Abstract:
Speaking is basically the activity of pronouncing words in order to express
or convey thought or idea, and emotion. One of the ways to master
speakingsomeone’s skill well for senior high school students is by teaching
pronunciation.However, indonesian students often face difficulties in learning
English, especially in pronunciation.One of the problems is in pronouncing
English diphthong.In the matter of pronouncing English closing diphthong(eI, əu,
aI, au, ɔI), the learners are still likely to face difficulties which are caused not only
by the different element between their mother tongue and the target language but
also their speaking habit of pronouncing the English closing diphthong(eI, əu, aI,
au, ɔI). Therefore, this thesis intends to describethe problems in pronouncing
English closing diphthong (eI, əu, aI, au, ɔI) encountered by the second grade
students of SMAPancasilaPurworejo.
Based on that explanation,the writer usesdescriptive qualitative method to
describe the problems in pronouncing English closing diphthong (eI, əu, aI, au,
ɔI).In collecting data the writer used research instrument to support
theresearch.The writer collect the data by using pronunciation test of English
closing diphthong(eI, əu, aI, au, ɔI) as the research instrument.
After doing the research and analyzing the data for the pronunciation of
English closing diphthongs(eI, əu, aI, au, ɔI), the writer concludes that the student
still getinterlingual problem in pronouncing sound [əu]. This problem can be
showed in the word codes, for example. For the pronunciation the word codes
there are 69.6% of the students who pronounce the word unacceptably. The
student pronounces the word codes as [kod] or [kɔd] instead of [kəud], the word
coat there is 69.6% of the students pronounce the word unacceptably.The student
pronounces the wordcoat as [kot] or [kɔt] instead of [kəut] then the word
won’tthere are 69.4% of the students student pronounce the word unacceptably.
The student pronounces the word won’tas [won] or [wɔn] instead of [wəun]. So, it
makes the student fail to pronounce those words correctly.Therefore, the writer
hopes that the students need to study more in studying pronunciation. They must
be active in English learning process so the result can be utilized in the field of
English language teaching.
