Errors in pronunciation of consonants by Indonesian, Gayo and Acehnese learners of English as a foreign language

Abstract

This thesis reports on research into consonantal phoneme pronunciation errors in the English of EFL learners from three different first language groups in the province of Aceh, northern Sumatra, Indonesia. It is a qualitative study, describing the errors found for each first language group. Error data was collected from each participant in the language laboratory using an aural discrimination test, a word repetition test and a reading passage test, and also from interviews with each participant which were recorded on audio cassettes. Analysis and explanation of the error data then followed. There were eight participants from each of the three first language groups, with equal numbers of male and female participants in each group. All were students at the State Islamic Institute or other universities in Banda Aceh, either in the English teacher training department or taking English as a compulsory subject in their degree program. At the time of the research they were aged between 19 and 25, and had all taken EFL as a subject for six years in high school. Where it was not their first language, the national language, Indonesian, was their second language. All had studied Arable. The findings indicate errors are largely limited to final stops and sibilants, and initial and final affricates and interdentals