Students’ Errors in Pronunciation and The Teacher’s Strategy to Overcome them at the Eleventh Grade of Class Bahasa Students of SMA N 4 Purworejo In The School Year of 2011/2012

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, and one of them is pronunciation. Pronunciation affects very much on the understanding of the meanings of the words. If the sound of words is different from it should be, it may lead the listener to some other meanings. And if this happens, it is obvious that it’s not a proper communication. This, in fact, creates a confusion. Pronunciation teaching is a prominent factor in foreign language teaching. Since sounds play an important role in communication, foreign language teachers must attribute proper importance to teaching pronunciation in their classes. However, this fact is neglected by many foreign language teachers. This research designs employed descriptive qualitative research. This study is intended to identify students’ errors in pronunciation and show teacher’s strategy in overcoming students’ errors in pronunciation at the eleventh grade of class Bahasa of SMA N 4 Purworejo. The writer takes 1 English teacher and 27 students as the sample of this research. The writer collects the data by observing, documenting, and interviewing. The writer observes students’ errors in pronouncing English words through reading test, and the title of the text of reading test is Encouraging to Use Mass Transportation that is available in the handout that the teacher usually uses. Then, the writer identifies students’ errors in pronunciation. Also, she interviews the English teacher for teacher’s strategy in overcoming students’ errors in pronunciation to confirm the data from observation. After conducting the research, the writer finds that some consonant and vowel sounds which are pronounced incorrectly by students. The consonants are: [dʒ], [g], [tʃ], [v], [ð ], [z] and the vowels are [uː], [æ], [ɑː], [iː], [ɒ], [ɔː], [ə]. The result of this study showed that teacher’s strategy in overcoming students’ errors in pronunciation is drilling, chaining, and substitution drill. The strategies are used by considering the material taught in the class.