An Error Analysis of English Fricative Sound Pronounced by Gayonese Students

This research investigates the errors in pronouncing English fricative sounds pronounced by Gayonese students at SMA Negeri 1 Takengon. This research aims to determine the factors of pronunciation errors performed by the Gayonese students and to identify various types of pronunciation errors showed by the Gayonese students. The researcher utilized a qualitative research design in this study. There were twenty second-grade students participated in this research. They were purposively selected and involved in a structured interview. The interview included the pronunciation test of several words of fricatives sounds. The percentage number of pronunciation errors of English fricative sounds are as follow: /f/ 38%, /v/ 79%, /ʃ/ 62%, /ʒ/ 77%, /θ/ 87%, /ð/ 76%, and /z/ 10%. The result revealed that substitution and insertion are the most common types of pronunciation errors that occurred among Gayonese students. The identified pronunciation errors caused by three causes of errors, there are interlingual transfer, intralingual transfer, and context of learning.