FACTORS AFFECTING EFL LEARNERS IN LEARNING ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION By:

Abdul Rosyid The purpose of this research is to investigate some factors hindering Sundanesse in learning English pronunciation. This research attempts to answer the following research questions: What are the factors affecting Sundanesse in learning English pronunciation? The participants of this study are 30 students who are still in the second semester in English Education Study Program, Pakuan University. The data were collected through documentation in a form of audio recording, and in-depth interview with six representative participants. The major findings of this study are: There are three major factors affecting Sundanesse in learning English pronunciation, among others are; Mother tongue influence, Age and Target language exposure (2) The difficulties faced by Sundanesse in learning English pronunciation are mostly in terms of segmental features; such as vowels, consonants and diphthong, and suprasegmental features like intonation, stress and linking sound.


BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Learning English pronunciation gives some constraints for EFL learners, especially if the main goal is to achieve native-like pronunciation.Meanwhile, the importance to learn English pronunciation for EFL learners is unquestionable due to some reasons.One of the basic reasons is related to the significant role of pronunciation in supporting students' speaking performance both in the classroom and in a real life situation.The successful of oral communication using English language is determined some language aspects like vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar Form those three components, pronunciation is considered giving the biggest influence in succeeding the process of communication.
No matter how well the sentences are constructed and how appropriate the diction is chosen with the context of the talk, if they are mispronounced the words, the process of exchanging the message is not running well.
Ironically, even English language is one of the subjects in Indonesia given to the learners in junior and senior high school; some of them still have difficulties to pronounce English words correctly.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Qualitative research was used for this study since the researcher wants to investigate a recent phenomenon happened in the place of the study.Any single data taken and gathered using all data collecting techniques will be analyzed based on the procedure of qualitative method and will be displayed qualitatively.
In other words, descriptive method is applied in this study.

RESEARCH FINDINGS
The required data were mainly taken from interview, and then triangulated by the findings from result of audio recording.From that statement, it can be inferred that the participant gets For short, it might be brought to a close that mother tongue really influences and hinders the learners in learning foreign language, especially in the pronunciation. aspect.

b. Age
The second factor that influences and hinders the participants in learning English pronunciation and it was found in this study is age.The age here refers to the period when the participants learn the pronunciation seriously and intensively.
Based on the interview, five out of six participants said that they started learning pronunciation intensively when they came into a university.It can be seen from the following answers of the interview; Saya belajar Bahasa Inggris semenjak SMP kelas 1, tapi belajar pronunciation pas masuk kuliah I learn English Language since I was on the first grade of Junior High School.However, starting to learn pronunciation is when I enter a university. (Interview#2) Sejak SD saya sudah belajar bahasa Inggris, SD, SMP Sma, Kalau untuk pronunciation saya baru kali ini belajar.
I have learned English language since I were in elementary school.
Learning pronunciation is just started lately.
I have started learning English Language since third grade of elementary school.But, I focus to learn the language now and also start learning pronunciation.I started learning English language from the third grade of elementary school.I learned pronunciation from elementary till senior high school, but it did not become a focus of the learning.Focusing on learning pronunciation is just started in university level.
The data from those excerpts reveals that the participants of this study started learning English when they were about eight to ten years old.According to some scholars, starting to learn a foreign language in an early age is better than adult.It means that the participants of this study were in an appropriate period called Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH) to learn a foreign language.Unfortunately, they did not learn English pronunciation intensively and comprehensively when a very first time they learned English.They started doing so when they were about 18 years old, the average age of the freshmen.In other words, the participants started learning English pronunciation when they were not in a period called CPH.

Concerning
the data and explanation above regarding age and learning a foreign language, especially pronunciation, the findings is actually in line with the ideas shared by Gilkajani, Nation and Newton.Although there are also some scholars who do not in the same argument as three of them, the data above supports their idea.
Likewise, the data from the audio recording also supports the previous data gathered.Since  Learning a language was started from Elementary school, but focusing on pronunciation is in university.Learning English language from elementary till senior high school was just focused on vocabulary.
I started learning English language from the third grade of elementary school.I learned pronunciation from elementary till senior high school, but it did not become a focus of the learning.Focusing on learning pronunciation is just started in university level.(Interview#11) Selama saya sekolah untuk dalam hal pronunciation itu tidak terlalu fokus, hanya manambah vocabulary, jadi lebih banyak itu translate, translate, translate.. Pronunciation is a material that is not focused on to learn.Along learning language before entering a university, the focus is only in terms of vocabulary, translating and translating.saya lebih fokus belajar pronunciation itu sejak saya belajar di sebuah yayasan sama dikampus.kalau tutor saya di yayasan, kita lebih pronunciation itu karena kita bertemu dengan native speaker, jadi saat kita ngucapin salah, mereka akan langsung, 'sorry, can you repeat?.Jadi mereka akan ngulangin karena kita mengucapkan, eh salah mengucapkan kata.
I started to focus on learning pronunciation when I learned in a foundation and in a university.My tutor in foundation taught us pronunciation since we always met native speaker there.So, when we mispronounce the words, the native speaker will ask us to repeat saying the intended words.(1) Attitude A research conducted by Alliot (1995) discovered that the subjects' attitude toward acquiring native or near-native pronunciation was the principle variable in relation to target language pronunciation.
It might be said that if the students were more concerned with the pronunciation of target language, their pronunciation achievement better than those who ignore it.It is supported by Karahan's argument (2007) that "positive language attitudes let learner have positive orientation toward learning English".In other words, attitudes play a very crucial in the process of language learning, not only in learning pronunciation, since it can influence students' success or failure in their learning.
(2) Motivation In the learning process, affective variables have become an important issue.
The effect of this variable in learners' successful in learning process becomes some researchers feel interest to conduct the research.One of affective variables that can give great influence in the process of learning is motivation.Marinova-Todd, et al. (2000), Masgoret & Gardner (2003), Bernaus, et al. (2004), andGatbonton, et al. (2005) have discovered the same findings that having a personal or professional goal for learning English can influence the need and desire for achieving native-like pronunciation.In simple words, it might be said that the one who has great motivation to learn a language will be very possible to achieve the target language in every aspects, one of them is pronunciation.
(3) Mother Tongue Influence Avery and Ehrlich (1992) cited in Thanasoulas (2003) explain that the rule and pattern of students' native language is transferred into their second or foreign language, and it causes foreign accents.
This condition is actually experienced by all foreign language learners.Sounds, rules, patterns, and intonation of their native language, sometimes, is applied when they learn a foreign language.As a result, mispronunciation is always occurred.
Avery and Ehrlich (1992) cited in Thanasoulas (2003) further elaborate that there are three ways the native language or students' mother tongue can influence the target language pronunciation; L2 or FL.
The first way that can influence the process of pronunciation learning in terms of mother tongue influence is the absence of certain sounds of target language in the students' native language.For example, sounds /tʃ/, /ð/, and /ae/ do not exist in Indonesian language, so the students, sometimes; get difficulties in pronouncing those sounds and, as a result, it influences the process of pronunciation learning.Sometimes, the students apply the stress pattern and intonation of their native language into the target language.This situation makes the students get failed in achieving the pronunciation of target language.
(4) Age Most of learners in Indonesia started learning a foreign language when they go to an Elementary school.Seeing from the average age, most of the students in Elementary school are 7 -13 years old.
This period is a very optimal period to learn a foreign language.According to Nation and Newton (2009:78), if the students started to learn and even to speak in L2 before 6 years old, there will be no accent.However, if they start doing so when they are more than 12 years old, there will be always an accent.The meaning of 'accent' here refers to the L1 of the participants.From the points of view it might be said that the younger is better than the older in terms of learning a foreign language.It might be caused of the influence of L1 concept in the learners brain.In line with learning English pronunciation, Gilkajani (2001:78) views that the influence of age on language acquisition and specifically pronunciation may make adults find more difficult than children do and that they probably will not achieve native-like pronunciation.
Another point of view regarding the influence of age in learning a foreign language is related to the theory about Critical Period Hypothesis.The theory about CPH proposed by Lenneberg (1967) cited in Gilkajani (2001) shared that there is a biological period which ends around the age of 12. Furthermore, he claimed that after this period it becomes extremely difficult to attain complete mastery of a second language, especially pronunciation.
From points of view, it leads to a conclusion that a golden age to master a foreign language, especially to gain nativelike pronunciation, is before 12 years old.
However, this theory was unacceptable by some scholars; two of them are Flege difficulties in remembering how to pronounce some phonetic sounds.Besides, linking sound is another problem faced.It might be assumed that the problem appears because of the influence of L1.Since in Bahasa Indonesia there is no rule like linking sound, the participant viewed that point as a constraint in learning English pronunciation.The findings explained in the previous paragraphs are actually in line with the point of view shared by Flege and Port (1981) in Nation and Newton(2009)  and supported byHewings (2004)

(
Interview#12) The excerpts above represent that their previous teachers, teachers in Elementary, Junior and Senior High school, did not teach or did not focus on teaching them pronunciation.Their teachers only taught them vocabulary, reading, and so forth.Such condition shows that the exposure in the area of pronunciation is very limitted.As a result, when they started learning English pronunciation in a university, their previous experience influences their learning.Almost all of the participants get difficulties in learning pronunciation since they do not get used to learn such a subject.Such this condition will not be faced by the participants who have previous experience or have been exposed in learning English pronunciation before they are in a university level.It is better to see the answer of interview from one of the participants; form of conversation.Such this instruction, of course, gave the participant opportunity to develop her pronunciation.As a result, the process of pronunciation learning in a university will not be hindered by the factor mentioned in this section.Supporting the data gathered for the needs of this section, the data taken from the audio recording also shows that the participants who started learning English pronunciation in a university level tend to have more difficulties than the participant who has learned English pronunciation before entering a university level.In contrast, the participant who has learned English pronunciation before entering university level can read the sentences given more intelligibly than others.It might be assumed that the instruction given by the teachers in the previous classroom settings affect pronunciation learning and achievement in the following one.In short, seeing the comparison between the participants who have and have not learned English pronunciation to achieve such that goal, either native or non-native English, should be able to pronounce the words intelligibly.Brazil (1994) defines the word intelligibly as being able to make one's meaning and intentions clear to a listener.However, in a real condition, pronunciation teaching in the classroom, especially in EFL classroom is still neglected.As a result, being intelligible in communicating is quite difficult to grasp by EFL learners.Furthermore, the achievement of teaching and learning pronunciation can be seen not only from teaching process but also from the process of learning.

Flege
and Port (1981) cited in Nation and Newton (2009:80) shared that 'the most important interfence from L1 to L2 occurs at the level of phonetic implementation'.It means that the difference in terms of phoneme or sounds in L1 and L2 will hinder the learners in learning foreign language.This view is supported by Hewings (2004:3) who said that the difference phonemes lied in the first and second language becomes one of the problems faced by any learners in learning any language.Second, when the rules of combining sounds into words in the target language are different in the learners' mother tongue, such this condition can cause the problems.The main reason of this problem is because of the different rules in combining sound in every language and those rules are very specific in each language.Third, the rule of stress and intonation in terms of words and sentences in students' native language is different with the target language.
viewed that the learners have learned the sound of their mother tongue and it automatically interferes their process in learning L2.They further explained that when learners got older and older, their perception about sound of their L1 is increasingly well-integrated and stable.language especially related to pronunciation mastery brings us to a close that some scholars basically have the same agreement that starting to