ANALYSIS OF PHONOLOGICAL ENGLISH ERROR IN

PRONUNCIATION OF SHORT AND LONG VOWELS

Erka Indah Sari
18320127
Email: erkaindah41@gmail.com

Abstract: In fact, many students still do not understand the difference between short and
long English vowels because consider that short and long vowels have the same
pronunciation, but when it can be seen from each meaning will give the significant
differences. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze and find out the factors that
cause error in short and long vowels. This study refers to descriptive qualitative method
for analyze and describe the data with the subject is the four semester students of English
Literature, faculty of humanities, Maulana Malik Ibrahim State Islamic University of
Malang. The researcher gave 6 minimal pairs test to 10 students, while the data was taken
from voice note on WhatsApp. In here, the researcher finds 64.15% pronounce correctly and
35.85% incorrectly. The vowels are /i/ and /I:/; / ʌ/ and /ɑ:/; /ʊ/ and /u:/ the way of their
pronunciation is almost similar.

Keywords: Pronunciation, Vowels, Error

INTRODUCTION

Many previous studies examined about phonological error vowels, such as pronunciation error in English vowels
that according to (Dinda Salsabila and Rusdi Noor, 2020; Wasis Puspita, 2007; Nurul Frijuniarsi, 2018) and consonants
error (Kinanty Kintamani, Asep Kurnia, and Didih Faridah, 2019; I Dewa Ketut Sidanes, I Made Winaya, Putu Ayu
Pratiwi, 2016). Phonological error was in converse arrangement that was examined spoken discourse (Clara Herlina;
2011). Slip ears of phonological error vowels (Arum perwitasari; 2013). In this case, none of the previous study has
examined short and long vowels error. As a result, the aim for this study is to find out the factors and to analyze
pronunciation error in short and long English vowels by the forth semester students of English Literature of State Islamic
University Malang. It is needed because pronounce English correctly can make listener understand what is being said by
speaker. However, if there is an error of the short and long English vowel, of course it can lead to different meaning. In
this modern era, English is essential because many companies use English for their interview or the desire to get
scholarship abroad.

According to Richard (in Yuniarti, 2009, p. 2) argued that pronunciation is a word that comes out of the mouth
which focuses on how the sound is received by listener. Pronunciation is English essential aspect because it can support
whether the message delivered or not by the listener. If a word is pronounced correctly it will make easy in
communication. In contrast, if pronounced inappropriately it can make misunderstand in communication. For this reason,
it happens because there are pronunciation error in short and long English vowels. Many cases are misunderstanding in
communication which is caused by short and long vowels error. Many students are still confused to distinguish both that
can make English communication becomes difficult. To illustrate, word like fit and feet; of course the pronunciation is
almost same, but they has different meaning if pronounced well. In here, short vowels need not long sound while long
vowels need long sound. A long vowel has longer than normal or short vowel and it has phonemic symbol like /:/ to
indicate length. Therefore this needs to be understood in order to communicate efficiently and effectively.

Similarly with the previous studies just focus on academic linguistic, like phonological English error (Diva
Wenanda,Suci Suryani; 2016), phonological English vowels that do not exist in Indonesian (Ketut Anugrah Yudha, Fakhri
Ras, M. Nababan; 2016), phonological error vowels pronunciation (Latifah Nur Kartyastuti; 2017, Nurul Frijuniarsi;
2018). Additionally, phonological error on /æ/ and /λ/ phonemes as fossilized pronunciation (Mehmet Demirezen; 2008).
This study has similarity in method by using the descriptive qualitative method to analyze, describe, and explain the data.
The study’s argument becomes the difference between this study and previous studies because they just examined about
error vowels pronunciation in general. Meanwhile, this study discusses about error vowels pronunciation but it emphasizes
on error short and long vowels. Many students still do not realize the importance to pronounce with phonological system,
therefor it is needed to discuss. In short, pronunciation is the most important asset in communication. By reason of that,
phonology needs to distinguish the pronunciation correctly, including short and long vowels English.

The study is very useful from the result of previous studies to emphasize linguistics approach (Ketut Anugrah
Yudha, Fakhri Ras, M. Nababan; 2016, Latifah Nur Kartyastuti; 2017, Nurul Frijuniarsi; 2018, Mehmet Demirezen;
2008). There is a gap that has to be completed that none of the previous studies has examined short and long vowels
pronunciation. It is necessary because it has benefit to find out the difference of the pronunciation through phonology
system, so there is no word that has almost same with pronunciation has the same meaning . On the other hand, it is useful
to increase ability in speaking for the students so that to make it look easy to understand what the speaker mean. Thus, it
has the benefit to improve the mastery of vocal pronunciation well in daily conversation. It can be proven with the word
‘know’ and ‘now’, if the non-native speakers’ have good vocabulary it can be easy to understand. On the contrary, if they
have bad pronunciation, it can misunderstand. In fact, those words have almost similar sound, so pronunciation error can
make misunderstand for the speakers. As a result, it will be caused the speaker does not success in making the listeners
understood. It is not effective.

To sum up, this study emphasizes error in pronouncing short and long English vowels is different with previous
studies that explained error in pronouncing vowels and consonant in general. Short and long vowels also have main aspect
in phonological system because many students lack understand about it. In addition, many students pronounce long vowels
become short vowels and vice versa, it makes the listener confused with what is said. For this reason, the researcher wants
to find out and describe the error in pronouncing short and long vowels. Speaking with good pronunciation makes the
listener know what the speaker means, while bad pronunciation can cause misunderstanding in English communication. In
this era, English is needed because it is an international language and is used to looking for job or studying abroad. It can
be seen that pronouncing English correctly has many benefits, both academically on phonology or non-academic on daily
conversation. So knowing the difference between short and long vowels effectively will reduce error in vowels
pronouncing.

METHOD
With regard to the data characteristics, the design in this study emphasized to descriptive
qualitative method which were supposed by Knupfer & McLellan (1996), descriptive researcher
is data collection that describe events and the organizes, tabulates, depicts, and describes the data
collection It was essential because could make comprehensive explanation in the form of
numbers or verbally that related to the problem being studied from research subject.
This study used the primary data that was minimal-pairs test that focused on
pronunciation error of short and long English vowels. So, the students were given several
questions which had same pronunciation but different meaning. The sample were the forth
semester students of English Literature, faculty of humanities, Maulana Malik Ibrahim State
Islamic University of Malang. This object was selected for reason this campus had dorms which
obligated the first semester students from other departments to spoke English as conversation.
Therefore, it was considered to improve their speaking skill.
The data was taken through voice recordings on WhatsApp where the subject was given
minimal-pairs test. Therefore, all their pronunciations could be recorded which made it easy to
describe the wrong parts that have been spoken by the forth semester students of English
Literature which they were regarded as senior. For this reason, they had a lot of learning
experiences on campus especially on linguistic.
To analyze the data, the researcher provided minimal-pairs test (Baker, 1991, 2002;
Baker and Goldstein, 1990; Demirezen, 1986), listening to recordings from the sample and the
researcher would show the data of the frequency of students’ error in pronouncing and
percentage from each word (Kinanty Kintamani, Asep Kurnia, and Didih Faridah; 2019).

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE

Pronunciation error is a common thing in learning English, but they must be corrected.
Therefore, the researcher uses an error analysis approach that according to Sanal (2007), the
purpose of error analysis is to identify, describe, and explain the learners’ mistake by applying
principles and techniques through linguistic. Brown (2000) argues that error can be made by the
learners that can be analyzed, observed, and classified in order to unravel something that caused
an error.
This study shows previous studies which related or relevant with this study, according to
Diva Wenanda, Suci Suryani (2016) found that error of consonant sounds is caused by two
factors: (1) Interlingual factor, it can cause error of consonant sounds because there are not some
consonant sound in Indonesian, such as interdental sound /ð/ and /θ/, alveopalatal sound /ʃ/. (2)
Intralingual factor, the difference between spelling and pronunciation makes the learners make
mistakes, such as when pronounce the word “actually”, “t” should be pronounced /ʧ/ but it is
pronounced /t/. In contrast, Ketut Anugrah Yudha, Fakhri Ras, M. Nababan (2016) established
that error pronunciation sounds are caused by vowels [i:], [æ], [a:], [ɒ], [ɔː], [u:], [ʌ], [ɜ:], and
[ə], but most of the vowels, the most wrong pronunciation occur in [ʌ] and [ə] because there are
not in Indonesian phonology, so many students are not able and have difficulty to pronounce it.
In similarly, Latifah Nur Kartyastuti (2017) identified that there are many mistakes in English
pronouncing that is error in pronouncing vowels except in vowels /ɒ/ and /ʊ/ because in her
study, most of her study subjects had no problems in the pronunciation.
It can be seen from previous studies that, they explained error in English pronouncing
vowels and consonants based on phonological in general which makes easy in this research to
find out mistakes in pronouncing which it is relevant with this research. However, they are not
too detailed in in explain the problem of English pronouncing vowels. Consequently, this study
examines the problem of short and long vowels in more detail which in short and long vowels
can be proven that many students are still confused to distinguish them.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Findings
The researcher has given 6 minimal pairs test through voice recordings on WhatsApp to
10 students from the forth semester students of English Literature of State Islamic University
Malang which was to get data about error in pronouncing short and long vowels. Additionally,
the data of the pronunciation was taken through recorder that the researcher became easy to
analyze the error.
1. Error in Pronouncing
The researcher found out that the students have pronounced the pair word, the first was
minimal pair of [I] and [i:] at the words ship and sheep; and eat and it. In the first pair of Ship
and Sheep, the word “ship” did not have the total number of incorrect answers, while the word
“sheep” had 1 student. In the second pair of Eat and It, which the word “eat” had the total
number of incorrect answers were 6 students and the word “it” was 1 student. The second
minimal pair was pair of [ʌ] and [ɑ:] at the word cot and cut; and got and gut. In the pair of cot
and cut, the word “cot” had the total number of incorrect answers were 8 students and the word
“cut” was 1 student. In the pair of got and gut, the word “got” did not have the total number of
incorrect answers and the word “gut” had 6 students. The last minimal pair was pair of [ʊ] and
[u:] at the word fool and full; and book and boot. In the pair of fool and full, the word “fool” had
the total number of incorrect answers were 6 students and the word “full” were 7 students. In the
pair of boot and book, the word “boot” had the total number of incorrect answers were 6 students
and the word “book” was 1 student. It can be seen in the table below

Frequency of Percentage
pronunciatio
No students’corrections
n
Correct Incorrect Correct Incorrect
1. Ship 10 - 8.33% -
Sheep 9 1 7.50% 0.83%
2. Eat 4 6 3.33% 5.00%
It 9 1 7.50% 0.83%
 3. cot 2 8 1.67% 6.66%
cut 9 1 7.50% 0.83%
4. Got 10 - 8.33% -
Gut 4 6 3.33% 5.00%
5. Fool 4 6 3.33% 5.00%
Full 3 7 2.50% 5.83%
6. Boot 4 6 3.33% 5.00%
Book 9 1 7.50% 0.83%
Subtotal 77 43 64.15% 35.85%
TOTAL 120 100%

N How to pronounce
Vowels pronunciation
O Correct Incorrect
1. Ship / ʃIp/ -
2. Sheep /ʃi:p /ʃIp/
/i/ and /I:/
3. Eat /i:t/ /It/
4. It /It/ /i:t/
5. cot /kɑ:t/ /kot/
6. /ʌ/ and /ɑ:/ cut /kʌt/ /ka:t/
7. Got /gɑ:t/ -
8. Gut /gʌt/ /gʊt/
9. Fool /fu:l/ /fɔ:l/
10. /ʊ/ and /u:/ Full /fʊl/ /fu:l/
11. Boot /bu:t/ /bʊt/
12. Book /bʊk/ /bu:k/

Table percentage short and long vowels

Based on the data from the table, it could be concluded that there were many students of the
forth semester students of English Literature, Maulana Malik Ibrahim State Islamic University of
Malang had problems in pronouncing short and long English vowels. The data showed that many
students could pronounce short and long English vowels correctly which had the percentage of
students’ correct pronunciation is 64.15%. But, not a few of them were still made incorrect
pronunciation which had the percentage is 35.85%.
2. Factors of error
Table error cases
 Based on the data, the cause of the error was long vowels read short vowels and vice
versa. While in /ʌ/ was read /ʊ/ and /ʊ/ was read /u:/ and /ɔ:/ and the sample considered that long
and short vowels had the same pronunciation, so they did not heed whether it was long or short
vowels. Yet, if interpreted, it had different meaning.
Discussion
Factors of error
Accoring to (Latifah Nur Kartyastuti; 2017) in her study explains that there are 3 types
that causes errors in vowels, they are substitution, insertion, and omission. For the pronunciation
of the vocal sounds, the data analysis shows that the occurrence of pronunciation of English
vowels caused by intra-lingual factors, there are factors in the English system itself. The English
vocal sounds system has more variations than the sounds Indonesian system. Beside it, the
inconsistency of the English vocal sounds system also causes the learners tend to make misatakes
(Diva Wenanda,Suci Suryani; 2016).
Previous studies discuss the factors are caused error in pronunciation that pronounced by
the students which based on linguistic and use error analysis approach as theory, so it has the
similarity. From the data obtained the researcher can notice that most of the vowels /ɑ:/ is read
/o/ from the word “cot” with the correct pronunciation /kɑ:t/, while the wrong pronunciation
/kot/. It becomes one of the error factors because Indonesian has not /ɑ:/ pronunciation, so that
the students are still accustomed to using Indonesian’s vowels. Other example, the word “full”
with the correct pronunciation /fʊl/, but they pronounce /fu:l/ that called overgeneralization of
rules because the rules are difficult to pronounce. Furthermore, the correct pronunciation of the
word “book” is /bʊk/ and not /bu:k/, it called False Concepts, for this reason when the students
practice vocabulary by using a dictionary but do not understand phonemic symbols, it means
students only know the meaning but not with reading it.
Need to be known that learning through a dictionary and how to read it is recommended,
an easy way to find out whether the word is pronounced short or long is located in the symbol/:/
to indicate length,, so that if there is a symbol that has been long vowels. After analyzing, this
study has a weakness because the data used is less effectively. The data used should also focus
on the students in pronunciation and give a score of each student to find out the extent of their
ability to understand short and long vowels, not just focus on vowels.

CONCLUSSION
In summary, the purpose of the study is to analyze and determine the factors causing
error in pronunciation short and long English vowels by the forth semester students of English
Literature of State Islamic University Malang. Pronunciation the main role in English
communication because it can support whether the message conveyed is received or not by the
listener.
The data shows that there are still students who make mistake in pronouncing short and
long vowels, which is 35.85%, meanwhile 64.15% pronounce correctly. There are 6 English
vowels are /i/ and /I:/; / ʌ/ and /ɑ:/; /ʊ/ and /u:/. Mistakes in pronounce short and long English
vowels are influenced by several factors, they are: (1) Indonesian has no vowel to make the
students difficult to pronounce. (2) Overgeneralization of rules which are too complicated rules.
(3) False concepts hypothesized, the students prefer to practice the vocabulary than
understanding phonemic symbols.

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