Abstract:
Pronunciation is an important element in speaking. The speakers have to
speak in correct pronunciation so the listeners can get the message or the
information. Most of miscommunication happens because the speakers speak in
ambiguous pronunciation. There are differences between Indonesian and English
pronunciation. The differences in pronouncing consonants and vowels of both
languages become a problem for most Indonesian students. Compared to
Indonesian vowels, the English ones are more complex. There are twelve English
vowels. They make Indonesian students get difficulty to learn English because
Indonesian has fewer vowels, only eight vowels. Besides, the dialects-Indonesian
dialects and English dialects- are also the problem for Indonesian students. Based
on the position of the tongue, English vowels are also divided into three-like
Indonesian; front vowels, central vowels, and back vowels- but most Indonesian
students get difficulty in pronouncing English back vowels (o, o:, a:, Λ, u:, U).
This thesis mainly discusses about the fourth-semester students’ ability in
pronouncing English back vowels in British English pronunciation. It aims to
describe the ability of the fourth-semester students of the English Department in
pronouncing English back vowels and to know the students’ difficulties in
pronouncing English back vowels in British English pronunciation of the fourthsemester
students of English Department in the Academic Year 2011/2012. The
researcher uses pronunciation test and then records the students’ answer one by
one in visual recording for collecting the data. After collecting the data, the
researcher analyzes the data based on four steps: transcribing the students’
pronunciation into the phonetic transcriptions, scoring the students’ answer,
grouping the students’ errors in pronouncing English back vowels into separate
divisions, and counting the percentage of the students’ errors.
By conducting this research, the researcher finds that the ability of the
fourth-semester students of English Department in pronouncing English back
vowels is very good. But, some of them still get difficulty in pronouncing vowels
[o:], [U], [o], and [u:] and also they get difficulty to read the spelling <oo>
because they don’t know whether the word should be pronounced as [u:] or [ʊ].
To help the students improve their pronunciation proficiency, the researcher
suggests that they should be given a lot of drills and practices relating to the
pronunciation so that they can acquire the habit of using the correct pronunciation
of English words containing English back vowels correctly.
