The Influence of Semendenese South Sumatra Dialect (SSSD) Towards Students’ English Pronunciation

____________________ Abstract In the process of acquiring L2, most of the students usually face many difficulties in pronunciation. One of the problems is L1 transfer. Therefore, the objectives of this study is to explain the influence of Semendenese South Sumatra dialect (SSSD) towards students’ English pronunciation of English vowels, consonants, diphthongs, consonant clusters, to explain the effort of the teacher in developing of the student’s pronunciation. This study used descriptive qualitative research. The results of this study can be concluded that SSSD gives positive transfer on the final vowel sound [ ǝ ]. Since this vowel sound existed in SSSD in words were frequently produced on final position. Moreover, SSSD did not strongly give positive transfer on students’ pronunciation of English vowels [ ɪ ], [ ʌ ], [ ʊ ], [e], [ ɒ ], consonants [p], [b], [t], [d], [z], [k], [g], [f], [h], [s], [m], [n], [ ŋ ], [l], [r], [w], [j], final diphthong sounds [ ɔɪ ] and [a ʊ ], and consonant clusters [st], [pr], [str], and [spr]. Moreover, SSSD did not strongly give negative transfer on the substitutions of long vowel sounds [i:], [ ɜ


INTRODUCTION
English plays an important role in our education, communication and national life systems. According to Patel and Jain (2008, p. 6) English is an international language. As an international language, English is needed and very important in the world, because English is used as a tool for international communication.
It plays an important role in many aspects of life such as education, economics, technology and international relations.
Based on Fraser (2000, p. 25), he mentioned that there are other supported subskills that should be considered by the students. Those are vocabulary, grammar, pragmatics, and pronunciation. He also emphasized that pronunciation is seen as the most prominent sub-skill in speaking. This view is also supported by Morley (in Gilakjani, 2012, p. 3).
During the process of language acquisition, all students whose English is not their native language will face some problems in pronunciation. Knowing the fact that in Indonesia is considered as a country which has wide range of cultural background and mother tongues indirectly affect the way of their L2 production. Furthermore, since the students' mother tongue has been used as daily language, consequently, it has been instilled as a part of their habit. Definitely, it is difficult for them to produce new language (Murcia, Brington & Godwin, 2010, p. 16). In line with this statement, those phenomena are found by the researcher in one school area in Talang Padang, Tanggamus region. That is MA PEMNU Talang Padang Tanggamus Lampung. Most of the students use Semendenese language as their daily communication. According to Saleh et al (1979, p. 10) Semendenese language is one of the languages that are used by the people in Indonesia. Semendenese language is used by most of the people who live in Semende darat in Muara Enim regency, South Sumatra province. From the observation and interview to some English teachers who teach there; L1 reflects the sounds in English. For Example, the students mispronounced frequently certain words in English 'father ', 'going', 'think', 'best', 'street', and [ʊ]. So, it sounded like /paː.ðǝ/ and /gʊɪŋ/. Furthermore, the word 'think' that should be pronounced /ɵɪŋk/ becomes /tǝhɪŋ/, 'best' that should be pronounced /best/ becomes /bɪs/, 'street' that should be pronounced /stri:t/ becomes /sǝtǝrɪt/, and 'Zamuri' that should be pronounced /Zɑmʊrɪ/ becomes /Sɑmʊrɪ/.
Based on those phenomena, I tried to relate to the theory of pronunciation problem, Ramelan (1999, p. 5-7) states that: ….the difficulty encountered by the student in learning a second language can be used by the different elements between TL (target language) & NL (native language), the same sounds having different distributions, the same sounds between NL and TL but allophonic in TL, similar sounds between NL and TL with slightly different quality, or the same sound between NL and TL when occurring in cluster. In addition, Avery and Ehrich (in Collin & Mees, 2013, p. 258) further explain that language transfer can happen in three ways. First, as the problems are presented above, the difficulties arise because the mother tongue has been implanted deeply as part of habit. Second, certain features in L1 sound system do not exist in L2 sound system. Third, different sound system between L1 and L2 also contributes to the difficulties of students' English pronunciation. Similarly, Selinker (1972, p. 211) believes that some linguistic forms of L1 are transferred to the L2 which mainly results in several errors because L1 and L2 have slightly different linguistic features.
There are many relevant studies which have been conducted by the researchers on this topic in Indonesia context, English becomes a foreign language. From these studies can be concluded that the aims of the research are to identify pronunciation errors made by the students and to identify causes of the errors. Most of the students got difficulties in pronouncing consonant sounds /ŋ/, /f/, /v/, /d/, /dӡ/, /tʃ/, /z/, /ð/, /ɵ/, /ʃ/. And the causes of the errors are due to the L1 interference, intralingua or developmental factors (Fauzi, 2014;Haryani, 2016;and Syaputri, 2016;Rukmini and Jumaroh, 2016).
Those studies above mostly discussed about an error analysis whereby the researchers desired to find out the interference or negative effect of L1 towards English pronunciation (L2). There are few studies which have conducted a positive and negative transfer of L1. Moreover, I choose this topic because it is still limited being researched in Indonesia. Furthermore, I choose Semendenese South Sumatra dialect, since there is no study ever conducted to any Semendenese South Sumatra dialect influences on the students' English pronunciation as far as I concern. Therefore, in this case, I conduct the study about the influence of Semendenese South Sumatra dialect towards the English pronunciation among the students positively and negatively on segmental aspects. Therefore, the basic objective of this research is to describe and explain the influence of Semendenese South Sumatra dialect towards the English pronunciation among the students and to explain the effort of teacher in developing students' pronunciation.

METHOD
This research employed qualitative research design. This design suited the aims of this study, which are to explore and explain the influence of Semendenese South Sumatra dialect towards the English pronunciation among the students. The subjects of this study were eleventh grade students who were originally from Tanggamus Lampung. The participants were taken from two classes. They were XI A and XI B. The reason why I chose these two classes was because they were taught by the teacher who originally comes from Tanggamus Lampung. In addition, the object of this study is English speech sounds.
In this study, multiple techniques used to obtain the data. They were questionnaire, recording, interview, and observation. First, questionnaire is employed to obtain the data about students' background. Second, recording is used to collect the data about students' English pronunciation, those were English vowels, consonants, diphthongs, and consonant clusters sound. The data were taken from student's recording. Third, interview was applied to gather the information about the effort of the teacher in developing students' pronunciation. Fourth, observation is also used to gain more information about the teachers' performance as the input model to develop students' pronunciation.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The followings are the findings and discussions of this study after recording the students' pronunciation.

English Vowels Influenced by SSSD
Based on the analysis I found that all of the students pronounced correctly final vowel sound [ǝ] as in word 'era'. After I checked the students' recording deeply, I heard that they could pronounce properly vowel [ǝ]. The easiness of pronunciation was identified as a transfer from SSSD. Since SSSD is characterized by vowel [ǝ] at the end of the some words. ('stupid'). Therefore, SSSD significant influence students' pronunciation.
Furthermore, vowel sound that tended to have insignificant transfer from SSSD. All of the students could pronounce the initial, medial, and final vowel sound [ɪ] in word 'important', 'this', 'many' and medial vowel sound [ʊ] properly in word 'book'. It did not mean it was influenced purely by SSSD. The easiness of this pronouncing was identified because of similarity features both SSSD and English. Moreover, those sounds also existed in Bahasa Indonesia and SSSD sound system. Therefore, the correctness of pronunciation is insignificantly influenced by SSSD.
However  (2003, p. 66). He stated that Indonesia students may face difficulties in pronouncing [ae] sound, due to the inexistence of this vowel in their native language. Although the students could not pronounce those sounds improperly, it did not mean it was influenced negatively due to the inexistence of those vowels in SSSD only.
This phenomenon can occur because of another external factor that might influence their English pronunciation such as training transfer i.e formal pronunciation instructions which also contributes the students' English production. Since pronunciation is viewed as an integral part in communication. Therefore, intelligible pronunciation has become the major goal of pronunciation. It also help the students are better in understanding native speakers production as well as to improve their English pronunciation (Wei, 2008, p. 129). Based on this statement, it can be concluded that the production of students' pronunciation really depend on the instruction id given by the teacher in the process of teaching and learning. Certainly, the absence of adequate formal training potentially affects the students' knowledge about proper pronunciation. Definitely, this condition will result the errors are produced by the students. Therefore, it can be said that SSSD give insignificant negative transfer to the students' pronunciation on vowel sounds.

English Consonants Influenced by SSSD
Dealing with the consonant sounds, it has been found that SSSD gave insignificant transfer on students' pronunciation of English consonant sounds.After analyzing all of the consonants sounds; it has been found that SSSD gave insignificant positive and negative transfer on students' English consonants. However, the researcher didn't find the consonants those were significantly influenced by SSSD. From the analysis, the students could pronounce English consonant sounds properly such as [ [v] did not exist in sound SSSD system. Although the students could not pronounce this sound improperly, it did not mean it was influenced negatively by SSSD, due to the existence of those consonants in SSSD sound system. As in the previous discussion, another external factor such as lack of pronunciation instruction in the classroom certainly can influence their English pronunciation.
Furthermore, students' motivation was still low, lack knowledge of pronunciation.
It means that SSSD gave insignificant negative transfer to their English pronunciation.

English Diphthongs Influenced by SSSD
Based on the analysis, it has found that SSSD gave insignificant transfer on students' pronunciation of English diphthongs. After analyzing all of the diphthong sounds, it has been found that SSSD gave insignificant positive and negative transfer on students' English diphthongs. However, I didn't find the diphthongs that are significant influenced by SSSD. Form the analysis, the students could pronounce English diphthong sound properly that is final sound [ɔɪ] in word 'boy'. It was because this diphthong sound also existed in SSSD as in word [baloi] ('crazy'), [asoi] ('plastic bag'), and [bebeloi] ('soaking wet'). Furthermore, many students could pronounce the diphthong sound in initial sound [aɪ] properly in word 'idea'. And all of the students could pronounce the final sound [aɪ] properly in word 'by'. Since the diphthong also existed in SSSD as in word [

The Absence of SSSD Transfer in Consonant Clusters
Based on the analysis, I found that all of the students could pronounce two and three consonant clusters [st], [pr], [str], and [spr] properly. Although they could pronounce them properly, it didn't mean that SSSD gave significant positive transfer. Since in SSSD two consonant clusters [pr] were sometimes inserted [ǝ] as in word 'prigal' ('proffered'). Semendenese people tended to pronounce it as [pǝrɪgal] not [prɪgal]. there are other possibly factors influence the correctness of their pronunciation, such as the students are able to recognized the words or teacher gave pronunciation training to the students. It can be concluded that there is an absence of SSSD transfer on students' pronunciation of English consonant clusters.

Teacher's Effort in Developing the students' Pronunciation
This part presented the teacher's contribution in giving pronunciation practice to develop their student's pronunciation. To collect the data, the researcher used interview and observation checklist as the instruments in order to find out the effort of the English teacher in developing students' pronunciation in the classroom.
Based on the interview and observation result, it was found that the teacher trained the students' pronunciation in teaching process. It was proven from the observation that the teacher trained their students' pronunciation when they read a dialogue or read a text in the class. Moreover, from the interview, the teacher also stated that most of the students faced difficulties in pronouncing sound double [e], for the example: beef, greeting, speech, etc. He further explained that these difficulties occurred because of some factors. He stated that because the students seldom practice and they have lack vocabularies. Then, because the student's daily life, the students speak some traditional language, so, when they speak international or second language, they have some difficulties. Furthermore, he stated that dialect may influence the students' pronunciation, each of the students have different traditional language or special dialect, where, it is always used by them in their daily communication, so it is can be one factor the students' difficulty in pronunciation in second language.
From the observation and interview results, the researcher also observed the efforts of the teacher in correcting and monitoring students' pronunciation. I saw the teacher sometimes gave some corrections to the students' speech. The teacher stated that he corrected the students' pronunciation when they make mistakes. For the example: when the students say 'god morning', the teacher corrected it with 'good morning'. In addition, he was never using media for teaching English pronunciation, but he stated that just used internet and some videos to practice the students' pronunciation.
From the explanation above can be concluded that pronunciation instruction was granted attention by the teacher. Therefore, the teacher has a little awareness about his effort in teaching pronunciation. As the result, the teacher was also seldom to monitor and correct the students' pronunciation, and never using media in teaching pronunciation. Apparently, the previous studies only observed the comparison of both languages towards common speakers. Some previous studies only focus on positive or negative transfer, but in this study meanwhile try to examine both positive and negative transfer that occured in English pronunciation on segmental features. The result of the study are expected to be a benifical discovery for the teachers and students especially in Tanggamus, Lampung. Furthermore, pronunciation instruction is least granted attention by the teacher. Therefore, the teacher has a little concern about his effort in teaching pronunciation. As a result, teacher was also reluctant to monitor and to correct students' pronunciation. Furthermore, the teacher never use media in teaching students' pronunciation, he sometimes use internet and some videos in teaching pronunciation.

CONCLUSION
The last, the weakness of this study is the text that is used by the researcher does not contain all sounds in segmental features of pronunciation; those are initial, medial, and final sounds of vowels, consonants, diphthongs, and consonant clusters. Therefore, I suggest to fellow researchers who want to conduct the same topic, she/he can check the text first and ensure the text that will be used contains all sounds in segmental features of pronunciation; those are initial, medial, and final sounds of vowels, consonants, diphthongs, and consonant clusters.