EEJ 10 (1) (2020) 53 - 60 English Education Journal http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/eej The Influence of Kemak Sanirin Dialect Towards Students’ English Pronunciation Martinus Mau Ati1, Januarius Mujiyanto2, Suwandi2 1. SMA Negeri 3 Atambua, Indonesia 2. Universitas Negeri Semarang, Indonesia Article Info ________________ Article history: Recived 10 February 2019 Accepted 08 July 2019 Published 15 March 2020 ________________ Keywords: Kemak Sanirin Language, Dialect, Pronunciation __________________ Abstract __________________________________________________________________ This qualitative research attempted to review the influence of Kemak Sanirin dialect towards students’ English pronunciation. The objectives of the study were to explain the influence of Kemak Sanirin dialect towards students’ English pronunciation of vowels, consonants, diphthongs, and consonant clusters and to explain the way teachers play their roles to improve students’ pronunciation. This study employed descriptive qualitative method. The subjects of this study were 18 students from eleventh grade students of SMA Negeri 3 Atambua. The data were collected by using questionnaire, students’ recording, observation checklist, and interview. Then, the results of this study show that Kemak Sanirin dialect contributed some positive transfer on vowels (i, ɪ, u, e, ʊ, and ə), insignificant negative transfer on consonants (p, b, k, r, s, g, m, etc.) and siginificant negative transfer on consonant (z), significant positive transfer on diphtongs (eɪ, aɪ, au) and significant negative transfer on (ɔɪ, ɛə, əʊ, and ɪə), significant negative transfer on three consonant clusters, while teacher did play his roles in improving students’ pronunciation. © 2020 Universitas Negeri Semarang Correspondence Address: Kabuna, Kakuluk Mesak, Belu Regency, East Nusa Tenggara E-mail: martinusmauati94@gmail.com p-ISSN 2087-0108 e-ISSN 2502-4566 http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/eej mailto:martinusmauati94@gmail.com Martinus Mau Ati, Januarius Mujiyanto, Suwandi/ EEJ 10 (1) 2020 53 - 60 54 INTRODUCTION The study of linguistics refers to five main parts they are, the study of phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Linguistics is the root of the language and language is a medium that is used by the people in communicating in order to share the ideas and thoughts. That means that, language and linguistics can not be separated because they complete each other. The problem is that mastering a language is not something that easy. There are parts of a language which need to be learned in order to master it. Moreover in context of English, we know that it is an international language which plays important role in global communication. Besides, it is also as a foreign language for us. Because of that, it seems not as easy as we imagine in mastering it. As added by Agustin, et. al., (2015) that in Indonesia context, where English is a foreign language (EFL), preliminary observation and own experience have shown that the use Bahasa Indonesia (L1) in the English language (L2) classroom can not be avoided due to a number of factors. Moreover, Jannah and Fitriati (2016) stated that, it is an undisputed fact that English as an international language is the most widely used around the world. Mastering English means having the ability to acquire four main skills of English. As stated by Mirbagheri (2014) if a foreign language is considered as a communicative media, in order to communicate to others, you need to know it and its skills including: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Added by Suryanto (2014) that as a foreign language, English is rarely used outside the clasroom context. It is not easy because we know that English itself not only has main skills but it also has sub-skills like, grammar, vocabulary, and also the pronunciation. To speak English fluently, we need to master all those skills because we are learning English as a foreign language with different grammar, different vocabulary, and also different pronunciation. In case of pronunciation, the problem is not about the students but it is also about the teachers. As stated by Ahmad Shah et al. (2017) that another challenge in teaching pronunciation faced by ESL teachers is the difficulty in deciding focused area of pronunciation for their lessons. According to Marcellino, (2008, p. 58) professional factors may cover the teacher’s class preparations, mastery of the discussed topics, and teaching-learning strategies, among others. As also stated by Nugroho (2019) that teacher is one of the important factors that affect the students’ motivation in learning English. He continued that, the way their English teachers teach will have a great impact on students’ motivation in learning English. But sometimes the teachers do not realize about that problem which makes them hard to solve this problem. In order to make the teaching and learning pronunciation become easier, the teachers should realize about it. There are some studies that have been conducted related to this study. Those previous studies are as follows; Septiani (2014) Linguistic Realization of Requests in English and Javanese Performed by Javanese EFL Learners. The subjects of the study were eleventh grade students, fifteen males and fifteen females. The data were collected by means of roleplay which made the atudents were asked to perform in roleplay comprising twelve context of situations based on Brown and Levinson’s (1987) varriables common to most speech act situations: Power (P) social Distance (D) and Ranking of Imposition (R). students’ performance were then videotaped and analyzed based on Blum-Kulka and Olshtain (1984). Furthermore, Syaputri (2014) Pronunciation Errors Made By Senior High Martinus Mau Ati, Januarius Mujiyanto, Suwandi/ EEJ 10 (1) 2020 53 - 60 55 school students In Reading English Texts Aloud. The objective of this study was to identify the types of pronunciation error, causes of pronunciation error, the teacher/students way to overcome pronunciation error, and teacher’s influence in causing students’ pronunciation error. The method used in this study was descriptive qualitative and the objects of the study were 15 students of eleventh graders Global Madani School Bandar Lampung. The data taken by asking the students to read the text provided then students’ pronunciation were analyzed by the researcher. And the data of the analysis showed that the students’ pronunciation errors were defined into three types they were pre-systematic, systematic, and post-systematic errors. According to the data, the students got the difficulties in pronouncing [ŋ], [d], [ʤ], [ʧ], [z], [θ], [ʃ], [g]. These phoneme errors were found in initial, medial, and final positions of the words. The causes of errors were interference, intralingual, and developmental errors. And based on the interview between the researcher and the teacher, the teacher overcome those problems by using three ways they were; repetition, silence, and correction. Izzah and Sukrisno (2017) The Effectiveness of Using Songs and Dialogues to Teach Students’ Pronunciation. The research was conducted to observe fourty eight seven graders of SMP N 17 Pekalongan’ pronunciation ability in pronouncing the simple phrases. The participants were devided into two groups for the experimental research. The first group used songs in teaching and learning the pronunciation and another group used dialogues while the data of this study were taken from the recorded voice and the teacher’s notes. The method used in this study was quantitative and SPSS was also used to analyze the data. While the result of the study showed that in general, the group used songs produced better result than the group used dialogues. The participants that used songs tended to attend the pronunciation class more willingly and showed more enthusiasm in conducting the activities. Meanwhile the participants that used dialogues were distracted after hearing the songs sung in the group that used songs. The suggestion of this research for the teachers is that the must know how to control the situation and to keep the students from disturbing other classes because sometimes singing songs make the students over enthusiastic. Sumner and Samuel (2009) The effect of experience on the perception and representation of dialect variants. The study addresses two main questions (1) how are cross-dialect variants recognized and stored? and (2) how are these variants accomodated by listeners with different levels of exposure to the dialect? The study aslo has three claims as the result (1) dialect production is not always representative of dialect perception and representation, (2) experience strongly affects a listener’s ability to recognize and represent spoken words, and (3) there is a general benefit for variants that are not regionally-marked. From all the previous studies above, there is not any studies have focused on the segmental features of pronunciation and the roles of the teachers in teaching English pronunciation moreover about Kemak Sanirin dialect. That is why the objectives of this study are, 1) to analyze students’ English pronunciation in order to explain the influence of Kemak Sanirin dialect towards students’ English pronunciation of vowels, 2) to analyze students’ English pronunciation in order to explain the influence of Kemak Sanirin dialect towards students’ English pronunciation of consonants, 3) to analyze students’ English pronunciation in order to explain the influence of Kemak Sanirin dialect towards students’ English Martinus Mau Ati, Januarius Mujiyanto, Suwandi/ EEJ 10 (1) 2020 53 - 60 56 pronunciation of diphthongs, 4) to analyze students’ English pronunciation in order to explain the influence of Kemak Sanirin dialect towards students’ English pronunciation of consonant clusters, and 5) to analyze students’ English pronunciation in order to explain the way teachers play their roles to improve students’ pronunciation. The study of pronunciation itself becomes more difficult because the students who study it are coming from different background in case of language itself. Some students are familiar with English pronunciation, while some others feel like English is new to them for example students of SMA N 3 Atambua, for them English is new because it is a foreign language. However English learners are required to master all the aspects of English including pronunciation no matter it is as a foreign langauge (EFL) or a second language (ESL) for them. As stated by Mirza (2015, p. 486) that, Since the English language is spoken nowadays worldwide and is highly used in many workplaces, both EFL and ESL learners need to become proficient in English in general and improve their pronunciation in particular. This is supported by Widdowson in Coskun (2011, p. 46) that, English no longer belongs to native-speakers, but to everyone who speaks it. But in fact, the aspects of English are so difficult to be mastered. That is why the ways of teaching and learning of pronunciation need to be found in order to overcome this problem. Another reason why English pronunciation still difficult for the students because they are more confortable in using their first language (L1) in their daily communication whether at home or school instead of using English. whereas, to be fluent on English pronunciation they need to practice it again again because practice is the best way to improve the pronunciation. Based on those reasons, Kemak Sanirin dialect becomes the researcher’ consideration as the topic of this research with an excuse that this study could be able to help the students in improving their pronunciation of English and to overcome those problems in learning English pronunciation. METHOD This study employed the descriptive qualitative method which means that this research was described qualitatively. Which also means that the data was not presented in statistical way. According to Creswell, (2014, p. 32) qualitative research is an approach for exploring and understanding the meaning individuals or groups ascribe to a social or human problem. Emerging questions and procedures were involved in this process of research and the data analyzed inductively which means from particular to general theme. Eighteen students of SMA N 3 Atambua were the subjects of this research. The subjects were taken from two different classes, they were eleventh grade students class IPA 1 and class IPS 1. Each level had twenty five students but from those twenty students there were only nine students taken as the sample from each class. However, those eighteen students’ activities were recorded all. Those two classess are choosen in order to know the difficulties in learning english pronunciation faced by the students from each class. Another consideration by choosing two different classes of the students because the researcher would like to see the differences of students’ ability in pronouncing English words. While The object the study was the English pronunciation by eighteen students from two classes of the study. Because the scope of this study was limited on segmental feature, this study was focusing on the influence of vowels, consonants, diphthong, and consonant clusters toward students pronunciation of English and teacher’s roles in improving students’ pronunciation. Martinus Mau Ati, Januarius Mujiyanto, Suwandi/ EEJ 10 (1) 2020 53 - 60 57 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS The findings and the discussion the study are presented below. the findings of the study are based on the research questions. since there were five research questions then there are five findings of the study. it covers English vowel, consonants, diphthongs, and consonant clusters and teachers role in improving students’ pronunciation. English vowels influenced by Kemak Sanirin dialect. Students’ pronunciation of English vowel sounds have been presented in the tables in previous section. After the analysis of their pronunciation of English vowel sounds, it clearly seen that Kemak Sanirin dialect contributed small positive and negative transfer on students’ pronunciation of English vowels. This could mean that, English vowel sounds are not too influenced by Kemak Sanirin dialect. Here are the analysis; it could be seen from the data in the previous section that all the vowel sounds (i, ɪ, u, e, ʊ and ə) could be pronounced correctly by all the students because those are short vowels. As stated by Roach (2009, p.13) that English has a large number of vowel sounds; the first one to be examined are short vowels. The easiness might be caused by the similarities of the vowels between Kemak Sanirin language and English. besides, those vowel sounds also existed in bahasa Indonesia which means that, the easiness of the students’ pronunciation is also influenced by vowel sounds of bahasa Indonesia. But, some of the students failed in pronouncing sound [e, ə] they tended to pronounce [ʌ, a]. English consonant influenced by Kemak Sanirin dialect The findings of the English consonant clusters have been presented all in the previous section. From the findings, it can be seen that Kemak Sanirin dialect contributed insignificant negative transfer on students’ English consonant sounds. Consonant sound like [p, b, k, r, s, g, m etc.] are easy for them to pronounce because those consonant are also available in Kemak Sanirin language. The only English consonant sound that difficult for the students is sound [z]. Few students tended to pronounce [s]. as stated by Roach (2009, p. 10) that the word vowel and consonant are very familiar ones, but when we study the sounds of speech scientifically we find that it is not easy to define exactly what they mean. This also might be caused by the inexistence consonant [z] in Kemak Sanirin language. English diphthong influenced by Kemak Sanirin dialect English diphthong is becoming one of the researcher’s focus because there is big difference between Kemak Sanirin language and English related to their diphthongs. Some of English dipthongs are not available in Kemak Sanirin language which makes some English diphthongs become hard for the students to pronounce. English diphthongs that are not too hard for the students to pronounce are [eɪ, aɪ,and aʊ] because these sounds have close sound to Kemak Sanirin diphthongs [ei, ai, au]. while the other English diphthongs like [ɔɪ, ɛə, əʊ and ɪə] are too hard for the students to pronounce because of the inexistence of those English dipthongs sounds in Kemak Sanirin language. As stated by Roach (2009, p. 17) that the most important thing to remember about all the diphthongs is that the first part is much stronger than the second part. This means that, Kemak Sanirin Martinus Mau Ati, Januarius Mujiyanto, Suwandi/ EEJ 10 (1) 2020 53 - 60 58 language contributed some negative transfer to English diphthong sounds. English consonant cluster influenced by Kemak Sanirin dialect Some of English consonant clusters were not too difficult for the students to pronounce while some other English consonant clusters became the serious challenge for them. Generally, the one which more difficult was the three consonant cluster. This because, in Kemak Sanirin language there is no one word that consists of three consonant cluster whether in the initial, medial, or even final. This became the big challenge for them in pronouncing English consonant cluster sounds. While for two consonant cluster, students still found easiness in pronouncing its sound because oftenly, it easily found in Kemak Sanirin words. This made the students became familiar with the sound of two consonant cluster of English. Teacher’s roles in improving students’ English pronunciation based on the interview between the researcher and the teacher who taught the students, it can be conclude that the teacher did have an awareness in improving students’ English pronunciation. it indicated by his statement that he did correct his students pronunciation, he modeling in front of the class to show the correct pronunciation to his students. However, pronunciation still becomes the serious problem for the students because to overcome students’ wrong pronunciation needs many ways or methods. Teacher’s awareness is not the only way, it needs to be supported by complete facilities of the school as quoted from teacher’s statement in the interview. CONCLUSION Below are the conclusions of this study which taken from the findings and the analysis of the study. Based on the analysis, it could be concluded that, Kemak Sanirin dialect gave insignificant negative transfer on English vowel sounds [i, ɪ, u, e, ʊ, ə] it was indicated by students’ pronunciation that from 18 students there were only 2 students pronounced wrongly vowel [i, e] while 16 students did it correctly. It occured because those vowel sound [i. ɪ, u, e] existed in Kemak Sanirin dialect and of course in bahasa Indonesia. Eventhough vowel sound [ʊ, ə] did not exist in Kemak Sanirin dialect but they had close sound to vowel [u, e] that was why students were easy to pronounce those vowel sounds. Same as vowel sounds, Kemak Sanirin consonants also gave insignificant negative transfer on students’ pronunciation of English consonant sounds [p, b, k, r, s, g, m etc.]. all 18 students could pronounce those consonant sound correctly. This was because those consonant sounds not only existed in bahasa Indonesia but they also existed in Kemak Sanirin dialect. While only few students could not pronounce consonant sound [z] correctly because there was no sound [z] in Kemak Sanirin language eventhough it also exists in bahasa Indonesia. Kemak Sanirin diphthongs gave more significant negative transfer on students’ pronunciation of English diphthongs [əʊ, ɪə] because there were 4 students failed in pronouncing diphthong [əʊ] and also 4 students failed in pronouncing diphthong [ɪə]. The difficulties caused by the inexistence of those two diphthong sounds [əʊ, ɪə] in Kemak Sanirin dialect. While other diphthongs like [aɪ, eɪ, aʊ] had close sound to Kemak Sanirin diphthongs [ai, ei, au] that was why those English diphthong Martinus Mau Ati, Januarius Mujiyanto, Suwandi/ EEJ 10 (1) 2020 53 - 60 59 sounds [aɪ, eɪ, aʊ] were easy for the students to pronounce. It was proven by 18 students’ pronunciation which could be clearly heard. Generally, Kemak Sanirin did give significant positive transfer to two consonant cluster sounds. This occurance just because two consonant clusters were available in Kemak Sanirin dialect which made English two consonant sounds were not too difficult because students were familiar with them. While Kemak Sanirin gave significant negative transfer on students’ pronunciation of English three consonant cluster sounds because there is no three consonant cluster sound in Kemak Sanirin dialect. 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