Problems in Pronouncing the English Sounds Faced by the Students of SMPN 2 Halong, Banjar

Abstract

This study entitled “Problems in Pronouncing The English Sounds Faced By The Students Of SMPN 2 Halong, Banjar” is intended to find out the problems in pronouncing the English sounds faced by the students of SMPN 2 Halong, Banjar.This research uses qualitative method with contrastive analysis. The data were taken from the recorded students’ voice. The researcher used recording, transcribing and analyzing technique. The researcher analyzed the data: 1. comparing English sounds and students’ pronunciation, 2. finding out the consonant, vowel and diphthong mispronounced by the students, 3. finding out students’ difficulties in pronouncing the English sounds, 4. finding out the students’ problems in pronouncing English sounds, 5. drawing a conclusion. The Subjects of this research are Banjar students of ninth grade at SMPN 2 Halong.It is found out that the students had problems in pronouncing the English sounds of consonant (/t/, /θ/, /ʃ/, /-t/, /f, /ʒ /, /-d/), vowel (/ɒ/, /e/, /oʊ/) and diphthong( /eɪ/, /oʊ/, /ə r /). The sounds /θ/ are pronounced as [t], /ʃ/ is as [s], /ɒ / as [u], /oʊ/ as [aw], /ʒ/ as [s], while /t/, /eɪ /, /-t/, /-d/ and /ər/ are pronounced they are written. The error can be caused by the absence of the sound in their mother tongue.