In Indonesia, English is learnt as a foreign language which is mostly learnt at schools through English teachers’ instructions in the classrooms. In the classrooms (from secondary education to tertiary education), the Indonesian learners of English are required to master four language macro skills i.e. speaking, listening, writing, as well as reading since they are the key to a successful communication both in spoken and written discourses. Among the macro skills, many learners put the first priority to learn speaking. As Richards (2008) states, a large percentage of the world’s language learners study English in order to develop proficiency in speaking. However, mastering this skill is not as easy how it is imagined. Many learners encounter problems regarding the miscro skills within speaking. A research reported by Andi.K and Arafah.B. (2017) indicates that the major problem encountered by the Indonesian learners of English about speaking skills is the limited linguistic resources e.g. bad pronunciation, limited vocabulary, and bad grammar, which causes them unable to speak English effectively.
The research report is also proven by some facts we have seen for all these years teaching English at some univerities in Indonesia. Most Indonesian learners of English give the first priority to rapid their speech without noticing the articulatory precision of the sound they make such as vowel and consonant sounds are not correctly made, stress is not properly placed on a certain word’s syllable, intonation pattern is imprecisely used, and words in utterances are spoken without clear-cut borderlines between them. Consequently, all the articulatory imprecisions have made unnatural speech (bad pronounciation) which cause native English speakers encounter problems in interpreting their utterances. We need to make the learners realize that bad pronunciation finally not only contribute negative effects to their speaking skills, but also negatively interfere with native listeners’ comprehension because they are not familiar to the sounds the learners make when speaking. Be aware of that the fact that many learners of English have been through difficult communications, embarrassing situations or even get low scores at speaking tests due to bad pronunciation. Therefore, having correct pronunciation is important because it can lead to more efficient communication and consequently better speaking outcomes. Of course, it doesn’t mean to sound like a native speaker but at least the learners should try as much as they can to reduce their accent, use proper intonation in sentences, pronounce words clearly and correctly in order to have more natural sounds in conversations.
Prof. Dr. Hj. Djuwairiah Ahmad, M.Pd., M.TESOL
Prof. Drs. H. Burhanuddin Arafah, M.Hum, Ph.D.
ISBN : -
Halaman : 104
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