CRITICAL JOURNAL REVIEW (CJR)

‘’PRONUNCIATION’’

Compiled By:

Lutfi Reynanda (0304192070)

Lecture : Yani Lubis, S.Ag., M.Hum
Class : PBI 2 Semester 1

ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF TARBIYAH AND SCIENCE OF NORTH SUMATERA

ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY

2019
 Preface

Praise be to Allah SWT for giving me convenience so that we can complete this
critical journal review on time. Without His help, of course, I would not be able to finish
this paper well.

Prayers and greetings may be abundantly bestowed upon the beloved king, the
Prophet Muhammad, who bring us from darkness to the brightness .

I give thanks to Allah SWT for the abundance of His healthy favors, both in the form
of physical health and reason, so that the author is able to complete the making of critical
jourmal review as an assignment for lecturer MR. YANI LUBIS, S.Ag M Hum from the
Pronunciation course “Pronunciation" I certainly realize that this critical journal review is
far from perfect and there are still many errors and shortcomings in it. For that reason, I
expect criticism and suggestions from readers for this paper, so that this critical joumal
review can later become a better critical journal review. Then if there are many errors in
this critical journal review, the authors apologize profusely The author also thanks all
parties Thus, hopefully this paper can be useful. Thanks.

Medan, 1 November 2019

Lutfi Reynanda
Table of Contents
Preface ……………………………………………………………………………

Table of contents ………………………………………………………………….

Chapter 1 ………………………………………………………………………….

A. Background ………………………………………………………………..
B. Aim ………………………………………………………………………..
C. Identity Journal ……………………………………………………………
1. Main Journal …………………………………………………………..
2. First Comparison Journal ……………………………………………..
3. Second Comparison Journal …………………………………………..
4. Third Comparison Journal …………………………………………….
5. Fourth Comparison Journal …………………………………………...
6. Fifth Journal Comparison ……………………………………………..

Chapter 2 ……………………………………………………………………………..

A. Summary of Main Journal ………………………………………………...

B. Summary of First Journal …………………………………………………
C. Summary of second Journal ………………………………………………
D. Summary of Third Journal ………………………………………………..
E. Summary of Fourth Journal ………………………………………………
F. Summary of Fifth Journal ………………………………………………...

Chapter 3 Discussion ………………………………………………………………..

Chapter 4 Closing …………………………………………………………………...

Summary ……………………………………………………………………..

References …………………………………………………………………………...
 Chapter 1

A. Background

Language is a mean of communication. It is something natural that can not be avoid

by people. Through communication people can not only know how to put themselves in life
but also know how to survive in this world in the future.

When we speak or read, we use sounds. When we read, the sounds are represented by
26 letters of the alphabet. Associating sounds with accent is called pronunciation . Each of
the 26 alphabet letters represents one or more sounds. A letter's name can also be one of its
sounds. When letter sounds are put together, they become words.

Generally English speech sounds are divided into two main groups, namely vowels
and consonants. Vowel Sounds a vowel is defined as a voiced sound in forming which the air
issues in a continuous stream trough the pharynx and mouth, there being no obstruction and
no narrowing such as would cause audible friction. Vowel is a sound pronounced with
vibration of vocal cords but with no closure in the vocal tract above the glottis.

B. Aim
The purpose and benefits to be achieved by the compiler in the critical writing of this
review journal is to persuade the reader to understand more deeply about the journals

C. Identity Journal
1. Main Journal
 Journal Name : Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Vol. 5, No.
2, pp. 262-273, March 2014
 Writer : Nuria Edo Marzá
 Subject : Pronunciation and Comprehension of Oral English in the
English as a Foreign Language Class: Key Aspects, Students’ Perceptions
and Proposals
2. First Comparison Journal

 Journal Name : International Journal of Humanities and Social Science

Vol. 2 No. 21; November 2012

 Writer : Riswanto & Endang Haryanto

  Subject : Improving Students’ Pronunciation through Communicative
Drilling Technique at Senior High School (SMA) 07 South Bengkulu,
Indonesia

3. Second Comparison Journal

 Journal Name : International Journal of English and Education ISSN:
2278-4012, Volume:3, Issue:3, July 2014
 Writer : Abrar Hussain Qureshi
 Subject : The Role of Features of Connected Speech in Teaching English
Pronunciation

4. Third Comparison Journal

 Journal Name : Automatic Detection of Spelling Variation in Historical
Corpus
 Writer : Rafael Giusti

 Subject : An Application to Build a Brazilian Portuguese Spelling

Variants Dictionary

5. Fourth Comparison Journal

 Journal Name : Akdeniz University, The Institute of Social
Sciences, Dumlupinar Avenue,07058 Campus Antalya, Turkey
 Writer : Tugce Akyol
 Subject : A study on identifying pronunciation learning strategies of
Turkish EFL learners 1

6. Fifth Comparison Journal

 Journal Name : International Journal of Research in English Educatio.
 Writer : Abbas Pourhosein Gilakjani
 Subject : English Pronunciation Instruction: A Literature Review
 Chapter II
SUMMARY OF JOURNAL CONTENT

A. Summary of Main Journal

1. Introduction
It is beyond doubt that pronouncing a language properly is a key aspect when
understanding and making ourselves understood. In the English as a Foreign
Language (EFL) teaching and learning process pronunciation should play a
determining role since it is directly related with the development of students’
communicative competence and thus to language proficiency and
comprehensibility.

Spoken communication is grounded on the communicability not only

determined by correct grammar and profuse vocabulary but also on the correct
interplay between the segmental and suprasegmental features making up
pronunciation. As Burns (2003) concedes, despite minor inaccuracies in
vocabulary and grammar, learners are more likely to communicate effectively
when they have good pronunciation and intonation. Nowadays, as Pourhosein
(2012, p.120) states, despite the “emphasis on the importance of meaningful
communication and intelligible pronunciation, it is not enough to leave
pronunciation teaching and training to pronunciation classes only”; it is
determining that the relatively few hours devoted to this purpose in the
curriculum are planned and devised to make the most of them, giving students the
tools to continue improving on their own and the voice to express in which ways
they learn the best. In spite of this, “researchers in applied linguistics have paid
little attention to learners’ perceptions of pronunciation instruction in L2
contexts” (Kang, 2010) so that this article has tried to deepen on students’
perceptions and feelings about English pronunciation issues in general and about
the English pronunciation subject EA0910 “Pronunciation and comprehension of
oral English” in particular in order to make a diagnostic analysis of the situation which
will ideally lead to an improvement in their pronunciation skills.

This small-scale but representative pilot study stems thus from my own concern
as an English pronunciation teacher about the need to do some research on the
traditionally assumed and clearly noticeable difficulties most Spanish students find in
pronouncing English properly with the final aim to devise and implement feasible
improvement measures. With this objective in mind, with a series of questionnaires
designed ad hoc –and according to my own observation and experience– I have tried to
determine students’ perceptions, needs, demands and feelings regarding English
pronunciation and comprehension and their views about the materials, instruction
methods, tools and contents used and/or included in a regular English pronunciation
class in an EFL high-education context. Students’ specific suggestions have finally been
analysed in order to be able to pose improvement proposals devised from first-hand
experience. With this analysis of key aspects, perceptions and proposals, this study is
 aimed at becoming the first one from a series intended at better understanding why
pronunciation is such a hurdle for Spanish EFL learners and how this could be solved or
at least improved.
2. A Brief History of Teaching Pronunciation
Pronunciation is a key aspect in the development of oral skills. Proper pronunciation
is inherent to any competent speaker but this competence can (and must) be trained in
any non-native speaker. The review of previous literature on the topic shows that with
careful preparation and integration, pronunciation can play a significant role in
supporting the learners’ overall communicative skill (Pourhosein, 2012, p. 119).
Nonetheless, the idea that learners should speak and sound like native speakers is not
the trend nowadays, apart from being a rather unrealistic idea. In fact, it is rare that L2
adult learners achieve native-like speech patterns (Moyer, 2004; Scovel, 2000).
Moreover, it is difficult to achieve native-like pronunciation in typical ESL classrooms
after childhood (Kang, 2010). As Ur (1996) concedes, the aim of pronunciation is not to
achieve a perfect imitation of native accent, but to get the learner to pronounce
accurately enough to be easily and comfortably comprehensible to other speakers. In
fact, as scholars such as Derwing and Munro (2005) or Goodwin (2001) argue that it is
teachers’ role to help ESL learners to set realistic goals for pronunciation instruction and
these goals do not normally target native-like accents.
According to Burns (2003), it is far more important for speakers to be able to
achieve intelligibility (the sound patterns produced by the speaker are recognisable as
English) comprehensibility (the meaning of what is said can be understood by the
listener) and interpretability (the purpose of what is said can be understood by the
listener). Moreover, many studies from an English as a second language perspective –
such as Howlader’s (2010)– found that mutual intelligibility, comprehensibility and
neutral accent can promote better oral communication. In fact, from the perspective of
World Englishes, mutual intelligibility is a key issue for both listeners and speakers
(Kang, 2010).

B. Summary of First Comparison Journal

1. Introduction
One of the general objectives for foreign language teaching and learning is to
teach the learner to be mastered in oral or written communication in the target
language they learn. In Indonesia there are many problems that learners have
when they deal with the pronounciation. Most of the learners have problems when
they learn oral skill. Mean while, Ur (1996:12) stated that speaking is one of the
most important skills. It is need to have other skill by people to be mastered in
speaking such as grammar competence, listening skill, vocabulary mastery and
good pronunciation.
It is very common that many foreign language learners have problems in
teaching and learning process. In this case, many of English foreign learners have
 difficulties in pronunciation teaching process because of some factor. There are
six factors that influence learners’ pronunciation, mother tongue, age, amount of
exposure phonetic ability, personality, and motivation (Kenworthy:1987). There
are about five local languages in south Bengkulu, Indonesia. That is why it is
difficult to teach pronunciation because the students are varied and they are all
influenced by their own mother tongues. Consequently, almost of students at
Senior High School students 07 South Bengkulu have difficulties in pronouncing
English words. Therefore, it needs appropriate technique in teaching
pronunciation.
2. Research Method
There are some methods that are used in teaching English. One of them is
audio lingual method. This method is very popular in United States in 1950.
One of the techniques that is used in this technique in this method is drilling.
Drilling technique refers to behaviorist approach where the students are suggested
to be used to with foreign language the students learn. In behaviorist, there are two
crucial elements of learning. They are stimulus and reinforcement. Stimulus refers
to mark of appropriate and inappropriate and repetition encouragement. Moreover,
reinforcement is the vital element in learning process because it increases the
likelihood that the behavior will occur again and eventually became habit.
Consequently, the students have habit to use the target language. Furthermore, in
this case drilling technique involves or includes: repetition, inflection,
transformation and many others.

C. Summary of Second Comparison Journal

1. Introduction
Language gives primacy to speech over writing. Speech is essentially a continuous
activity and the individual sounds and their sequences carry no meanings, as a sentence
is the collection of meaningful words which convey the full sense. If speech is not
connected (continuous), it cannot be called a speech at all. Connected speech is very
systematic and it consists of various characteristic features which contribute to the
meaning of the connected speech. Followings are the feature of connected speech. The
ability of speaking English embodies the correctness of pronunciation and intonation
and directly affects the appropriate communication in conversation (Zhang & Yin, 2009
quoted in Akram and Qureshi, 2012).
The teachers do not find the proper time for teaching pronunciation, though they
make some bold claims that they give proper time to teach pronunciation in the class,
because they do not find that much needed confidence and feel a great sort of
reluctance in speaking English in the classroom and this is the reason the teaching of
pronunciation is almost abandoned in some of the schools (Akram, 2010).
Teachers should play a positive and an active role in teaching English pronunciation
According to Riaz (2008 cited in Akram, 2010), “the role of teachers should be changed
 to that of a facilitator in the classroom”, if we want the young generation to have better
oral skill of communication and intelligible pronunciation:
“Teachers in Pakistan must focus on how learning by students takes place for a more
complex form of learning to take place. The student has to engage with knowledge and
become an active participant in the learning process. In order to bring this about, the
teacher’s role has to change to that of a facilitator in the classroom” (Riaz Ismat, 2008)

Features of connected speech (Elision, Assimilation, Deletion and Juncture

etc) are not taught in government schools, and maybe this is the reason why
students face so many difficulties in the area of pronouncing English (Akram,
2010). Good pronunciation may make the communication easier and more relaxed
and thus more successful (Dan, 2006). To teach an inaccurate pronunciation is a
common practice of secondary teachers. The key role played by the features of
connected speech in teaching English pronunciation has been neglected at large.
The present study has been conducted to find out the significance of the features
of connected speech in teaching English pronunciation.

2. Research Method
There are many cases where sounds which are produced in words pronounced
on their own, or in slow, careful speech, are not found in different style of speech.
This particular phenomenon is known as elision. Despite the fact that in a word
spoken in isolation a sound would be present, in connected speech it would
disappear (Underhill 1994, 61 quoted in Kocáková, 2006)). This kind of reduction
occurs mainly in words ending with /t/ and /d/ and particularly when they are
between two other consonants. It is usual to explain elision; we find elision most
commonly in the simplification, of consonant clusters. Elision occurs when a
sound is omitted and it is a typical feature of connected speech.

D. Summary of Third Comparison Journal

1. Introduction
This research is part of the Historical Dictionary of Brazilian Portuguese
(HDBP) project, in which we have built a Brazilian Portuguese corpus of texts
from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. Organizing such a historical
dictionary required a comprehensive and time-consuming analysis of documents,
published texts, and manuscripts produced by eyewitnesses to the early stages of
Brazilian history. One important difficult to compile the corpus derived from the
absence of a press in Colonial Brazil, which had a precarious communication
system. Only after 1808, when fleeing from Napoleon’s army, did the Portuguese
monarchy transfer the government of the Portuguese empire to Brazil and
improved communications. There are also peculiarities concerning language that
had to be considered, such as biodiversity and the multifaceted cultural traditions
from different regions of the country. To implement the project, we set up a
network of researchers from various regions of Brazil and Portugal, including
linguists and computer scientists from eleven universities. This team comprises
 eighteen PhD researchers, with complementary skills, and twenty-three graduate
and undergraduate students.
This project will fill a gap in Brazilian culture with a dictionary describing the
vocabulary of Brazilian Portuguese as of the beginning of the country’s history.
At that time, the Brazilian language was still dependent upon European
Portuguese, even though some vocabulary was already forged on this side of the
Atlantic. On the one hand, speakers of that early period faced a world materially
and culturally different from what was known in Europe; therefore, they needed
to designate referents of this new universe that were hitherto unnamed using
words of the Portuguese linguistic system. The hundreds of native languages then
spoken in Brazil had their own vocabulary for designating elements of the
Brazilian fauna and flora, but these words did not exist in European Portuguese.
On the other hand, habits and institutions gradually began to form in this new
society with infusion of new cultures, resulting in new words that were different
from those used in the Portuguese metropolis. A careful analysis of texts about
Brazil written by Brazilians, or by Portuguese who were transferred to this
country, allows us to explore and unearth the vocabulary repertoire used from the
sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. Once this task of finding and recording
such data in dictionary format is completed, the results of this research will be
made available to the Brazilian society and scholars of Brazilian studies.
2. Research Method
The VARD tool was developed to detect and normalise spelling variants to
their modern equivalents in running text (Rayson, Archer and Smith, 2005;
Archer et al., 2006, Rayson et al., 2007). It focuses on the English language and
was trained on sixteenth to nineteenth-century texts. VARD does not make
destructive changes in a corpus. Each normalisation is carried out adding up an
XML tag that preserves the variant form found in the original corpus. This makes
the use of automatic corpus manipulation tools easier, without destroying the
historical features of a text. Its current version uses a combination of several
linguistic resources manually developed and techniques derived from spelling
checkers, and a scoring mechanism to select preferred candidates. The techniques
and sources are SoundEx and several edit distance algorithms, a list of 45,805
variant forms and their modern equivalents, a small set of contextual rules in the
form of word templates and POS tags, and letter replacement heuristics built with
the help of a list of variants and equivalents to reduce the overhead to compile
new lists of variants in new corpora. Tools with the same purpose as VARD
depend much more on high precision than on high recall. Indeed, a performance
comparison of VARD to MS-Word on the Lampeter corpus of Early Modern
English Tracts texts demonstrated that VARD is much more effective than MS-
Word. VARD’s accuracy can be attributed to its manually built regularization
table (Rayson, Archer and Smith, 2005).
E. Summary of Fourth Comparison Journal
1. Introduction

Pronunciation has been one of the most neglected parts of foreign language
learning and it has been proficiency to secure an understandable pronunciation for the
language learners. Especially for the prospective English teachers as a foreign/second
language, accurate pronunciation plays a significant role in supporting both the
overall communicative skills and striving for a perfect modeling for their students.
Concerning the issue of insufficient qualifications observed in pronunciation teaching
specifically in English as Foreign Language (EFL) setting, it is advocated
pronunciation learning strategies that will help them work on their pronunciation
outside classroom (Celce-Murcia, Brinton & Goodwin, 1996).In the new
communicative approach framework, language is seen as a means of communication.
Under the impact of this view, the native-like pronunciation goal has been changed
into a more reasonable goal of intelligible and functional communication (Celce-
Murcia, 1996). Triggering from this fact, a new variable has emerged out:
pronunciation learning strategies. Whereas there have been several research in the
variable of foreign/second language learning strategies in general, little attention has
been paid to strategy research in relation to pronunciation learning. Oxford (1990)
defines the specific learning strategies as specific actions taken by the learner to make
pronunciation learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more
effective, and more transferable to new situations. Given the shift toward the learner-
centered classroom in the Turkish education system, English teachers are expected to
pay more attention to learner needs and to give the students the resources they need to
become responsible for and involved in their own pronunciation learning. Pertaining
to the needs of the students, the main purpose of the research study is to help the
students become aware of the kinds of the strategies they use intentionally or
unintentionally and further to foster learner autonomy.
This paper aims at examining the kinds of learning strategies used by pre-
service EFL teachers at English Language Teaching Department to improve English
pronunciation. This quasi experimental study is based on a questionnaire and a set of
open-ended questions. After reviewing the studies done on pronunciation learning
 strategies in brief, the article further displays the results of a study designed through
these research questions stated below:

1. Which pronunciation learning strategies are most or less frequently

utilized by Turkish EFL learners?
2. Is there any significant difference between the students currently attending
to a pronunciation course and the students taking no any specific course
on pronunciation?

F. Summary of Fifth Comparison Journal

1. Introduction
English pronunciation is one of the most difficult skills to acquire and learners
should spend lots of time to improve their pronunciation (Aliaga García, 2007;
Martínez-Flor et al. 2006; Pourhosein Gilakjani, 2016). Understandable
pronunciation is one of the basic requirements of learners’ competence and it is
also one of the most important features of language instruction. Good
pronunciation leads to learning while bad pronunciation promotes to great
difficulties in language learning (Pourhosein Gilakjani, 2012).
According to Fraser (2000), teachers should be provided with courses and
materials that help them improve their pronunciation instruction. She continued
that second language education research should not be concerned with the
significance of English pronunciation instruction but with the methodology of
pronunciation instruction. Morley (1991) stated that understandable pronunciation
is a main objective of pronunciation instruction. In is a necessary component of
communicative competence.
Morley (1991) emphasized that learners should develop functional
intelligibility, functional communicability, increased self-confidence, the speech
monitoring abilities, and speech modification strategies. In this paper, the
researcher defines the term pronunciation, reviews the goal of English
pronunciation instruction, and explains the significance of English pronunciation
instruction.
The goal of pronunciation instruction is not to ask learners to pronounce like
native speakers. Instead intelligible pronunciation should be the real purpose of
oral communication. If learners want to change the way of pronouncing English
words, they have to change the way they think about the sounds of those words.
This is true both for individual sounds and the bigger parts of speech such as
syllables, stress patterns, and rhythm. Unfortunately, pronunciation instruction is
sometimes ignored in English language teaching (Pourhosein Gilakjani, 2011;
Pourhosein Gilakjani, 2016). In this paper, the researcher defines the term
pronunciation, explains the goal of English pronunciation, elaborates the
 importance of pronunciation, states the role of teachers in teaching pronunciation,
and mentions some suggestions for teaching English pronunciation.

2. Research Method
Morley (1991) expressed that teachers do not teach but facilitate learners’
learning pronunciation. The role of teachers is like a coach, a speech coach, and a
pronunciation coach. The pronunciation coach has the critical role of checking
and guiding modifications of spoken English at two levels (a) speech production,
and (b) speech performance. According to Morley (1991), teachers perform
pronunciation diagnostic analyses and select those aspects that can have a great
effect on changing the speech of learners toward increased comprehensibility,
assist learners in setting both long-range and short-term objectives, develop a lot
of instructional modes and modules (e.g., whole-class instruction, small-group
work, individual one-on-one tutorial sessions; prerecorded audio and/or video
materials; work with new computer program speech analysis systems), structure
in-class speaking and listening activities with invited native speakers and non-
native speakers of English., provide models, cues, and suggestions for
modifications of elements in the speech patterning for all learners, monitor
learners’ speech production and speech performance and evaluate pattern changes
as a continuous part of the program, and persuade learners’ speech awareness and
realistic self-monitoring.
 Chapter III
Discussion
Main Journal
Pronunciation is a key aspect in the
development of oral skills. Proper
pronunciation is inherent to any
competent speaker but this
competence can (and must) be trained
in any non-native speaker. The review
of previous literature on the topic
shows that with careful preparation
and integration, pronunciation can
play a significant role in supporting
the learners’ overall communicative
skill (Pourhosein, 2012, p. 119)
Main Journal
First Journal Comparison
Most of them feel difficult when they
pronounce English words. It is caused
by many factors. The factor can be age
factor, phonetic ability, lack of
practice, motivation, personality or
attitude and mother tongue. The
factors make students are not
interested when they learn
pronunciation in class room.
Second Journal Comparison
Mastering the production of weak
forms helps learners to improve their
listening skill and confidence as their
speech is much more rhythmical and
closer to the one of native speaker
(Underhill 1994, 64 cited in
Kocáková, 2006).
Third Journal Comparison
Each normalisation is carried out
adding up an XML tag that preserves
the variant form found in the original
corpus. This makes the use of
automatic corpus manipulation tools
easier, without destroying the
historical features of a text. Its current
version uses a combination of several
linguistic resources manually
developed and techniques derived
from spelling checkers
Fourth Journal Comparison
Pronunciation is a key aspect in the
development of oral skills. Proper
pronunciation is inherent to any
competent speaker but this
competence can (and must) be trained
in any non-native speaker. The review
of previous literature on the topic
shows that with careful preparation
and integration, pronunciation can
play a significant role in supporting
the learners’ overall communicative
skill (Pourhosein, 2012, p. 119)
Chapter IV
the pronunciation strategy use by the
pre-service EFL teachers both taking
and not taking a specific
pronunciation course.
Fifth Journal Comparison
Understandable pronunciation is an
essential component of
communicative competence. With this
in mind, teachers should set obtainable
goas that are applicable and suitable
for the communication needs of
learners. Pronunciation instruction has
to aim at intelligible pronunciation
and teachers can actively encourage
their learners’ actual production, build
pronunciation awareness and practice
 Closing

Conclusion
Pronunciation should be viewed as more than correct production of individual
sounds or words. It should be viewed as an important part of communication that is
incorporated into classroom activities. Teachers can urge their learners to monitor
their own pronunciation and practice their speaking skills as much as possible in and
outside the classroom. Understandable pronunciation is an essential component of
communicative competence. With this in mind, teachers should set obtainable goas
that are applicable and suitable for the communication needs of learners.
Pronunciation instruction has to aim at intelligible pronunciation and teachers can
actively encourage their learners’ actual production, build pronunciation awareness
and practice.
 References

Nuria Edo Marzá. March 2014. “Pronunciation and Comprehension of Oral English in the
English as a Foreign Language Class: Key Aspects, Students’ Perceptions and Proposals”.
Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 262-273.