THE ERROR ANALYSIS OF PRONOUNCING DIPHTHONG IN READING ALOUD AT X GRADE STUDENTS OF VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL: A CASE STUDY AT SMK MUHAMMADIYAH PURWODADI IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2013/2014

Abstract

This thesis is a study about an error analysis of the tenth grade students of vocational highs school pronunciation in reading aloud at SMK Muhammadiyah Purwodadi in the academic year of 2013/2014. The student may have problems to pronounce the word in reading aloud especially in English diphthongs correctly, although they get an English subject in their school. The researcher formulates the problem as follow: (1) What kinds of error made by the tenth grade students of SMK Muhammadiyah Purwodadi of  pronunciation in reading aloud, and (2) What causes of errors in pronunciation in reading aloud.

The result of the data analysis showed that English diphthong [Iə] is 97,5% and diphthong [əʊ] is 79 % that is the most frequent in error, diphthong [aI] is 55 %, diphthong [eI] is 62.13 %, diphthong [aU] 50 %, diphthong [eə] 45 %, whereas diphthong [ɔI] 15 % is the least frequent in error. Based on the error identification, the researcher found that there are many errors made by tenth grade students of SMK Muhammadiyah Purwodadi. The pronunciation errors are mostly caused by the interference errors  namely interlingual errors and intralingual errors, and the other of them are language transfer. The cause of errors are confused and substituded in pronouncing diphthongs, overgeneralized based on spelling, sounds and writing in pronouncing English diphthongs.

In order to avoid students errors, the researcher suggests the teacher to give a lot of drills and practices relating to the pronunciation. Therefore, the students can acquire the habit of using the correct prnunciation of English word containing English diphthong correctly.