Pronunciation Problem In Among Primary School Pupils

English language is so widely spoken and it has been referred as a global language. Although, English is not the official language in many countries, it is the language that most often taught as a second language in many countries including our country which is Malaysia. Moreover, English is the primary language that used in international academic and business communities. We as a Malaysian are known as non-native speakers of English often have problems with pronunciation. This is because most of us started to learn English formally in primary school. Pronunciation problem occur starting from primary school which became the reason why most Malaysian have speak broken English because the main factor of wrong pronunciations of English words. From my observations, I have identified many mistakes of pronunciations done by the primary school students, but here I would like to discuss a few of them including the causes of the problem:

Problem 1: Vowel diagraph pronunciation problems Many of the primary students cannot pronounce the ea sounds correctly. As an example, the word heart always pronounce as hat or hurt. When pronouncing heart, the students supposed to rounded their mouth to utter vowel ae in the middle of the word so it can be sounded as | h t |.

Problem 2: Nasal and dental consonant problem Students make a mistakes when pronouncing the pronounced man as mang which the phonetic symbols is | m |. Some of the students pronounces began as begang . Obviously here they could not pronounce the nasal consonant N. They

preferred to sound ng () as the replacement of silent N. Same went with t he word rainbow which pronounced as rangbow by adding consonant G in the middle of the word. The second word was it. It went same as the word man situation, but in term of t phoneme, students would prefer to sound k. Therefore, the sound produced was ik which the phonetic symbol is | ik |. For nasal consonant pronunciations, the students should have not sounded g at the back of the word man, began or in the middle of the word rainbow. Their tip of tongue should meet with alveolar ridge to sound a proper n that supposed to be uttered. For the consonant t which sounded I k I is supposed to be voiceless alveolar stop sounds. The tip of the tongue should meet alveolar and the vibration stops.

Causes of the problem Based on my observation, I have identified that students have different English accent or easier explained as dialect. Under normal circumstance, they speak Bahasa Melayu as daily language, and in fact do that in same accent. These were happening because their English affected by their accent such as Kelantanese accent. What have I known, when a Kelantanese speaks, there will be no N sounded at the back of a word somehow ng is always used as their choice in speaking. For example, when they speak Bahasa Melayu, they say make instead of makan where the n sound is not being used. In pronouncing the word Kelantan, they would prefer to sound kelate which the N is silenced and replaced with E. Therefore when they pronounced man, it sounded mang. Students also pronounced heart as hart. I can say that it was influenced by their prior knowledge of English style. We pronounce lead (carbon) as | led | where the student sounded ea in heart have the same phoneme even though they are totally different. Sometimes, strong accent makes the students cannot understand the word that been saying because strong accent could diminish the understanding of some words

and lead to mispronunciation. As an example, Malay English teacher who use Malay language as their first language have the possibility to speak English with a strong Malay accent will be followed by the students. Based on my research, these variations occurred also can be related to their social status. A better social status affects students awareness, learning condition and mastery through English. Some of them apparently originated from the village. Their previous generations had also lived there. Their parent had not been to any college or institution after Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia. Simply saying, the parents had not studied further and do not pay attention in any studying. For them, what they have is enough. Getting high marks, top place in examination, or getting complement from school are not really their aims. They do not really emphasize and care. Bad reputation, low score, matter in attendance are not really a big deal to them. What is more important is to earn money and as long as they can stay survive. Not to beat in business, but just to earn a little expense. Therefore, the parents ignore their childrens reputation in school. As long as the kid stays out of problem in the school, it would be good for them. The parents had not received any post-SPM education, therefore, their English achievement are not really good. Obviously, they cannot be a teacher for their kids. I can say that these kinds of persons usually depend totally on school lesson and programs. They relinquish their obligation as a home teacher. Therefore the students ignored and the English achievements stay down. They have never tried to speak English. That is why students could not really pronounce properly. For next factor, I think the media had influenced students spoken style. It can obviously be seen by listening to some students pronunciation. It was not English. What I means is many of us in Malaysia has been using American-English which mostly spoken in Malaysia English television program such as cartoons, movies, even in an education program. The American accent also is used by most Malaysian because the way it is pronounced near with Malay dialect. It is easier for Malaysian to pronounce Americans because they have been listening to them more than actual English that taught in education which is British-English.