THE ABILITY IN PRONOUNCING SIX ENGLISH UNFAMILIAR CONSONANT SOUNDS (/ð/, /θ/, /ʃ/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/, /ʒ/) FOR STUDENTS OF EIGHTH SEMESTER OF MUHAMMADIYAH UNIVERSITY OF PURWOREJO IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2013/2014

Abstract

English is a language of international communication, and it is the widely spoken language in the world. There are many aspects to communicate properly, one of them is pronunciation. Pronunciation affects very much on the understanding of the meanings of the words. Furthermore, the existence of first language phonology, Bahasa Indonesia, and the existence of students’ mother tongue, Javanese, are often influenced the using of English. The aim of this study is to find out the ability of the eighth semester students of English Education Programme of Muhammadiyah University of Purworejo in the academic year 2013/ 2014 in pronouncing six English unfamiliarconsonantsounds (/ð /, /θ/, /ʃ/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/, and /ʒ/). This study is also aimed to find out the dominant mistake in pronouncing unfamiliar consonant sounds by the students andto find out kind of the mistake made by the students in pronouncing English unfamiliar consonant sounds. In achieving those, this thesis was conducted by using the qualitative approach. The source of data was from the phonetic trascription of the recorded pronunciation of twenty eight students of Eighth semester in English Education Programme students who studied in Muhammadiyah University of Purworejo. By conducting this research, the researcher finds that the the mean of the percentage of correct pronunciation is 36.79 %. It means that the ability of the students in pronouncing English unfamiliar consonant sounds are in the very low category. The sound /ʒ/ is the most problematic for the students since the research shows that the dominant mistake in pronouncing the sounds is sound /ʒ/ (93.85%). Omission and deviation are familiar in the pronounciation of the students to the sounds. The students tended to replace /ð/ with /t/ and /θ/; /θ/ with /t/, /ð/, and /f/; /ʃ/ with /s/, /c/, and /z/; /tʃ/ with /c/ and /s/; /dʒ/ with /j/, /g/, and /d/; /ʒ/ with sound /s/, /z/, and /ʃ/.