Students’ Perception toward the Use of IPA Symbols in

Pronunciation Class: An Empirical Study in EFL Classroom

Lia Maulia Indrayani and Rudi Suherman

English Department, Faculty of Cultural Science, Universitas Padjajaran, Sumedang Indonesia

Lia.maulia@unpad.ac.id, rudipipit11@gmail.com

Keywords: The IPA symbols, students’ perception, EFL classroom.

Abstract: The IPA symbol is one of the key elements in studying English. Being able to recognize the symbols is

generally acknowledged can help the EFL students in identifying word at the level of pronunciation. This

paper attempts to present the comprehensive pictures of what students, who are taking English education as

their major at one of teacher training institution in Bandung, have in their mind toward the use of IPA symbols

when they took Pronunciation class. It also aims to depict the students’ knowledge in regard with the IPA

symbols, and its function according to their own perspective. This study will employ a qualitative descriptive

research design embracing the characteristics of an empirical study. The data were obtained from two stage

of questionnaires; close-ended and open–ended questionnaires and retrospective interview. The findings were

expected to provide insight and suggest EFL lecturer to give more exposure on teaching IPA symbols to

prospective EFL teachers. Teaching IPA symbols comprehensively will equip them with better pronunciation

and help them in teaching pronunciation to their students in the foreseeable future.

1 INTRODUCTION

Introducing the IPA symbols as the key element in

teaching English is considerably important in EFL

classroom (Lintunen, 2013; Mirza, 2013). Due to its

statue, the IPA symbols particularly in English

language enable students to grasp hints of how a word

should be uttered in accordance with universal

consensus.

A word generally consists of two basic element

namely vowel and consonant sound. By knowing the

characteristic of each vowel and consonant sounds,

the student may be able to pronounce the word

correctly and succinctly. Therefore, the discussion or

at least a diagram describing about the IPA symbols

usually encloses at the front page of English

textbooks.

Despite of its importance in EFL setting

(Lintunen, 2013), the IPA symbols generally do not

have much exposure in the classroom, they are

sometimes utterly ignored (Mirza, 2013). It may due

to time limit of the course, for example, in one of local

campus in Indonesia, pronunciation course generally

consist of 14 meeting in one semester, excluding mid

and posttest. The IPA symbols discussion is

sometimes taken up only one or two meeting. It is

embedded to the course not as the independent course

itself.

Therefore, the students who are primarily

expected as prospective EFL teachers don’t get

sufficient understanding about what IPA symbols are.

The symbols are only comprehended at the surface

level. They studied about vowel and consonant very

shallow, these elements, vowel and consonant,

become their common knowledge, yet never been

studied in depth.

This study focuses on students’ perception toward

the IPA symbols that being introduced to them in

pronunciation class. The class had been taken when

the students were as the first year of their study. This

study is an empirical study as the students are asked

about their experience studying and dealing with the

IPA symbol and the IPA symbol’s position

throughout their journey as EFL prospective teachers,

and its importance for their carrier as EFL teachers.

Indrayani, L. and Suherman, R.

Students’ Perception toward the Use of IPA Symbols in Pronunciation Class: An Empirical Study in EFL Classroom.

DOI: 10.5220/0007164802190223

In Proceedings of the Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference

on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education (CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017) - Literacy, Culture, and Technology in Language Pedagogy and Use, pages 219-223

ISBN: 978-989-758-332-2

219

2 REVIEW OF RELATED

LITERATURE

The International Phonetics or known as the IPA

symbols is a universal transcription system for

phonetics and phonology. McMahon(2002:23)

argued that The IPA symbol have considered

essentially as an alternative writing system which

allows us to express a larger range of sound than the

English spelling system would .

The IPA transcription will not tell the students the

meaning of a word from a particular language, and

knowing the transcription does not result in native

like pronunciation. However, it will comfort them,

the students, how the native pronounces and helps

them raising sort of awareness which can lead to other

activities that focus on pronunciation (Mirza, 2013)

English language consist of twenty different

vowel sounds including eight different diphthongs

and twenty four consonant phonemes. Each

consonant and vowel has its own feature, in which has

hierarchy of difficulty to master (Kelly, 2000; Mirza,

2013). Both vowel and consonant phonemes,

regardless its level of difficulty, have to be studied by

those whom primarily work as EFL teachers or other

related field.

There are several previous researches in regard

with the topic of IPA symbols in the context of

English as a foreign language or second language

such as Muhibunir (2013), and Mirza (2013). Both

research mainly focused on English consonant sounds

as part essential elements in IPA symbols that is

necessarily to be introduced to the EFL students.

Muhibunir (2013) conducted the research on

Teachers’ perspective on Error in English consonant

sounds made by Saudi EFL teachers. It attempted to

investigate the teacher’s opinion regarding the error

made by EFL students in Saudi Arabia. The

participants were the EFL teacher who were teaching

in the preparatory year program in the researcher’s

campus, Najran University, the study revealed that

the error were made due to several reasons one of

which is lack of proper attention toward the subject.

It was then suggested that teaching sound system

should give more highlight in EFL context.

In line with Muhibunir, Mirza (2013) investigated

the introducing the IPA symbols to Bangladeshi

students. The aim of the study was to uplift and help

the EFL learner to have a better pronunciation

through introducing the symbols by developing self –

correcting mechanism.th condition where the

students were able to revise the pronunciation’s error

they made. The study revealed that learners heavily

rely on their prior knowledge of English letters while

reading English word in transcription. It was also

found out that all the IPA symbols for English

consonant phonemes were not equally difficult for

them to master.

3 METHODOLOGY

This study employed a qualitative research study

methodology which embraced a characteristic of

empirical study as the method and approach since the

researcher conduct the research based on what has

happened to the participants and gain the information

from it scientifically.

The researcher accepts the data without any

attempt to manipulate it and develop a good

relationship with the research participants. This study

is also categorized as a descriptive case study since

the study describes a phenomenon in the real life. The

phenomenon was found in the research site,

specifically in class speaking for professional context

in one of the Teacher Training Institution in Bandung.

The researcher involves 15 participants of

Teacher Training Institution students majoring

English Education. They are taken as the research

participants in voluntary bases. There are some

criteria in selecting the participants. The first is the

participants should have taken pronunciation class or

Introduction to Phonology since the study aims to

find out their perception toward the class they have

taken in previous semester, the second criteria is the

students are willingly to share their perception

without having a feeling of being judged or assessed.

These criteria are paramount important to meet as it

will increase the reliability of this paper.

The data are obtained from two stage of

questionnaire; open –ended and closed – ended

questionnaire given to the participant, consisting of

15 different questions with agree and disagree option

and interview which was addressed to each

participant individually. It aims to gain the data

deeply and reveal the valuable information that

doesn’t reveal in questionnaire.

This study will apply retrospective interview with

semi structure mode. The data gain from both

sources; questionnaire and interview will be

discussed and interpreted in the following section.

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Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education

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4 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Result of Questionnaire and

Interview

The data of this research was gained from

questionnaire and interview. The questionnaire was

used as the first data, whereas interview was used as

the comparative data to support the questionnaire

result in providing validity and reliability of this

study. The questionnaire consist of 15 different

questions, the result of the questionnaire are

presented as follows.

Table 1: The Result of Questionnaire.

Statement

Agree

Disagree

Total

( % )

Total

( % )

I know about what the IPA symbols are

The IPA symbol recognition is very important for word pronunciation

100

The IPA symbol helps me pronouncing a word better.

By knowing the IPA symbols, I can read the phonetic transcription of a certain

word.

100

The IPA symbol helps me identify the word phonetic transcription.

I feel confident pronouncing an English word after studying the IPA symbols

I can study and understand the concept vowels and consonant by myself.

The IPA symbols are quite complicated to be understood.

Lecturer’s explanation really help me in understanding the IPA symbol concept

100

I need an assistance to understand the concept of the IPA symbols.

100

I need more time to understand the concept of the IPA symbols.

IPA symbol can be taught to senior high school students.

If am a teacher, I will teach my student the IPA symbols.

IPA symbols must be studied independently as a single course not embedded to

e.g. pronunciation class.

The IPA symbol must be studied more than one semester.

4.2 Discussion

Based on the result of the questionnaire administered

to the respondents, more than 60 % of the respondent

out of 15 students (93%) believed that they knew the

IPA symbols. Even more, 100 % of the respondents

believed that the IPA symbols recognition was very

important for word pronunciation. More 70 %

respondents agreed that The IPA symbols also helped

them to have better word pronunciation, and helped

to recognize phonetic transcription of certain word

(93% and 100% respectively).

This finding indicated that the respondents were

fully aware of the vital status of IPA symbols for their

pronunciation skill. This result was supported by

several respondents in the interview, such as;

“IPA symbol will make every student having better

pronunciation and increase their speaking skill “

“I think the IPA symbols are important in speaking or

pronunciation class, because we can’t speak English

well without knowing the symbol of sounds “

Besides helping the students in pronunciation.

Learning the IPA symbol was able to elevate students

‘confidence. As it can be seen from the result

questionnaire number 6 in which 93 % of the

respondent felt confident in pronouncing English

word. It is probably due to the expand knowledge of

the student on the concept of the IPA symbol that they

never studied before.

The finding was also in line with study from

Lintunen (2013), Lucaz (2013), and Mirza (2013)

which also showed that students who were able to

recognize the IPA symbols had better confidence than

those were not. It was also supported by the

interview result below;

“I think I have better pronunciation now, and feel

confident to speak English after learning the IPA

symbols in introduction to pronunciation class “

Some students also clearly stated that they could

read the word transcription after learning the IPA

symbols. They also stated that they could make use of

English dictionary to find a new word without

worrying of mispronounce it.

“I can’t read the word transcription confidently, I

was blank about it, but now, not anymore “

Students’ Perception toward the Use of IPA Symbols in Pronunciation Class: An Empirical Study in EFL Classroom

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“I can find unfamiliar word on dictionary without

worrying of mispronounce the word”

Even though the most of the respondents agreed

upon the importance of IPA symbol for their

pronunciation and speaking skill, they disagreed if

studying the IPA symbol was fun or enjoyable. It can

be seen from the percentage related to this

questionnaire. 13 students (87%) agreed that the IPA

symbol was not easy matter to study, and most of the

respondent didn’t enjoy learning about it. It might

because the level of difficulty. It can be perceived

from the questionnaire related to their perception

toward IPA symbol’s difficulty.

These perception can be drawn on questionnaire

number 7 (seven) in which 10 students (67%) of the

respondents felt that IPA symbol was quite

complicated when it comes as a self-study subject. It

was supported by the result of interview below

“I have no Idea what the IPA symbols were, I thought

it was science subject in Indonesian”

“I never understand the IPA symbol mostly, if I learn

it at home, it was just bunch of symbols”

This finding is in line with the questionnaire

number 9 (nine). All respondents agreed as it shown

in 15 students (100%) of the result that they needed

an assistance in understanding the concept of IPA

symbols. Therefore, all respondents agreed that

lecturer’s explanation help them in understanding the

IPA symbols concept. Furthermore, some of the

respondents clearly stated that the lecturer’s presence

and the explanation was very important for them.

“When I learn the IPA symbol, I really depended on

my lecturer’s explanation “

‘I didn’t know what to do, I don’t understand what I

read until my lecturer came and explain about it‘

It is also in line with Mirza (2013) in which

Bengali Students the same experience in

comprehending the IPA symbol had. For them, the

level of difficulty of each vowel and consonant

phonemes was not the same, or on the other word, it

had hierarchy of difficulty. It was further stated

below by first year student of this study.

“I think some (symbols) are easy, other is difficult, or

even there are very difficult to understand “

“I don’t understand when there is very similar

symbols or when there is long and short sound “

It can be understood that there are some subtle

concepts in the IPA symbol, which sometimes make

the students fail to comprehend its concept such as

between long and short phonemes, or among

consonant or vowel that orthographically different

but slightly different when they were pronounced.

As prospective EFL teachers, they were also

asked their opinion toward the implementation of the

IPA symbols to Indonesian students, 73 % agreed that

IPA symbol could be taught to senior high school

students. Furthermore, 10 students (67%) would

teach the IPA symbol given that they were EFL

teacher.

This finding indicated that even though the IPA

symbols concept might not easy to follows, they

could see the fruitfulness of comprehending the IPA

symbols either for them as prospective teachers or for

their future students. Furthermore, it might indicate

that the IPA symbol should be taught or incorporated

to lower level of curriculum such as senior high

school. This finding was also supported by the result

of the interview as follows;

“I wish I had learned about the IPA symbol when I

was as senior high school students “

“I think I would have better pronunciation, if I had

known about it long before I study here (at STKIP)”

Finally, although the idea of placing the IPA

symbol as an independent subject was hypothetically

untrue, it received positive respond. 80% of the

respondents agreed that the IPA symbol should be

study independently, and more than 50 % of the total

respondents agreed that the IPA symbol can be

studied more than one semester. Therefore, studying

the IPA symbol more intensively can help the

respondents to understand the concept better.

By placing the IPA symbol as an independent

subject, it will gradually eliminate the myth

surrounding the IPA symbol itself in which many

students from different years consider it as important

element to be studied but hard to comprehend.

5 CONCLUSION

The data obtained from two different instruments

reveal certain tendency as follows:

Firstly, the students is aware of the importance of

the IPA symbol in increasing their pronunciation

CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017 - Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology

Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education

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skill. Further, it also helps to improve their speaking

skill. However, they don’t have sufficient prior

knowledge about it. Therefore students need more

time to study about what the IPA symbols are and

their features.

Secondly, Teacher has and important role in

teaching the IPA symbol to the students, it is in line

with Lucaz (2013) who stated “ needless to say .“ it is

also the teaching style, teacher student rapport,

manner of correcting error .determining classroom

dynamic “. Therefore, before teaching, an EFL

teacher should equip himself/herself with decent and

sufficient knowledge of the IPA symbols. He/she also

needs to be a role model and simplify the IPA

symbols concept.

Thirdly, learning about the IPA symbol does not

make students having native like pronunciation, but it

at least help them acquire the basic and vital concept

of other activities that lead to other pronunciation

activities and elevate their confidence when

pronouncing an English word.

Lastly, the idea of making the IPA symbols as

independent subject can be an alternative solution.

The more time provided will certainly make them, the

prospective EFL teachers, have more chance to

understand the concept, and help them in teaching

pronunciation to their students in the foreseeable

future.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I would like to thank to my lecturer, Dr Lia Maulia

Indrayani, who has been willing to be the co-author

of this paper, and has been willing to assert valuable

assistance and suggestion in conducting this research.

The sincere thankful is also address to all STKIP

Persatuan Islam students who have been willing to

participate in this study.

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