The Capability of Pronouncing the English Diphthongs by the English Department Students, Faculty of Humanities, Udayana University

Abstract

This study aims at investigating the capability of the English department students, Faculty of Humanities, Udayana University in pronouncing diphthongs. Diphthong is a glide from one vowel to another. English is very rich in words containing diphthongs, such as: / aI / in the word try / traI / buy / baI /; / eI /, in the words they / ðeI /, day / deI /, / eə / as in hair / heə /, chair /tʃeə/. Meanwhile, the number of diphthongs in Indonesian and Balinese as the mother tongue of the students is very limited. This difference certainly creates problems for students in pronouncing the English words consisting of diphthongs. The knowledge of English sounds is taught in the subject of English phonetics and phonemics in the fifth semester. This study examined the ability of new students who have not taken the English Phonetics and Phonemics subject to be compared with the ability of those who have got this subject, so that it can be seen to what extent this course can change student performance in pronouncing diphthongs. This research is a qualitative descriptive research supported by quantitative data. The population of this study was 50 new students and 50 sixth semester students, taken randomly. The research instrument was a list of English words containing diphthongs and questionnaires. The technique of collecting data was done through recording, and the data were analyzed descriptive qualitatively and presented formally and informally.

Utilizing Various Online Dictionaries to Improve the English Diphthong Pronunciation Ability of the PGRI Payangan Vocational Students

“…The Balinese pronunciation system often affects the way Balinese people pronounce words in English, so the English pronunciation of the Balinese, especially diphthongs, is not perfect. This was shown in Puspani and Indrawati (2021) that took a sample of 75 students and found that 7 of the 8 types of diphthongs in English from the respondents could not be pronounced correctly. This occurred due to the respondents' lack of understanding of diphthongs on one hand.…”