THE ERROR ANALYSIS OF VOWELS PRONUNCIATION OF ENGLISH DEPARTMENT STUDENTS

Abstract

Learning English as a foreign language forces students to accept and deal with its new sounds, which are absent from their original tongue. 
Pronunciation is the main aspect in oral communication competency. Pronunciation refers to ability employ the correct stress, rhythm, and intonation of a word in a spoken language. The aim of this study is to analyze the errors of vowels pronunciation that mostly occurred made by the fifth semester of English Department students, Riau University. The focus of this study is to identify errors in the way the fifth semester English Department of Riau University students pronounce English vowels.to investigate the research, the researcher used qualitative approachment. The research participants as the subject of this research were 14 students from 5A class. For collecting the data, the researcher used students’ voice recording as the primary data. Every students had been given the same words that contained vowels to record their voices.  This research focuses on the errors in pronouncing vowel sounds made by fifth-semester students of the English Department at Universitas Riau. Using a qualitative descriptive approach, data were collected through recordings of 15 students reading 24 words containing both long and short vowels. The results showed a total of 155 errors, with the highest occurrence in /ɔ:/ and the lowest in /u/. This indicates the need for improved pronunciation instruction with a focus on phonetic awareness and practical speaking activities.