Errors in pronunciation of consonants by learners of English as a foreign language whose first languages are Indonesian, Gayo and Acehnese

This paper reports on a study investigating the errors in pronunciation of consonants made by three groups of EFL learners, native speakers of Indonesian, Gayo and Acehnese, and possible explanations of these errors. There is a limited amount of previous research on pronunciation errors made by Indonesian EFL learners, and none for Gayo and Acehnese learners. In this study consonantal phoneme pronunciation error data was collected using four different types of tasks, and analyzed using broad IPA phonetic transcription. The findings indicate that for these languages, segmental errors are largely limited to final stops [p] [b] [t] [d] [k] [g], final sibilants [s] [z] [f] [3], initial and final affricates [tf] [d3] and interdentals [9] [6]. The most common error realizations were elision ([o]), devoicing (e.g. [b] realized as [p]) and lack of release (["•]). The error realization data did not completely match that of previous research for Indonesian learners. In explaining the data, both transfer and developmental and other factors and their interaction appear to be at work, as well as factors such as task-type and level of spontaneity. The study points to many areas of further research including factors influencing interlanguage phonology such as knowledge of more than one language, and more complete error analyses using arrow phonetic transcription.