THE BATAK TOBA STUDENTS’ TYPICAL PROBLEMS IN ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION

ABSTRACT

This  research  is conducted to find out  the  students’ problems in pronouncing English words
which is  focused  on  English vowels, diphthongs,  and  consonants.  This research  occupies
qualitative  analysis. The subjects are the grade 11 students  of  STM HKBP Pematangsiantar.
Those students come from Batak  Toba cultural background.  The data  is  analyzed by first
transcribing the students’ voice into phonetic transcription, and then comparing them to the
Standard English Pronunciation, after that identifying the students’ problems.  The researcher
find out that  the interference of students’ mother tongue, namely: Batak Toba language, made
the students difficult to pronounce some English phonemes, such as (1) vowels /ə/, and /ɜː/; (2)
diphthongs /eɪ/, /əʊ/,  /eə/, /ɪə/, and /ʊə/; (3)  consonants  /ð/,  /θ/, /ʃ/,  /tʃ/, /ʒ/, /f/, /v/, and /z/; and
(4) suffix –s /z/ or /s/, and suffix–ed /d/ or /t/ or /id/. In conclusion, the cause of the interference
of mother tongue in the students’ pronunciation is the absence of such phonemes in ‘Aksara
Batak’ (Batak’s Script).  The researcher suggests English teachers to  introduce English
phonemes (consonants, vowels, and diphthongs) and stress to class of beginner, and to  be a
good model in teaching pronunciation.

Key Words: Pronunciation, vowels, diphthongs, consonants, mother-tongue

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