CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This
Chapter consists of general background, reasons for choosing the topic, research
questions, objectives of the study,
significance of the study, method of investigation, the limitation of the
study, and the outline of the study. Below are the detailed descriptions.
1.1 General Background
Language
is a means of communication among human beings. With the language, people can
cooperate and get along with each other; they can do whatever they are going to
do. English, as other languages used
by mankind in the world, is a means of communication
among human beings. By this means, orally or written, they could interact with
each other and do everything in their society as social beings.
As
an international language, English is a demand for countries throughout the
world. Indonesia is one of the countries that uses English as a foreign language.
As a foreign language, English is very different from Indonesian, not only in
terms of vocabulary and its structure but also in terms of its sound system. Christopersen
(1981:1) says, “Every language on earth has its own particular set of words,
most of which are quite different from those of
any other languages”.
Therefore,
Indonesians have problems when they learn English, both in making good English
sentences and in pronouncing them correctly. Pronunciation is absolutely
crucial in learning language including English. It has significant role in
determining the degree of literacy in one’s communication with others, in as
much as to talk with other people one must pronounce words. Yet, pronunciation
problems are common in learning foreign languages, including English. Ramelan
(1985: 4) states: If someone wants to learn a foreign language he will obviously meet all kinds of
learning problems. Those difficulties have to do with the learning of sound
system, the learning of the new vocabulary items and the learning of the
unfamiliar ways of arranging the foreign words into sentences.
We
have to pay attention to pronunciation because when we make mistakes in
pronouncing English words, it can cause misunderstanding between the speaker
and the listener. There will be good
communication if the words are pronounced correctly and fluently.
Most of Indonesian students have problems in producing some of the English
sounds and some of them are fricative consonants [f, v, θ, ð, s, , , z, r, h].
Ramelan (1985:119) argues “an Indonesian student, in learning English, is likely
to have difficulty in pronouncing the English fricatives [v, θ, ð,
, ,
r] since these sounds are not used by most Indonesian speakers in
speaking their language”. Pronunciation becomes very essential in learning
English because when we make mistakes in pronouncing the English words, the
listener may not understand what we mean. The pronunciation of the English
fricatives is essential although English fricatives are just a small part of
the English phonology. Recently, in Pondok Pesantren Durrotu Ahlissunnah
Waljamaah \Gunungpati Semarang, there is a community of English fans named
Aswaja Conversation Club (ACC). This
club has 30 members. They are supposed to have great potential ability to be
able to pronounce some fricatives of
English sounds that are difficult for most Indonesian students as stated above.
Some of the fricatives are?????????
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