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A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY OF STUDENTS ABILITY IN BOTH RECOGNITION AND

PRODUCTION OF ENGLISH STRESSES

A Research Proposal Designed by:

Name : Rizky Akbar


Reg. Number : A1B211252

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents the background of the study, statement of the problem, objective
of the study, significance of the study, scope of the study, and the definition of key terms.

1.1

Background of the Study


As a human being it is our own nature to interact with everything surround us. In this
case human communicates with any other living creatures: animals, plants and especially
with their own self mankind, human. But what kind of communication they made each
other? Long ago before written language has found in human history, human
communicates through spoken language. But after time and time we found that spoken
language is not enough to communicate and we found words as a symbolic or a real
form of spoken language. Then we used both as a tool to communicate to others in
advance. But in time language is more to be specified into another high level as we put
them in one of the scientific fields through the evolution of study and knowledge.
As an international language, English is considered as the language that people in the
world must at least required. The ability to use this language is absolutely needed in
globalization era when many international sectors growth has to be balanced by human
resource development.
English is very different from Indonesian or any Indonesians mother tongue
language. The difference stands not only in terms of vocabulary and structure but also in
terms of its sound system. According to Finocchiaro and Bloom in Muthim (2010:65),
the system of English sound(phonology) is different from the system of Indonesian sound
system. So is the system of its grammar(morphology and syntax), the system of its

vocabulary(semantics), and even the system of its pragmatics. In short, language system
applied in English is really different from the system of Indonesian language.
As it is also based on a system English languase is divided into several branches such
as phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantic (Nanik Mariani & Fatchul
Muin in An Introduction To Linguistics).
The sound system always relates with the term pronunciation, which is really
important in learning a language including English. It has significance position in
determining the meaning, however pronunciation problem usually happened in learning a
foreign language. Many English language teachers get students to study grammar and
vocabulary, answer the question on the text book and develop other English skills. This
condition is supported by text book that they use in teaching and learning activities. Yet
pronunciation area gets very little attention and sometimes is forgotten as the important
part in a language. Pronunciation is not always reffered to the speaking skill but it also
relates on listening skill as it called by David Nunan as a complementary relationship.
Nunan also said that listening is a Cinderella skill in second learning. All too often, it has
been overlooked by its older sister, speaking. For most people, being able to claim
knowledge of a second language means being able to speak and write in that language.
Listening and reading are therefore secondary skills, means to ther ends, rather than ends
in themselves.
For most of its history, the teaching of pronunciation has been biased toward
segmental aspects of the sound system. However, with the development of
communicative approaches to language teaching, the importance of suprasegmental
aspects has finally been acknowledged. In a key survey article published in 1986,
Pennington and Richards argue in favor of suprasegmental approach on the grounds that

teaching isolated forms of sounds and words fails to address the fact that, in
communication, many aspects of pronunciation are determined by the positioning of
elements within long stretches of speech. Other commentators have pointed out that
faulty stress, rhythm, and intonation patterns cause greater difficulty of hearers than the
inaccurate pronunciation of individual sounds. In short, suprasegmental features has been
become the odd man out on the importance of communication.
The learners have to pay attention on the suprasegmental features. One of the features
that is really important is stress, English stresses. As it is already explained on the above
the language system of English and Indonesia is different which makes the phonological
aspects for both of them are also different, including their segmental and suprasegmental
features. In here, stress plays an important role in English such as changing the meaning
when it comes to word stress, or changing its function when it comes to sentence stress
while Indonesian language does not. And this is become a problem when L1
mempengaruhi L2, their pronunciation are influenced by their L1 to their L2 learning
process and result which the students are not aware of when they are supposed to become
as close as native like.
The reason why the researcher took this research is that he wanted to know the ability
that students get when they are dealing with English stresses where the researcher set
them in recognition and production phase in test. That would be a test to find how good
their listening skill on recognizing the stress and producting them all in speaking skill. So
it is expected that the students are able to become more aware of the stress differences on
English pronunciation. So that, they will improve their listening skill to apply them in a
real communication, in here it is speaking.

1.2

Statement of The Problem


The problem of this research can be formulated in the following questions below:
1. How is students ability in recognition and production of English stresses?
2. What are the major mistakes encountered by the students in recognition and

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production of English stresses?


Objective of the Study
The objective of this study are:
1. To find out how is students ability in recognition and production of English stresses.
2. To find out the major problems encountered by the students in recognition and

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production of English stresses.


Significance of The Study
The result of the study is expected to give significances as follow:
1. To give an educational feedback for teaching and learning English activities.
2. To enhance more information of suprasegmental phonology especially based on
English stresses for students.
3. To be reference for other study in the same field to consider what study is going to
investigate. If this study is valuable, it will help the other researchers to develop it for

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more significantly study in the future.


The Limitation of The Study
The limitation of this study is that the research only deals on English stresses. This
research is conducted for english students in Lambung Mangkurat University on their 7th
semester which the researcher know they already took and learned the phonology course
from last semester in order to find their ability in recognition and production of English

stresses.
1.6
Definition of Key Terms
1. Ability
The quality of being suitable for or receptive to a specified treatment or a competence
in an activity or occupation because of one's skill, training, or other qualification.
2. Recognition

Recognition is one of the abilities which is a capability of handling various imprecise,


unique or any differences input patterns. It includes a receptive skill in linguistic such
as listening and reading.
3. Production
Production is one of the abilities which a capability of producing after recognition
phase.
4. Stress

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