Speaking and Pronunciation problem of The Science

Education Students in The First Semester

Fera Nurhayati, Adellya Dwi Cahya, Rakhma Permataputri, Pinkhan Venasha
Detiecya
Universitas Tidar

Abstract
This observation describes the way of speaking and pronunciation errors of some
English words in non-language classes, or classes that take general courses. This
observation was conducted on science education students in the first semester. The
pronunciation errors in speaking start from common words that are often used to
words that they have not mastered. Not only explaining pronunciation errors and
way of speaking, this observation also aims to assess how the teacher works in
teaching and how the classroom atmosphere is taught. Assessing what the strengths
and weaknesses are in a class and comparing the subject matter used in general
course classes with language courses.
The results of this observation aim so that pronunciation errors in speaking English
and deficiencies in the teaching and learning process can be improved for the
future. The targets of each lesson can be achieved in accordance with the
achievements based on the curriculum or rules that apply at a university.
Keywords: Problems, Pronunciation, Speaking, Science Education, Students
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Problem

Speaking is an important tool to communicate, socialize, express someone's
ideas, opinions and feelings between individuals with other individuals or
individuals with other people. According to Siahaan (2008:95), speaking is
a productive language skill. It means that to create good communication,
people need to produce sound and pronounce it well. Therefore, other
people will understand. In speaking English, it is important to pronounce
each word or vocabulary well. Pronunciation is the way we speak orally
using a word, phrase, sentence or language. This usually has a correct or
standard pronunciation in speaking a word or language with a specific
dialect. In the other words, pronunciation is the way people or individuals
speak a word or language orally. When communicating correct
pronunciation, it is also important to make people understand what we say
and to gain our confidence in speaking English.

Learners should have an understandable pronunciation as a basic

requirement in learning language. Apart from that, having good
pronunciation is one of the most important features of language instruction
(Pourhosein Gilakjani, 2012). However, there are some words in English
that are difficult to pronounce and need more practice to master. This case
usually causes people to make a mistake while pronouncing a word or
vocabulary. Bad pronunciation or miss pronunciation can cause people who
heard it to misunderstand. It is because in English there are some words that
have the same words but different pronunciation and meaning. Therefore,
pronunciation is very important and learners need to master it. At least
when they are speaking, people who heard it will understand it.

This report was created to fulfil the English for Professional Purposes
course project. The activity carried out was by observing English teaching
and learning process in the other program study, except English Education.
The researchers are expected to be able to carry out needs analysis by
finding gaps and deficiencies in a class. Based on the research observation
on the English teaching and learning of the Science education students in
the first semester, there are some problems founded by the researchers. It is
about the students' difficulties in speaking English in the class. The
researchers categorize them into 3 fields, such as pronunciation, grammar,
and sentence organization.

The first is the difficulty in pronunciation. Most of the students in the class
seemed to not care about how to pronounce something correctly while
speaking. The students still look shy and speak carelessly when they have
to speak English in class. As a result, their pronunciation becomes bad and
many mispronunciations occur.

The second is related to grammar. While speaking, students usually use the
wrong pronouns. The students still confused about how to use reflective,
possessive, and personal pronouns in their sentences while introducing
 themselves. For example, they often use double pronouns, and use singular
possessive pronouns to describe more than two people.

Then, it is about sentence organization. While speaking, we actually do not

really need to care about the grammar or the sentence organization, as long
as the listener can understand it, it would be enough. However, based on the
observation, the researchers found that there were mistakes from the
students while they organized sentences, and then practiced it orally. The
students are speaking something with an unclear meaning that cannot be
understood.

B. Identification of the Problem

1. Mispronunciation from the students when they practice speaking
English.
2. The students still lack confidence when speaking English.
C. Limitation of the Problem
According to all of the problems that are mentioned, doing research on all
of them would be very difficult and time consuming. Therefore, the
researchers only focused on the speaking and pronunciation problem in
class 1, first semester of Science Education.
D. Formulation of the Problem
1. What are the problems of first semester science education students in
general English courses?
2. How can problem-solving strategies improve the way students
pronounce and speak English?
E. Objective of the Study
1. To know the basic abilities or problems in English language skills of
first-semester science education students both in terms of speaking and
pronunciation.
2. To describe the problem-solving strategies used by the lecturer to
overcome problems such as speaking errors and English pronunciation
in class.
F. Significance of the Study
This study is expected to be beneficial for:
1. For students
The findings are expected to be one of reading materials that are good
enough to enrich references or to improve the teaching and learning
process, especially in speaking and pronunciation.
2. For Lecturer
The findings are expected to be a valuable source of information to improve
the quality of the English teaching and learning process.
 CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

A. Theoretical Review
A profession is a job held by a person in a certain field with formal
qualifications. A good professional should have good communication in
English. Hutchinson & Waters Waters (1987, p.19) expressed his opinion
that ESP is a form of approach in language teaching that is based on the
goals and reasons desired by the learner. ESP itself has a specific meaning
and emphasizes the important point of ESP as an approach that contains
methods and concepts tailored to the specific goals and needs of language
learners. (Mackay & Mountford, 1978). English for professional purpose
(EPP) is the English learning course to improve skills in the professional
workplace. It is focused on strengthening professional English skills that
you need for cross-cultural professional communication in the sectors, such
as science, society, development, media and others. In other words, EPP is
a course that teaches about the English used in the professional fields.
Meanwhile, English for a specific purpose (ESP) is about teaching English
as a second or foreign language in specific fields or professions. This
usually includes the particular vocabulary and skill that the students' need to
learn. This course is also used to meet the students’ needs. The General
Courses English Lecturers in class 1, first semester of Science Education
are Sir Agung and Ma’am Afi. The Materials and activities in the class are
the material explanation, assignment, practice, and so on. English is a very
important language to master, especially in international communication.
Speaking English fluently and confidently is the key to being a good
speaker who is professional.
B. Conceptual Framework

Students: Lack of confidence

Problem Lecturers: Do not correct and no correction from the
C. students when they speak lecturer, resulting in
incorrectly problems with pronunciation
and sentence structure

Students: Know their

Lecturers: Provides reviews mistakes and use the
Action
and feedback to students correct pronunciation in
speaking and practice in
class.

It is thought that reviews and feedback from

Result lecturers will make students more confident
and improve their speaking skills.
 Based on the observations, speaking and pronunciation are the
main problems of the first semester, Science Education students in class 1.
Students always have a speaking practice after the material. However,
during practice it was seen that many students lacked confidence and were
not too serious when speaking in front of the class. Apart from that,
almost all of them mispronounce words when speaking. These mistakes
affect the meaning of the words they say. Many students make the same
pronunciation mistakes without knowing it. This is because when students
pronounce words incorrectly, the lecturer does not correct their words and
just leaves them alone. This causes students not to know their mistakes
and will continue to make those mistakes in the future. Therefore,
lecturers must correct them directly if students make mistakes in speaking,
so that they can realize their mistakes and correct their pronunciation. As a
result, with correct pronunciation, students will be more confident in
speaking English. This concludes that the lecturer's role in providing
feedback and reviews during class is very important for their speaking
development.
 CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHOD

A. Type of Research Design

The type of research design that we use is qualitative research.
B. Research Subject
The research subject is the first semester of Science Education students in
class 1, Tidar University. The class consist of 35 students that study about
general English course in non-English Education program study.
C. Research Instrument
This research used two instrument to collect the data:
1. Observation
The researchers have carried out observations twice in the class 1 of
the Science Education. This observation is carried out to see the
actual situation in the class, how the learning process takes place,
what methods are used by the lectures, and what feedback is given
by students.
2. Questionnaire
The researchers shared Google Form to the students to know about
their perception of the course, and the learning and teaching process
in the class.
D. Data Collecting Procedure
The procedures that used to collect the data:
1. Choose the research object
The researchers decide to make the first semester of Science
Education in class 1, who learning general English course, as their
research object since they are non-English Education students.
2. Ask for permission to observe in the class
After decide the research object, researchers ask for permission to
the lectures in class 1 to do observations.
3. Classroom Observation
Observation in class to see what material is provided by the lecturer
and the activities carried out by students in class. In addition, to see
the students and lectures’ lacks in the class.
4. Questionnaire
Questionnaire shared by the researchers through Google Form to
increase information for the data based on the students’ perception
5. The data collection
The researchers used information and questionnaire to complete the
data in
E. Data Analysis Technique
1. Based on the observations, the researchers found that the first semester
students of the Science Education in class one has problems in
speaking and pronunciation while speaking in the class. There are the
following problems by analyzing speaking in telling time, describe
daily routine, and asking and giving direction by the students in class:
- When the students perform in front of the class to talk about
daily routines and also asking and giving directions, we realize
that there are mistakes in pronunciation, grammar, and sentence
organization.
- First, in pronunciation most of them said “prisen” for present,
“attensyon” for attention, and “trun” for turn. They still have
mispronunciation with English vocabulary.
- Second, in grammar, some of them use the pronoun “I” to
describe more than one person. and using “Go right” instead of
“turn right” to show direction when ‘asking and giving
direction’ practice.
- Third, is sentence organization, in speaking as long as the
listener understands what you say, grammar and sentence
structure don’t really matter. However, there was one student
who said the sentence: “I want swim to do when I believe”
which is incoherent and unintelligible.
2. The several questions in questionnaire about the course are answered
by the students. There are the following questions and the answered by
the students:

The Analysis of the Teaching and Response

Learning Process
Is the implementation of English 9 Agree
courses in the PIPA study program
effective?
If students make pronunciation 11 Strongly Disagree
mistakes (in English) the lecturer
will correct them.
I feel English is difficult to 9 Agree
pronounce.
I feel nervous and not confident 9 Agree
when I have to speak English in
front of the class.
I use media such as apps/websites to 10 Agree
do my MKU English assignments.

The learning process of MKU 14 Strongly Disagree

English in class is ineffective and a
waste of time.
MKU English materials delivered 12 Agree
by lecturers are easy to understand.
 The MKU English material taught is 10 Agree
in accordance with our needs in the
PIPA study program.
I feel that my English pronunciation 11 Disagree
is good.
I find it difficult to string words 14 Agree
together to say in English.
Based on the answers of the questionnaire, students agree that the teaching
and learning English course is already effective and meet their needs in
Science Education study program. Apart from that, students still have
difficulties in pronunciation and speaking in front of the class. However,
the lectures did not correct them when make mistakes while speaking. In
this case, the students become unconfident while speaking because they did
not know if they are already having a correct pronunciation or not and just
think that English is difficult.
F. Conclusion
The first concern of this study is the speaking and pronunciation problem.
Based on the classroom observations, students in the first semester of
Science Education are still not able to pronounce English well. While,
based on the student’s questionnaire response, it results on the students’
agreement that English course in first semester of Science Education class
one is effective, supported by the students’ agreement that the lecturer
delivered the material well so that it was easy to understand, the lecturer
also give correction if there is mispronunciation that made by students’ and
the material is accordance to students’ need as Science Education students.
However, students’ also feel that English is difficult and they feel that their
English pronunciation is still lacking.
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