A Study on the Ability of Supra-Segmental and Segmental Aspects in English Pronunciation

Abstract

This study attempted to examine the EFL students’ Basic English Pronunciation (BEP) at the first semester of the English study program, the State University of Timor. It was aimed at finding out the mastery of the students’ ability towards the Basic English Pronunciation (BEP), to what extent do the students still find difficulties to pronounce the basic English words, and to what level do the students' mastery level of pronunciation categorized? The method applied in this research was a descriptive quantitative method that employed the syntax of mathematical operation to investigate the properties of data collection (Walliman, 2005). The instrument was a list of 24 numbers of groups of Voice Consonants and Unvoiced Consonants of Basic English Pronunciation taken from “Improve Your English Pronunciation and Learn over 500 Commonly Mispronounced Words”, meanwhile, 26 students were chosen from the freshmen students of English Study Program (ESP) to be the subject of this present study. The result showed that the students’ ability in pronouncing the Basic English words was fair. Particularly, the students mostly had the ‘Enough’ level of ability at the four elements of supra-segmental as such: stress, intonation, voice quality and gesture. Specifically, at this ‘Enough level’, there were 16 students (61.5%) of ‘Stress’ element, 17 students (65.3%) of ‘Intonation’ element, 13 students (50.0%) of ‘Voice Quality’ and ‘Gestures’ as part of Segmental element was 16 students (61.5%). Meanwhile, at the ‘Rhythm’ element, most students (53.8% = 14 students) showed the ‘Less’ ability in this element and only 12 (46.1%) categorized at the level of ‘Enough’’. Otherwise, there were no students in the ‘Bad’ level category. However, few students still encountered difficulties in Segmental element (Voice Quality) and Supra-segmental parts such as words’ stressing, intonation, rhythm, and gestures respectively.

An Extensive Online Listening Program for Preparing Postgraduates to Take the TOEFL Listening Test and Enhancing their Autonomy

“…Examples of the difficulties faced by the students include the lack of vocabulary, length and speed of the speaker, speaker's accent and intonation, identifying synonyms of keywords, double negative expressions, idioms, the main idea of the talk, and detailed information, in addition to excessive anxiety, difficulty in concentration while listening, and difficulty drawing conclusions from conversations. These challenges were highly emphasized in previous research on TOEFL in general and TOEFL-ITP in particular (e.g., Abboud & Hussein, 2011;Soali & Pujiani, 2020;Rina & Tiarina, 2020;Lasi & Bouk, 2022;Alzana, 2022;and Pasaribu et al, 2023).…”

“…In addition, Lasi & Bouk (2022) evaluated ESP students' ability and strategies used to master the skills of listening comprehension targeted in the TOEFL test. The descriptive research design based on content analysis was adopted to collect the data by administering observations and testing to measure students' listening comprehension skills.…”

The Effectiveness of Using Minimal Pairs towards Students' Pronunciation Mastery

“…Pronunciation broadly consists of suprasegmental and segmental features (Lasi, 2020). Although each of these several pronunciation components is taught separately here, it is crucial to consider that they all connect when we speak, making spoken language an integral part of which to acquire them.…”

Students’ Pronunciation Analysis of English Inflectional –S Ending at Sma Pangudi Luhur

“…To pronounce words, we force air from our lungs down our neck and vocal lines, mouth, past our tongue, and out between our throat and lips. We primarily utilize the muscles in our mouth, tongue, and lips to manipulate the shape of our mouths and the flow of air to alter the sound that we are producing Lasi, (2020). The pronunciation is one of the most crucial components of English, especially in speaking.…”