THE PRONUNCIATION PROBLEMS OF ENGLISH VOWEL SOUNDS: A STUDY AT THE SEVENTH SEMESTER STUDENTS OF ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM OF UNIVERSITAS BENGKULU

This research aimed at investigating the kind of English vowel sounds and the most
dominant English vowel sounds error pronounced by English students of the
education faculty of Universitas Bengkulu. The design of this research was
descriptive-mixed-method that involved twenty English students at the seventh
semester of the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education of Universitas Bengkulu
in the 2010-2021 academic years. The data of this research were taken by recording
the English students’ pronunciation in pronouncing twenty-four English words that
contained twelve English vowel sounds based on the theory of Dardjowidjojo (2009).
The data of this research were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The results
of this research revealed that the seventh-semester English students of the Faculty of
Teacher Training and Education of Universitas Bengkulu experienced an error in
pronouncing all of the English vowel sounds. Among those vowel sounds, the most
dominant English vowel sounds error pronounced by the English students was vowel
[ɔ]. The other English vowel sound that had an error of pronunciation above 5% was
vowel [æ]. It is assumed that the errors of pronouncing the vowel sounds were
caused by the disposition of vocal organs (e.g., tongue, teeth, and lips) when
producing the English vowel sounds. In conclusion, the English students in the
seventh semester of the education faculty of Universitas Bengkulu still have some
problems in pronouncing the English vowel sounds.
Keywords : English vowel sounds, pronunciation, English vowel sounds problem.