Previous Studies

English is now becoming prominent language around the world and is used
as communication tool by almost all people. To support communication going well,
people need to master not only bunch of vocabularies but also master good
pronunciation. Good pronunctiation will drive communication between speaker and
interlocutor runs well without missunderstanding. As Javanese people that have
already learned English for several years, researcher experienced the difficulties
when learning pronunciation of dental fricative sound. So, the researcher want to
conduct a research about an Investigating of Junior High School Javanese Stuents’
pronunciation in English Dental Fricative consonant sounds. Before going far to
reasearch, the researcher learn the reaserch from the previous studies that have been
conducted by some researchers.

The first previous study was coming from Dare Owalobi (2012) entitled
Production and Perception Problems of English Dental Fricatives by Yoruba
Speakers of English as a Second Language. This study aimed to find out the
difficulties that was faced by adult learner of English as a Second Language of the
sound production of the dental fricative which are not exist in Yoruba language
phonology. To conduct the research, the researcher used unobtrusive observation
method as a classroom teacher. The instrument of the research was a text that
comprised words of dental fricative. And the study discovered that there were
pronunciation production problem but either speaker or listener still could catch the
meaning and comprehend the words.

The second previous study was the reasearch of Anggi Kharismayuda

Guntari (2013) about Sundanese Students’ Production Of English Dental Fricative
Consonant Sounds. The study was conducted to examine the level of acceptability
and to discover the possible factors which influence the dental fricative sounds
production. This research design was qualitative research and the instrumen was
recording. The result of this study revealed that acceptability level of students’
production of the dental fricative sound was low.

The third previous study was the research that have been conducted by
Adolfina K. Mnao (2015) entitled Production Of The English Dental Fricatives By
The English Learners At Bali Star Academy. The purpose of the study was to find
out and to analyze dental fricative sound production of Indonesian studends in Bali
Star Academy. The research design was descriptive qualitative. In gathering the
data, the researcher recorded the sound and then transcribed them. The result of the
study revealed that 66% dental fricative sound could be produced well.

To sum up, the previous studies about dental fricative research was
conducted to find out how the way people pronunced the English dental fricative
that not exist in their language sounds. There are similarities between previous
studies and researcher’s such as using same purpose, research design, and
instrument. Also there is a difference, such as a sample. The previous study used
university and senior high school student level as a sample but the researcher will
use Junior High School student as a sample with two different schools to make the
reseach more valid.