1. The Prominent Errors in Vowel Sounds Committed by Lower Secondary Schools in Malaysia By: NURUL FARAH NADIA BINTI BAHARUM P84388

2.  Speaking skills are important for career success, but certainly it can also enhance one’s personal life such as meeting new people. However, speaking with incorrect pronunciation may lead to misunderstanding of the meanings.  Learners with good pronunciation in English are more likely to be understood even if they made errors in other areas, whereas, Yates (2002) stated that learners whose pronunciation is difficult to understand would not be understood.  Vu (2011) claimed that learning pronunciation is significant to study for learners of English as a foreign language. Background of Study

3.  Only a few Malaysians use English as a tool of communication with their friends and families. The learners might only use English in classroom activities. This might be because English is not the only language that Malaysians have acquired and only learned the language starting at a specific age.  the speakers who lack using the language as well as using the language only for certain occasions possibly becomes the biggest reason why pronunciation problems occur for the non-native speakers

4.  The objective of the study is: 1.To identify the prominent errors in vowel sounds committed by lower secondary school learners in Malaysia. 2.To investigate the main reasons for the above errors committed by lower secondary school learners in Malaysia. Research Objectives

5.  This study specifically addresses the following research question: 1.What are the prominent errors in vowel sounds committed by lower secondary school learners in Malaysia? 2.What are the main reasons for the errors in vowel sounds committed by lower secondary form? Research Questions

6.  Problems in Vowel Sounds Among English Speakers  García-Perez (2005) claimed that when listeners are presented with phones that are not used in their own language, they typically perceive sounds in a way that is not as good as a native speaker of the language from which the phones were selected. Vowel duration presents a major element of intelligibility that is used as an acoustic cue for length distinction. The second language production of the English vowels an exaggeration of duration differences between short (lax) and long (tense) vowels was shown due to transfer of the first language. Literature Review

7.  Ezzeldin (2013) declared that many learners whose first language lacks contrastive sounds of the second language tend to substitute the second language sounds for the nearest sound available in their first language  Kho (2010) stated the Malay Language is neutral in length as there is no distinction of vowel length in the language. Thus, making non-native speakers have difficulties in distinguishing long and short vowels.

8.  Problems Faced By Malaysian School ESL Learners in Pronunciation  Lord (2008) stated that most language instructors struggle to include the necessary grammar, vocabulary, culture, and four skills practice in their classes without worrying about including pronunciation instruction as well. Many assume that students will eventually learn the pronunciation on their own with more input in the second language (L2), or will acquire it at some future point.  A research conducted by Hiew (2012) about ESL learners in Malaysia resulted that many of her respondents hesitated to speak in English due to their low proficiency.

9.  Hiew (2012) also declared that due to those circumstances the respondents had difficulty speaking fluently due to unfamiliarity with some English vocabulary. This caused the respondents to incorporate other local languages and dialects with English to pronounce the vocabulary.

10.  Errors in Vowels Committed by Malaysian School ESL Learners  Jayapalan & Pillai (2011) has declared that the learners are required to speak internationally intelligible English with correct pronunciation and intonation.  As stated by Agus (2013), during the process of developing their spoken English, learners might find problems in their pronunciation.  Sakiyama (n.d.) claims that Malaysian English pronunciation is quite different from Standard English in a lot of ways. She also explained that Malaysian pronunciation varies from the Standard British English. They tend to pronounce short vowels instead of long vowels

11.  Respondents of the Study  Form 2 students from Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Meru, Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Damansara Damai and Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Sungai Burong.  25 students will be chosen from each school.  The respondents in this research represented schools in the rural, sub-urban and urban area. However only students with intermediate proficiency will be chosen to ensure the consistency of data. Research Methodology

12.  Instrumentation  A passage will be used because this might help in listening to the respondents’ pronunciation.  The passage will be a short story entitled ‘Flipping Fantastic’ from the Form 2 literature book entitled ‘A Collection of Poems, Short Stories and Drama’  The words that will be tested in the passage will not informed to the respondents  The words that will be tested consists of two types of long vowels and two types of short vowels

13.  Data Collection Procedures  The respondents will be called in one by one into a quiet room. After greeting the respondents, they will be given a printed passage. The respondents are required to read the passage at a normal speed. Each and every respondent will go through the same procedure.  As the respondents read the passage, all correct pronunciations will be ticked in the box provided in the marking sheet. The words tested will be categorized according to individual vowel sounds based on The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Each correct vowel will be calculated in its respective category after the respondents have finished reading. Each student will have a different marking sheet to avoid confusion.

14.  Agus Riadi. (2013). Students’ problems in pronouncing short and long English vowels.  Garcia Perez, G. M. (2005). Perception of English vowels by native speakers of spanish in a regular classroom setting, 3(5).  Hiew, W. (2012). English language teaching and learning issues in malaysia: learners’ perceptions via Facebook dialogue journal. International Refereed Research Journal, 3(1).  Jayapalan, K. & Pillai, S. (2011). The state of teaching and learning English pronunciation in Malaysia: a preliminary study. Malaysian Journal Of ELT Research, 7(2). References

15.  Lord, G. (2008). Podcasting communities and second language pronunciation. Foreign Language Annals, 41(2), 374-389.  Sakiyama, Y. (n.d.). Pronunciation and grammar of English in Malaysia.  Vu, D. T. P. T. (2011). Correcting English consonants commonly mispronounced by second-year non- English majors at ULIS_VNUH, 1-6.