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.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
More From: Ethical Lingua: Journal of Language Teaching and Literature
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.