 2018) and (7) presenting. Apparently, the previous study only observed the comparison of both languages RESULTS AND DISCUSSION towards common speakers. The current study meanwhile attempts to examine both The results of the data lead the study positive and negative transfer that occurred to several arguments. It is divided into five in English segmental features resulting parts and explained as follow. from Buginese language towards students. Moreover, the role from the teacher also needs to be analyzed as they also give contribution in improving students’ English pronunciation. The results of the study are 336

Lisa Binti Harun, Januarius Mujiyanto, Abdurrachman Faridi/ EEJ 9 (3) 2019 334 - 341

English Vowels Affected by Buginese /ə/ in its sound system, for instance Language [mʌegʌ] (many) and [mʌkʌtə] (itchy). The analysis of the entire English However, in pronouncing the entire words vowels sound leads to three final results. in during the recording, I realized that the First, Buginese language gave minor effects students overused the sound /e/ and towards /ʌ/, /ɪ/, /e/, /ʊ/ and /ɔ/. These substituted it from sound /ə/, such as in sounds are identified as unproblematic for the word ‘development’ [dɪˈvɛləpmənt] that the students to pronounce. The causing pronounced as [dɛfɛlɔfmɛn]. This factors that bring the easiness are the phenomenon was one of the negative facilitation from Buginese language and transfer that comes from Buginese also Bahasa Indonesia as those sounds as Buginese people most exist in both of the language’s sound frequently using sound /e/ in their daily systems. This situation is known as positive communication. Moreover, the students transfer. As stated by Seville-Troike (2006) had difficulties in uttering sound /æ/ in who argued that in interlanguage word ‘act’ [ˈækt] and ‘character’ [ˈkærɪktə] development, transfer from prior language and tended to substitute the current sound is one of the processes happening towards with /ʌ/. second language acquisition. As there were positive and negative form of transfer, English Diphthongs Affected by Buginese apparently positive transfer is a condition Language where the structure and rule of L1 suitable Dealing with the data gave me to be applied in L2. several final results related to the effect of Second, Buginese language gave Buginese language. First, it could be seen minor negative transfer towards vowels that Buginese language gave minor positive /i:/, /ɑ:/, /ɔ:/, and /u:/ and also vowels transfer to diphthongs such as /ɔɪ/, /eɪ/ /ɒ/. From the findings results, it could be (middle and final), and /aɪ/ (middle). stated that the entire words that represent From the result, it could be concluded that long vowels were substituted into short students have no difficulties to produce vowels /ɪ/, /ʌ/, /ɔ/ and /ʊ/, meanwhile, those sounds and the effects of Buginese sound /ɒ/ was tended to be pronounced language as L1 was one of the factors that into /ɔ/. The phenomenon was due to the facilitated the positive transfer. According inexistence of both long vowels and /ɒ/ in to Nurpahmi (2013), Buginese sound their first language namely Buginese system recognized more diphthongs than language. Even though the inexistence of English. There are /aɪ/, /eɪ/, /aʊ/, /ɔe/, the sound occurred in Buginese language, it /ʊɪ/, /ɔɪ/, /ʊe/, /aɪ/, /ʊa/, /ɪa/ and could not be said that the first language /ɪʊ/. Apparently in her study, she was the main cause of the negative transfer. confirmed that there were four diphthongs Other factors might come from the that exist both in Buginese language and inexistence of the sound in Bahasa English, namely /aɪ/, /eɪ/, /aʊ/, /ɔɪ/ and Indonesia and teachers who did not according to students’ pronunciation result; introduce the sound to the students because the familiarity of the sounds makes them of lack of time in teaching English. easy to pronounce the represented words. In addition, the major negative Moreover, there were some transfer from Buginese language could be diphthongs that did not receive any seen in vowels /ə/ and /æ/. Buginese negative transfer from Buginese language language recognized both sound /e/ and 337

Lisa Binti Harun, Januarius Mujiyanto, Abdurrachman Faridi/ EEJ 9 (3) 2019 334 - 341

to the students. It is /eɪ/ (initial), /aɪ/ students were facilitated and did not feel (initial and final) and /aʊ/. Even though any difficulty in pronouncing the sounds. the students were familiar with those Apparently, they categorized as receiving sounds, they seem have difficulties in minor positive transfer from Buginese pronouncing the represented words. The language due to many factors that assisted examples were ‘agent’ that tend to be students’ easiness to utter them and not pronounced as [ʌgɛn], ‘aisle’ as [ɛisli], ‘sky’ only from Buginese language. Other factor as [skɪ] and others. As stated by Seville- that supported the facilitation was Bahasa Troike (2006), intralingual errors are the Indonesia that the students have learned in result of incomplete learning of L2 rules or school. overgeneralization of them and not Second, Buginese language gave attributable to cross-linguistic influence. minor negative transfer to the consonants So, the errors made by the students can be sounds such as /ʤ/, /ʒ/, /z/, /v/, /ð/, categorized as developmental or /θ/, /ʧ/, and /ʃ/. I classified that Buginese intralingual errors which due to the limited language only gave minor negative transfer and incomplete L2 learning that lead to and not major as there were other factors confusion to choose the correct use of that affecting the transfer for instance, sound. Bahasa Indonesia and spelling interference. Last, Buginese language gave major For sound /ʤ/, even though it existed in negative transfer towards diphthong /ɪə/, both speech sound of Buginese language /eə/, /ʊə/ and /əʊ/. Based on the result in and Bahasa Indonesia, they tend to findings section, the students were not substitute the sound into /g/ in the word familiar with those sounds and tended to ‘religion’ and ‘privilege’ in the middle and substitute it into other easiest sound for final position. Other factor might influence them. For example, /ɪə/ tends to become the substitution and one of that was /eɪ/, /e/, or /ɪ/, /eə/ tended to change spelling interference. In addition, the into /aɪ/, /eɪ/, /e/, /ʌ/, and /i/, /ʊə/ influence of Buginese language and Bahasa tended to be /ʊ/ and /ɔ/, meanwhile /əʊ/ Indonesia were also noticed in sound /ʧ/ becomes /ɔʊ/, /ɔʊə/, /ɔ/, /ɪ/, and /e/. where the students had tendency to This was happened because of the gap pronounce the sound as sound /c/ that differences between students’ L1 and L2, existed in both language. It was in line with until they chose to use the structure of L1. Ramelan’s argument in Mulya (2019) that Indonesian students tend to substitute English Consonants Affected by sound /ʧ/ with sound /c/ as in word [cantik] (beautiful) which is more alveolar Buginese Language and not rounding. In the middle position The final result of the recordings for the word ‘eventually’ instead, they brought several arguments that later changed the sound /ʧ/ into /t/, so it could divided into how Buginese language be said that they tend to utter the word affected positively or negatively towards exactly as how it is written. In the other the consonants. First, Buginese language hand, /ð/, /θ/, and /ʃ/ were sounds in gave minor positive transfer towards English that did not exist in speech sound consonants such as /b/, /d/, /g/, /h/, of both Buginese language and Bahasa /k/, /l/, /m/, /r/, /s/, /t/, /w/ and /y/. Indonesia. Therefore, students tended to As these sounds existed in the speech pronounce those sounds into the nearest sounds of Buginese language, therefore, the sound in their first language; for instance, 338

Lisa Binti Harun, Januarius Mujiyanto, Abdurrachman Faridi/ EEJ 9 (3) 2019 334 - 341

/ð/ becomes /d/, /θ/ becomes /t/, and the interview with the teacher and /ʃ/ becomes /s/. In addition, students observation in the classroom, I found could not pronounce the sound /z/ and several arguments related to pronunciation /v/ in initial, medial and final position. teaching. First, the teacher argued that she They had tendency to change sound /v/ trained and monitored students’ with /f/ and /p/ while /z/ is changed into pronunciation every time they read a /s/. passage or sentences in the class, but the Third, Buginese language gave reality showed that she only gave major negative transfer to the consonant correction towards students’ pronunciation sound /p/, /f/, /ŋ/ and /n/. In observing when they learning new vocabularies or students’ pronunciation, I found out that whenever they failed to pronounce correct the substitution between sound /p/ and /f/ words and this only happened once or were done by the students naturally and twice throughout the meeting. Harmer in unintentionally. For instance, in Gilakjani (2016) argued that many teachers pronouncing ‘politician’ and ‘paper’, some are paying attention more to skill such as students pronounced it with sound /p/ at grammar and vocabulary to help foreign the first meeting but later they changed the learners in listening and reading until the sound into /f/ until it became ‘folitician’ importance of pronunciation were and ‘fafer’. Moreover, the substitution abandoned. In addition, the allocation of between /ŋ/ and /n/, or vice versa also time in 2013 curriculum that still was seen happened in students pronunciation. as the consideration made by the teacher to divide the time wisely and preferred to teach other skill rather than pronunciation. English Consonant Clusters Affected by Second, the teacher admitted that in Buginese Language the learning process, dictionary was a The Buginese language gave major crucial tool that facilitated the students to negative transfer towards clusters such as acquire not only new vocabularies but also /skr/, /spl/ (initial), /sk/, and /bl/. It pronunciation. However, in real situation, could be seen from the students’ result that bringing a dictionary for English subject in pronouncing word ‘screw’, ‘splash’, was not a necessity for the students and ‘skill’ and ‘black’, they tended to add sound was considered more to a formality only. /ə/ between the clusters. For example, In coping with the situation, the teacher ‘splash’ becomes [səplæʃ], ‘skill’ becomes needs to have self-awareness about the [səkɪl], ‘screw’ becomes [səkrɔu], and importance of teaching pronunciation by at ‘black’ becomes [bəlek]. Other than that, least asking the students to bring dictionary the word ‘establish’ from the middle and make them pronouncing the correct position of cluster /bl/ also got affected by words. Buginese language. The students tend to Last, the native language of both add sound /ɪ/ between the clusters until teacher and students also became the word was pronounced as [ɪsˈtʌbɪlɪs]. highlighted issue that need to be concerned by the teacher. Kenworthy (1987) stated Teacher’s Role in Improving Students’ that native language was one of the factors English Pronunciation that affect learner’s pronunciation along To collect the data related to this with the age factor, amount of exposure, research question, I applied the interview phonetic ability, attitude and identity, and and observation as the instruments. From motivation. . The native language effect 339

Lisa Binti Harun, Januarius Mujiyanto, Abdurrachman Faridi/ EEJ 9 (3) 2019 334 - 341

was undeniable matter that later become clusters such as /skr/, /spl/ (initial), /sk/, special features or characteristics that and /bl/. It could be seen from the called accent. However, every native students’ result that in pronouncing word language brought negative transfer to ‘screw’, ‘splash’, ‘skill’ and ‘black’, they learning, therefore, the tended to add sound /ə/ between the teacher need to decrease its effects by clusters, while for the word ‘establish’ from providing correct and proper pronunciation the middle position of cluster /bl/ tended for the students. to be added sound /ɪ/ between the clusters. Last, the teacher’s effort in CONCLUSION improving students’ pronunciation is still insufficient. It is confirmed that teacher’s The conclusions of the study bring to awareness to provide correct pronunciation several arguments. Buginese language gave to the students still lack. The factors minor positive transfer towards sound /ʌ/, causing the lack are, first, less attention /ɪ/, /e/, /ʊ/ and /ɔ/ as the sound also given by the teacher in teaching exists in Bahasa Indonesia and the positive pronunciation where teacher prefer to transfer may affected by both of them. teach other skills rather than Moreover, it gives minor negative transfer pronunciation. Other than that, limited towards long vowels such as /i:/, /ɑ:/, allocation of time to teach pronunciation /ɔ:/, and /u:/ and also vowels /ɒ/. The and less awareness about the using of strong influence of the language could be media such as dictionary also become the seen in two vowels namely /ə/ and /æ/. causing factors. Last, the native language Besides that, Buginese language also of both teacher and students is causing gave minor positive transfer towards factors that undeniable and the negative diphthongs /ɔɪ/, /eɪ/ (middle and final), transfer of it needs to be decreased. and /aɪ/ (middle) and did not give any effect on sound /eɪ/ (initial), /aɪ/ (initial REFERENCES and final) and /aʊ/. Strong influence of Buginese language could be seen on sounds Dewi, R., Mujiyanto, J., & Sukrisno, A. /ɪə/, /eə/, /ʊə/ and /əʊ/. (2017). The influence of Brebes Towards English consonants, /b/, Javanese dialect toward students’ /d/, /g/, /h/, /k/, /l/, /m/, /r/, /s/, /t/, pronunciation of English speech /w/ and /y/ were sounds that received sounds: A case study in Sman 1 minor positive transfer from Buginese Brebes. English Language and language. Consonants that received minor Literature International Conference negative transfer from the language were (ELLiC), 1, 189-194. /ʤ/, /ʒ/, /z/, /v/, /ð/, /θ/, /ʧ/, and Falahuddin, M.A., Saleh,M., & Fitriati, /ʃ/. The major negative transfer instead, S.W. (2019). The influence of Mid- can be seen in the consonant sounds /p/, east Sundanese dialect (L1) in the /f/, /ŋ/ and /n/. In pronouncing /p/ and pronunciation of English among /f/, the substitution between the two English department students at sounds done naturally and unintentionally. university majalengka. English It also happens between /ŋ/ and /n/. Education Journal, 9(2), 157-163. Next, from seven consonant clusters Gilakjani, A.P. (2016). English that I investigated, the Buginese language pronunciation instruction: A gives major negative transfer towards literature review. International 340

Lisa Binti Harun, Januarius Mujiyanto, Abdurrachman Faridi/ EEJ 9 (3) 2019 334 - 341

Journal of Research in English Bugis-Bone accent interference on Education, 1(1), 1-6. the pronunciation in English Kenworthy, J. (1987). Teaching English conversation. Research Gate, 4(1),79- Pronunciation. NY: Longman. 84. Mulya, D., & Mujiyanto, J. (2018). The DOI:10.24252/Eternal.V41.2018.A influence of Serawai Melayunese 6 dialect towards students’ English Saville-Troike,M.(2006). Introducing second pronunciation. English Education language acquisition. Cambridge, UK: Journal, 8(3), 292-300. Cambridge University Press. Nasir, S.H. (2016). Buginese family Zhang, Q.M. (2009). Affecting factors of speaking bahasa showed ethnolect native-like speech-pattern phenomena. pronunciation. 한국교육문제연구, International Conference. 27(2), 33-52. Padhilah, N., Juhannis, H., Nurpahmi, S.(2018). The causal factors of

341