Elsan Arvian. (2021).

Error analysis of silent letters pronunciation made by the fourth semester students of English
department of STBA JIA.
Jurnal Ennichi. Vol. 2 No. 1 (2021)

ERROR ANALYSIS OF SILENT LETTERS PRONUNCIATION

MADE BY THE FOURTH SEMESTER STUDENTS OF
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT OF STBA JIA

By:
Elsan Arvian
Sekolah Tinggi Bahasa Asing JIA
[email protected]

Abstract

This research investigated the errors of English pronunciation on silent lettters by the
fourth semester students of English Department STBA JIA. The focus of this research
were 1) to find out errors of pronunciation made by the fourth semester students of
STBA JIA, 2) to find out the causes of the error and 3) to find out the errors mostly exist
in this case. This research combined theory from Carney (2012) and Crystal (2012)
about silent letters, theory by Corder in Ellis (2008) about steps of error analysis, theory
of phonotactic constraints of English from Brinton (2010) and Indonesian from Alwi et
al (2017). Twenty students of English Department Programme at STBA JIA were
assigned to pronounce 30 English words containing silent letters in the initial, medial,
and final position of the word. The frequency of errors was calculated in percentage. In
this research, the writer used descriptive qualitative method. The study revealed that: 1)
the participants mostly made post-systematic errors 2) the most frequent word
mispronounced by the students are honest in the initial position, sword in the medial
position as well as ballet and bufffet in the final position. There were 145 errors made
by the students with the percentage of 24.17% error. Among three positions of the
occurrence, the medial position was the most frequent category of error with 63 errors
(31.5%), followed by 53 errors in the final position (26.5%), and 29 errors in the initial
position (14.5%). The participants‟ first language that is, the absence of the
phonotactics constraints of both English and Indonesian and the lack of knowledge of
students about the pronunciation of ancient English words are the causes of error.

Keywords: analysis, error, silent letters

Artikel diterima: 25 November 2021

Revisi terakhir: 18 Desember 2021
Tersedia online: 27 Desember 2021

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A. INTRODUCTION English orthography or spelling is quite

different from phonetic transcription
Most of Indonesian learners feel
(Rogers, 2002, p. 16). People can easily
difficult to speak English because they are
find letters in English words pronounced
unconfident, nervous, afraid to make
differently or vice versa. For example the
mistake with their pronunciation. Having a
<c> and <g> in English can be pronounced
good pronunciation is important for
more than one sound. The <c> can
learners. And they need to improve their
represent three different sounds as in can
ability. However, pronouncing the English
/k/, in cinema /s/ or in chocolate /tʃ/ and
sounds is not easy. This problem is due to
<g> can represent two different sounds. It
the fact that most of English sounds do not
is pronounced as /dʒ/ in giraffe and /g/ as
exist in the Indonesian language.
in good.
Moreover, mother tongue also affected to
The different spelling and
their English pronunciation. Therefore,
pronunciation in English also can be seen
pronunciation of English should be
in silent letters. Silent letters are the letters
practiced by the students.
that are not pronounced (Huber, 2009, p.
Pronunciation is one of the parts of
67). Kelly (2001, p. 123) stated that some
language which is very essential. Nobody
letters can be silent in certain words when
could understand the people with poor
they are proceeded or followed by another
pronunciation even though their words and
consonant. For instance, <p> in
grammar are good. In addition, the crashed
psychology, <b> in lamb, <e> in time.
communication can be caused by the use of
They are not pronounced as in knowledge
incorrect pronunciation. Moreover, being
and hour that <k> and <h> are also silent.
aware of correct pronunciation will give
However, there is one-to-one
the advantage not only in production, but
relationship between spelling and
also the understanding of spoken language.
pronunciation in Indonesia. It means that
Learning pronunciation is significant to the
what is spoken is exactly what is written.
students in learning English. Pronunciation
As a result, all Indonesian words have the
should be taught in the classroom.
same pronunciation as their spelling. For
Pronunciation typically is not being taught
example, <c> in Indonesian is pronounced
independently, but it is usually taught in
as /tʃ/ as in cinta and macan and <g> is
speaking or English lesson class.
pronounced as /g/ as in gajah, and gugur.
English is lack of correspondence
Therefore, when reading English words,
between spelling and pronunciation.

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Indonesian as the foreign language learners Perhaps, one of the factors that can
can make errors because they are confused cause errors in pronunciation is the
between the sounds and the letters. different phonological system between
Basically, sounds are not letters. A English and Indonesian. For instance, both
sound which is represented graphically by in Indonesian and in English have sound /l/
letters is different from a letter and /p/. Based on the rule of sound
(Dardjowidjojo, 2009, p. 16). There are 44 arrangement known as phonotactics of
different sounds used when speaking Indonesian, these two sounds are not
English are written down by 26 letters allowed to occur together in one syllable,
(Kelly, 2001, p. 122). It means that one while in English they can occur together at
sound may be represented by one letter or the end of the word. Since /lp/ does not
a combination of letters. For example, the exist in Indonesian, the English word help
sound /i/ can be represented by three is often pronounced as /hɛlәp/ and film is
different letters as in see <ee>, sea <ea>, pronounced as /filәm/ or even /pilәm/
and brief <ie>, while a combination of (Dardjowidjojo, 2009, p.15).
letters can produce different sounds as Then, Yates (2005) mentioned the
<th> in this /ð/, and in think /θ/. Thus, goal of “perfect pronunciation‟ is to speak
English learners often get difficulties both so that people listen to what we say not
in reading and writing English words. They how we say it. It is to be understood by the
have to know what exactly the spelling and first time you say something and to be
pronunciation. confident and proud of the way you speak.
Pronunciation is one of key skills to The lack of pronunciation skill can
speak English. Together with grammar and decrease the confidence in speaking
vocabulary, pronunciation plays an English, restrict social interaction, and be
important role in term of speaking. underestimated by people who actually do
Pronunciation is defined as the way in not know the speaker’s abilities, so he will
which languages or words are spoken feel uncomfortable at his speech and afraid
(Manser, 1991, p. 330). It is also dealing of laughter and ridicule. Therefore, it is
with the way in which someone speaks of clearly that mastering pronunciation is
foreign language. Pronunciation is necessary.
important in English because Actually, In the university where
mispronunciation can cause this research is conducted, pronunciation is
misunderstanding between the speaker and taught in the first semester which aims to
the hearer. enable students to master English

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pronunciation to avoid misunderstanding analysis is a tool of investigating how

in communication, whereas phonetics is learners acquire a second language. By
taught in the second semester which aims conducting error analysis research, it will
to makes students understand how to read help the teacher to know the progress of
phonemic transcription in the dictionary to the learning process and what should the
pronounce the words correctly. However, learner learn next. It is the evidence for the
some of the students still mispronounce the researcher to analyze how a language is
words especially the words containing acquired or learnt, what approach the
silent letters. learner applies in finding the language.
English department students are And it is a device for the learner himself to
expected to be proficient in English, not improve their knowledge of the language.
only in writing aspect but also in reading, Therefore, Corder (1982) divided a model
listening and more importantly in for error analysis which included three
speaking. After graduation, they will be forms:
professional in working as employees in a 1. Data collection: Recognition of
company or English teachers. They will be idiosyncracy
the role model of their colleagues or The first step is collecting the data
students so making errors when sample from the language learners. It
pronouncing English words will be can be written or spoken that shows
embarrassing. what they have been learning and it is
Based on the explanation above, the base data for describing the error.
the writer conducts a paper which focuses 2. Description: Accounting for
on the pronunciation of English silent idiosyncratic dialect
letters. As pronunciation is taught in A comparative study may be conducted
English Department of STBA JIA, so this to find out whether the sentences
research is conducted by the Fourth learners produce is correct in target
Semester Students of English Department language which correspond with them.
STBA JIA. It is part of linguistic which is a
ERROR ANALYSIS description of the comparison between
An experimental technique for the target language and the native
validating the theory of transfer is error language.
analysis is stated by Corder. Meanwhile, 3. Explanation (the ultimate object of
Ellis in his book The Study of Second error analysis).
Language Acquisition said that error

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The writer uses the theory of Corder about of a language, the rules for combining
steps of error analysis research and types words, and the variations in pronunciation
of error. To conclude the source of error, (Odden, 2005, p.2). Baverly said that
the writer uses the theory of Richard about phonology is the study of the selection and
types of error sources. patterns of sounds in a single language
PHONETICS (2013, p. 9). Yule also has the same idea of
Actually, Collins explained that phonology that it is essentially the
Phonetics is he study of sound in human description of the systems and patterns of
language (2013, p. 9). It is the general speech sounds in a language (2010, p. 42).
study of the characteristics of speech Thus, it is necessary to learn to improve
sounds (Yule, 2010, p. 26). It explains the the pronunciation of English learners.
concrete, instrumentally measurable a. Pronunciation
physical properties and production of these Pronouncing English words is such a
cognitive speech sounds. (Odden, 2005, difficult aspect in learning. There are
p.4). Phonetics divides or segments some features in pronunciation. They
concrete utterences into individual speech are segment and suprasegmental
sounds. Thus, it is concerned with features. Segment is also called
performance. Furthermore, Yule divided phoneme (Kelly, 2001, p. 3). While
phonetics into three areas. The main suprasegmental features are features of
interest is articulatory phonetics which speech which generally apply to group
deals with how speech sounds are made or of segment. Some important features
articulated. Other area is acoustic are stress, intonation, and how sound
phonetics which is the study of the changes in connected speech. It is also
physical properties as sound waves in the used to learn spellings and gives
air. The last part is auditory phonetics (or guidance on how learners can
perpetual phonetics). It is about the pronounce what they read and how
perception, via the ear, of speech sound they can talk in conversation (Taylor
(2010, p. 26). and Francis, 2014, p. 4).
PHONOLOGY b. English Spelling
Phonology focuses on the system & Some linguists said that English
pattern of the sound existing in a certain spelling is not consistent. Kelly said
language (Kelly, p. 9). Odden stated that that English is lack of correspondence
phonology is the study of sound structure between spelling and pronunciation
in English which concerns about the sound (Kelly, 2000, p. 7). Huber also

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mentioned that some spellings have c. English Sounds

different pronunciation (2000, p. 67). Pronunciation certainly is related to
In a consistent spelling system, one English sound. Sound is a wave
symbol is used to represent one sound transferred from the speaker to the
or one phoneme such as in Italian, hearer (Roger, 2002, p. 1). Sounds
Japanese, and Indonesian. have such concrete characteristics as
There are some factor causing English duration in time and loudness. The
spelling is not consistent or different actual, concrete speech sounds can be
from its pronunciation. Firstly, there regarded as the realization of phonemes
are 44 phonemes in the English by individual speakers, and are referred
language but only 26 graphemes to to as phones [from Greek phone,
represent them (O‟Connor, 1998, p. 8). 'voice']. It is contrast to phonemes
On account of this, one sound can be which are abstract, idealized sounds
represented by a variety of graphemes that are never pronounced and never
(alphabet letters), as /i:/ in meat, meet heard (Skandera, 2005, p. 19).
and machine. Otherwise, one grapheme d. Phoneme
(alphabet letters) can be used to Yule said that phonemes are abstract
represent more than one phoneme. set of sounds of a language that can
Secondly, throughout its long distinguish meaning in the actual
development English has borrowed physical sounds spoken by the speaker
words from other languages and (2010, p. 42). Kelly stated that
simultaneously retained their original phonemes is devided into vowel and
spellings. These foreign languages, consonants (2001, p.2).
however, had different grapheme- to- 1) Vowel
phoneme correspondences and thus O’Connor said that vowel is made
new inconsistencies in the letter-sound by voiced air passing through
relationship emerged.Thirdly, one of different mouth-shaped (1998, p.
the goals of the English spelling is to 79). There are 20 vowels in English
depict aspects of English morphology including 12 simple vowels and 8
and to show visual identity of words. If diphthongs. Simple vowel consists
the words signaturea and sign are of /i:, ɪ, e, ӕ, ʌ, ɑ:, ɒ, ʊ, u:, ɜ:, ә/.
compared, it is discovered that the Diphthong is a glide from one
latter contains a ˂g˃ in spelling, vowel to another. O’Connor
although it is not pronounced. divided diphthong into three

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groups, those which end in /ʊ/, /әʊ, and is then released

aʊ/, those which end in /ɪ/, /eɪ, aɪ, explosively, e.g. /p/, /b/.
ɔɪ/ and those which end in /ә/, /ɪә, b. Nasal, sound occurs when a
eә, ʊә/. complete closure is made
2) Consonant somewhere in the mouth, the
Consonant is defined according to soft palate is lowered, and the
Brinton (2010) as a speech sound air escapes through the nasal
that is pronounced with some kind cavity, e.g. /m/, /n/.
of stricture or closure of the c. Fricative, occurs when two
airstream (p. 23). Brinton classified vocal organs come close
consonants based on four features enough together for the
which are: movement of air to be heard
1. The state of the glottis: in between them, producing
vibration (voiced) or open hissing sound or rubbing sound
(voiceless) e.g. /s/, /f/, /v/.
2. The state of velum: lowered d. Affricate, occur when a
(nasal) or raised (oral) complete closure is made
3. The place of articulation: the somewhere in the mouth, and
location wherethe stricture or the soft palate is raised. Air
place of maximum interference pressure increases behind the
occurs and what what closure and is then released
articulators involved more slowly than in plosive,
4. The manner of articulation: the e.g. /tʃ/, /dʒ/.
amount of strictur, whether it is e. Trill (roll) occurs when
complete, partial (close complete closure alternating
approximation), or relatively intermittently with open
open (open approximation) approximation
Based on manner of articulation, f. Lateral, occurs when the
consonants are devided into seven airflow is around the sides of
parts, which are : tongue, e.g. /l/.
a. Stop, occurs when a complete g. Approximant, occur when one
closure is made somewhere in articulator moves close to
the vocal tract. Air pressure another, but not close enough to
increases behind the closure

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cause friction to stop the f. Phonotactics

airflow, e.g. /r/, /w/. Roger said that the study of the
e. Syllable Structure possible combination in a language is
Syllable (σ) is a phonological unit called phonotactics (2000, p. 89). Brinton
that contains one or more segments or (2010, p. 59) mentioned that phonotactics
sounds. A lower-case Greek sigma (σ) as is a unique combination of certain sound
Roger stated in his book is a symbol of occurs in one language but does not
syllable (2000, p. 265). Syllable does exist permitted in other language. Phonotactics
in both English and Indonesian. Syllable is a contstraint related to positions and
consists of nucleus or centre of syllable, sequences of sound in a typical language.
onset or the element before the nucleus, The position refers to initial, medial, and
and coda or the element after the nucleus final position in a word. The Phonotactice
(p. 88). The nucleus of the syllable constaints of English and Indonesian is
typically is vowel while the onset is described below.
consonant (p. 265). However, Roget put an 1) English Phonotactics Constraints
exception of the /j/ and /w/ diphthong As Brinton stated in his book,
which belongs to the nucleus and is not mentioned that Phonotactics
regarded as a close syllable. constraints are the possible positions
There are two types of syllable and sequences. The possible positions
which are open and closed syllable. A here refer to initial, medial, and final
syllable with no coda is called open positions and other positions like
syllable such and a syllable having a coda syllable initial. For example, /pl/=play.
is called closed syllable. Nucleus and coda 2) Indonesian Phonotactics Consraints
together is known as rhyme (p. 88). The Phonotactics constraints of Indonesian
tree diagram below is the illustration of the are affected by borrowing words of
syllable structure of the word pat which is other languages (Alwi et al, 2017). The
a closed syllable by Roger (p.89). foreign words are pronounced by
Figure 1. Tree Diagram Indonesian with some deletions or
additions. Indonesian consonant cluster
may be two or three consonants which
occur in initial, medial, and In the
combination of two words consonants,
the first consonants are /p, b, t, d, f, k,
g, s/ and the second consonants are /l,

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w, p, s, m, n, f, t, k/ (p.78). Meanwhile, consideration. In unstressed positions

in three combinations of consonant vowels are usually reduced and silent
occur in one syllable, the first realizations are only optional (e.g. a in
consonant is /s/, the second is /t/, /p/, or the suffix of the word practically).
/k/ and the third is /r/, or /l/ (p. 79). For Therefore, the main focus of this thesis
example, /pt/= ptyalin. is on silent consonants. Nevertheless,
SILENT LETTERS there are two silent vowels that ought
One of the products of the change to be mentioned and that is silent e and
in English in the past time is silent letters. u. Strictly speaking, these are not
Cerney (2012, pp. 40-41) stated that silent letters in the right sense of the word
letter is an extension of metaphor where because they have never represented
the letters are supposed to read by the any spoken sound. They were
student. Phodaizer said that silent letters introduced to show the pronunciation
are the letters that not heard making their of another letter. These silent letters
"usual" sound in a word as silent (p. 88). play an important role in English and
Meanwhile, Huber mentioned that silent their presentation to students might be
letters are the letters which are not beneficial. ˂e˃ Silent e is in the
pronounced at all (2009, p. 67). English language used for two
Phodaizer stated that silent letters purposes. The first one is to show
can be vowel, consonant or digraph (the lengthening or diphthongization of the
combination of two consonants). For vowel in the preceding syllable.
instance <e> in fate which is not Thus hat is short and hate is long. The
pronounced. Final e is also called marker other purpose is to show the quality of
which Phodaizer said that markers are the preceding consonant. Therefore, g
letters that influence other letters in the followed by e, is to be pronounced /ʤ/
word. To understand more detail about like in rage (compare with rag), and c
silent vowel, silent consonants, and silent is to be pronounced /s/ like in entice
digraph. (compare with antic) (Schmitt and
a) Silent Vowel Marsden 160). These rules are, of
The phenomenon of silent letters does course, not absolute and there are
not really concern English vowels. many exceptions to be found. For
When a vowel occurs in a stressed example, the verbs love, live, have,
position it has to be pronounced and a give, gone, come and done all contain
silent version does not come into silent e but we pronounce the

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preceding syllable as short. Although medial sequences but in many

the fact that the rule does not apply to cases it depends on the speaker
all words might be discouraging, we whether the d is pronounced or not.
have to realize that all these words are The words like handsome,
common and that students usually Wednesday, handkerchief or
have no problems with pronouncing Windsor are in most cases
them. ˂u˃ Silent u is a useful device pronounced without /d/.
for recognising hard g /g/ from soft g  ˂g˃, Silent <g> appears in Modern
/ʤ/. It occurs in the letter sequences English in the initial and final
gu and gue and in these positions it is sequence <gn>.
always silent. Its function is to indicate  ˂h˃, Silent <h> can be also found
the pronunciation of hard g /g/ in in the initial cluster <wh>.
words, such as guest, guitar and league  ˂k˃, There is just one position in
(Collins and Mees 14). which silent <k> can occur in
b) Silent Consonant Modern English and that is initial k
The example and the rules of silent preceding n. This initial sequence
consonants are listed below. of letters is pronounced as /n/.
 ˂b˃ , There are two positions in  ˂l˃, The letter <l> became silent
which the letter b is silent. The during the Early Modern English
primary example is the word-final period. The reasons for the
<b> after <m>. This sequence of introduction of silent <l> were
letters is in Modern English various.
pronounced as /m/. There are two  ˂m˃, Silent <m> is extremely rare
reasons why the final <b> stopped in English and occurs only initially
to be pronounced: simplification preceding <n> as in mnemonic.
and similarity.  ˂n˃, The letter <n> is silent in the
 ˂c˃, Silent <c> emerged also in the word-final sequence <mn>. It
16th century because of the requires effort to pronounce this
classical influence. combination of consonants so we
 ˂d˃, The Modern English cannot wonder that it had been
pronunciation of handsome without reduced to /m/ over time. Words
/d/ (Millward, 1989, p. 216). Silent like autumn and hymn.
<d> is not a very frequent  ˂p˃, Silent <p> can be found in
phenomenon. It always occurs in initial sequences <ps>, <pn> and

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<pt> which are in most cases parts silent and the diagraph is pronounced
of foreign prefixes. Some examples as /g/ in syllable-initial positions. This
would be psychology, pseudonym, concerns words like ghost, ghetto and
pneumonia and pterodactyl (Celce- spaghetti. The second realization of the
Murcia, in Pospíšilová, 2014, p. grapheme <gh> is /f/. It occurs in
17). word-final <gh/ght> in such words as
 ˂r˃, In standard British English and cough, enough and draught. The last
in other non-rhotic accents realization is the one that interests us
dropping nowadays prevails in most – the silent one. Silent <gh> can
these contexts. An exception is be found in word-final and word-
when <r> is followed by a vowel. medial positions. In words like right,
 ˂s˃, Silent <s> is not particularly night, daughter, through and caught,
frequent in English. It occurs in a <gh> ceased to be pronounced in the
few exceptional words such as course of the historical development.
aisle, isle, islet, island and Carney stated that silent letters are
viscount. divided into three types:
 ˂t˃, Silent <t> can be usually a. Auxiliary letters, the combination
found after <f>, <s> and before of two letters or diagraph produced
<en> or <le> in words such as one single phoneme. two types of
castle, listen, often and soften. The auxiliary letters which are
reason for emergence of silent <t> exocentric and endocentric.
is once again simplification. 1) Exocentric, as the <th> = /θ/ in
 ˂w˃, There are several positions in the and <sh> = /ʃ/ in share are
which we can find silent <w>. not used to represent the same
Most apparently it occurs in initial phoneme as either letter on its
sequences <wh> and <wr>. own.
 ˂x˃, Silent <x> is not typical for 2) Endocentric, in contrast to
the English language. exocentric, represents the same
 ˂z˃, Similarly to silent <x>, silent phoneme as one of the letters
<z> does not occur in English for example the <ea> in bread
c) Digraphs and leather.
 ˂gh˃ b. Dummy letters, the letters that have
no direct phonetic counterpart.
The diagraph <gh> has got three
There are two distinct kinds:
realizations. In the first one, <h> is
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1) Inert letter, a letter that is C. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

spelled and pronounced in The findings of this research found
certain form, but unpronounced from analyzing the students‟ writing tests,
in other form. It can be seen in observation checklist and field-notes and
the letter <g> which occurs in interview in order to answer research
the signature questions. Finding data of the silent letters
2) Empty letter, a letter which is pronunciation by the fourth semester
unpronounced but have no real students are analyzed according some
distinctive function like steps. In the beginning step, finding the
auxiliary letters or inert letters. errors by conducting pronunciation test,
The letter containing empty transcribing the students’ pronunciation of
letter in onset is <h> in honest silent letters and comparing the
and ghost. transcription to correct pronunciation using
B. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Oxford learner’s dictionary. The second
The data received in this research step is, choosing and describing data
collected from people’s spoken words whether they are systematic error, pre-
which are the pronunciation of the students systematic error, or post systematic error as
in pronouncing English silent letters. Corder stated in chapter 2. The last step is
Bogdan and Taylor (2016, p. 7) mentioned analyzing those data found by explaining
that qualitative methodology is a research the possible factor causing the errors.
that produces descriptive data of either The lack of combination of sound
people’s own written or spoken words and in Indonesian syllable structure in
observable behavior. Since this research pronouncing English words also caused the
analyzes people’s spoken words which is error. It can be seen by 70% error the
the students’ pronunciation so qualitative participants produced in pronouncing the
approach is suitable. word sword. The sequence <sw> does
Furthermore, the students’ exists in Indonesian, yet they are
pronunciations will be recorded using pronounced clearly as in swa.la.yan and
audio recorder of their own and the writer swa.sem.ba.da. Besides, there is no word in
transcribes their recording manually using Indonesia that has the sequence <sw>
broad transcription to describe if it is followed by <o>. However, in English the
correct based on Oxford Advanced sequence <sw> in pronounced as /s/ when
Learner’s Dictionary. Then, the result of it is followed by <o>. The participants tend
analysis will be explained descriptively. to pronounce all the letters presented in the

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word. Since Indonesian has one-to-one errors were also made in final position with
relationship between spelling and 26.5%. The mean score of the students’
pronunciation, the participants somtimes pronunciation is 24.1% which is regarded
apply the rule of Indonesian in as post-systematic error or in the other
pronouncing English words that they hand students made mistakes in
are unfamiliar with the pronouncing silent letters because they
pronnunciation such as ballet, buffet, already knew the correct rules; however,
salmon, doubt, and cupboard. they could not apply it consistently.
Sub-focus 1: Pronunciation Error of Sub-focus 2: Pronunciation Error of
Each Position Each Word
According the result of the The performance of the participants
pronunciation test, there are 145 errors out in pronouncing each word containing silent
of 600 pronunciations made by the letters is displayed on the following table.
participants in pronouncing empty letters Table 2. Performance of participants
in English words. In the result of the test, Error
Position Word Error Pron
(%)
the participants made 29 errors in
Initial gnome 4 20 20%
pronouncing empty letters in initial
honest 8 20 40%
position, 63 errors in medial position, and
hour 3 20 15%
53 errors in final position. The result of
knee 0 20 0%
students’ performance is shown in the table
knob 2 20 10%
below.
knock 5 20 25%
Table 1. Percentage of Pronunciation
know 4 20 20%
Error of Each Position
wrap 1 20 5%
Error
Position Words Error write 1 20 5%
(%)
Initial 300 29 14.5% wrong 1 20 5%
Medial 300 63 31.5% Medial answer 9 20 45%
Final 300 53 26.5% brought 4 20 20%
Mean 24.1% calm 2 20 10%
cupboard 12 20 60%
The table above shows that the salmon 11 20 55%
participants made the most common error sign 2 20 10%
in the medial position with the percentage sword 14 20 70%
31.5% , whereas, the students produced talk 4 20 20%
14.5% error in the initial position and

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Website: http://ennichi.stba-jia.ac.id

thought 5 20 30% errors which is 14.5%. Second, the most

doubt 7 20 35% common error word in the initial position
Final autumn 0 20 0% is the word honest with 40% error. The
ballet 14 20 70% word sword is the most common error is
buffet 14 20 70% the medial position by 70%. Whereas, in
coloumn 0 20 0% the final position, the words ballet and
comb 6 20 35% buffet are the most common error. It is
damn 0 20 0% shown by 70% students who made error.
high 3 20 15% Third, there is no error occurred in the
hymn 1 20 5% pronunciation of wordsautumn and damn.
lamb 5 20 25% These words have inert letter in the final
through 3 20 15% position. All students did not pronounce
Mean 24.17% the letters which is correct.
Fourth, among three types of errors
The table above shows that ballet, according to Corder, the pre-systematic
buffet, and sword are the words most error is not found in this research. The
commonly mispronounced by the students only made the post-systematic
participants. 70% of the total participants error and systematic error in pronouncing
performed error in pronouncing those English words containing silent letters.
words. Based on the previous analysis, it is Fifth, the phonetics constraints of
know that ballet and buffet are borrowed Indonesian as the students’ mother tongue
from French with French pronunciation. gives impact to the students’ pronunciation
However, only 6 (six) participants form the even though they have studied the aspect
total 20 (twenty) participants knew the of pronunciations before. It is reflected by
correct pronunciation. the post-systematic error they made in
D. CONCLUSION pronouncing English words containing
Based on research and data analysis silent letters in initial and final position.
about the error analysis of pronunciation in The pronuncation is produced by applying
English silent letters, the writer would like the rule of Indonesian phonotactic
to mention the conclusion. First, the fourth constraints. They applied the rules of
semester students of English department of syllable structure and possible sequences
STBA JIA made post-systematic errors in of sound of Indonesian. It is because they
pronouncing silent letters in English are lack of knowledge about the pattern of
words. It is shown by the mean score of

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Jurnal Ennichi
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borrowing words in English which have Corder. (1982). Error Analysis and
unique pronunciation. Interlanguage. Oxford: Oxford
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