Production of English Diphthongs : A Speech Study

In the 21 century, English is a key of all elements in education, politics, economy and international trade. English is even used in most of International events. This study aimed at analysing the official speech of Mr. Joko Widodo known as Jokowi, the seventh President of Republic of Indonesia, in APEC forum 2014 in China, focusing on the production of diphthongs. The researchers used conceptual framework of Roach that divides diphthong into two types; first, closing diphthong such as /eɪ/, /aɪ/, /ɔɪ/,/әʊ/,/aʊ/ and second, centring diphthong like /ɪә/, /eә/,/ʊә/. This study employed qualitative method while the data were collected through library research. This study found 71 data of English diphthong. Diphthong /eɪ/ was produced 21 times, diphthong /aɪ/ was used 15 times, diphthong /ɔɪ/ was mentioned once, diphthong /aʊ/ was stated 7 times, diphthong /әʊ/ was produced 16 times, diphthong /ɪә/ used 6 times, diphthong /eә/ was mentioned 3 times, and diphthong /ʊә/ was stated twice. In other words, this study showed that Mr. Jokowi could produce the diphthong sounds that matched the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. However, this study also found that he faced challenges in producing many diphthong sounds by frequently producing diphthongs sounds as pure vowels.


Introduction
Nowadays, having an ability to communicate in English is very important as English has become an international lingua franca and a tool for global communication (Ke, 2015).It has even further transformed into a key element in education, business, politics and international trade.Learning English is always associated with globalization where the nation needs to perform on the global stage for the sake of economy (Di Grapello, Kruse, & Tandon, 2011;Rido, 2011;Lauder, 2008).Hence, the growing importance of English in Indonesia have created new purposes and needs for learning English mainly by young Indonesians who have previously learned English as a foreign language (EFL) for communication purposes.
However, there are still growing concerns on the mastery of English among Indonesians.According to Haidara (2014), Indonesians think that English language is complicated so that they do not make much effort to learn it.In addition, Alam (2013) and Trudgil in Hakim (2012) assert Indonesians feels that their accents sound 'odd' because it is much influenced by their mother tongues.Even though Roach (1998) mentions that languages have accent and they are pronounced differently because it is influenced by the geographical places, ages, social status and educational background; however, Indonesians are still not confident using it in public.
In the Indonesian context, studies on English language production have been conducted for years.Some recent studies focus on English diphthong production by non-native speakers, error pronunciation of vowels, and consonants and pronunciation varieties (Azlina, 2016;Chandradewi, 2013;Mustikareni, 2013;Traditya, 2015).Azlina (2016) carried out 5 English speeches of Mr. Jokowi, the President of Republic of Indonesia, to identify the kinds of English pronunciation errors on consonant and vowel in his speech.He used descriptive qualitative and Cambridge dictionary as the tool of analyzing the data.The findings were 283 data consonants errors and five kinds of error as well as 114 data on vowels errors.Meanwhile, Chandradewi (2013) conducted a research on English language production by the Javanese.She found that the Javanese participants were unfamiliar with English vowels as they could not find them in Javanese language.They also faced difficulties in producing the vowels, except those who had ever learned them before.Besides, they had no information about diphthongs in Javanese pronunciation as their vocal cords could not produce that sounds.In the same vein, Mustikareni (2013) analyzed English diphthongs produced by Indonesian teenagers in English debate on in a TV station.The study showed that all English diphthongs were mispronounced by all of them.They pronounced the diphthongs as vowel such as /eɪ/ as be /ɛ/ and there was no effort to correct their pronunciation.Another study done by Traditya (2015) also investigated the speech of Mr. Jokowi and he did a documentation analysis to get the detail information of English pronunciation of Mr. Jokowi.This study used The OxfordAdvanced Learner's dictionary to compare receptive pronunciation and TEKNOSASTIK Dosia & Rido Volume 15 (1), 2017 Production of English Diphthongs General American.This study found five consonant sound deletions such as /r/, /d/ or /t/, /s/, /l/, and /n/.In addition, there were five assimilations or consonant sound change.
To this end, an in situ study needs to be conducted to see how English sounds are produced by Indonesians.Thus, this study aimed at investigating the official speech of Mr. Jokowi, the President of Republic of Indonesia, in APEC forum 2014 in China, focusing on the production of diphthongs.Mr. Jokowi, the president of Republic of Indonesia, delivered his first speech in English in Asia Pacific Economic Forum (APEC) forum in 2014.In that event, Mr. Jokowi presented Indonesian economy which caught the world's attention.In Indonesia, his speech was widely discussed since he spoke English with thick Javanese accent.

Theory and Method
Roach (1998) states that diphthongs are sounds which consists of the movement or glide from one vowels to another because diphthongs are the combination of two pure vowels.Ramelan in Mustikareni (2013) mentions that diphthongs are divided into two sections: closing and centering diphthong.Closing diphthong is the diphthong sounds that the second vowel is closer than the first vowel because the movement of the tongue is carried out from the position of open vowel to the closer vowel, while centering diphthong is the second vowel that more center than the first vowels because the movement of the tongue is carried out towards the central vowel.For example, the English closing diphthongs are (/eɪ/, /aɪ/, /ɔɪ/, /aʊ/, /әʊ/) and centering diphthong are (/ɪә/, /eә/, /ʊә/) (Roach, 1998).
First, it is Diphthong /eɪ/.The position of the tongue is from the vowel /e/ that a front vowel which a little lower than the half close position.After that, the tongue moves to the direction of the vowel position /ɪ/.It is a little above the half close position and the lips are spread.Then, it is gradually closing such as raid, pain, fail and tail (Roach, 1998).
Second, it is Diphthong /aɪ/.It is a front-front closing full diphthong and it is a front vowel with a position in between /ae/ and /a:/.Then, the tongue moves to a closer position as if to produce /ɪ/ vowel sound and the lips are apart and gradually closing.For example: mine, file, rice, and lime (Roach, 1998).
Third, it is Diphthong /ɔɪ/.Diphthong /ɔɪ/ is a back-front closing full diphthong because the back of the tongue is raised to a point midway between /ɔ/ and /ɔ:/.After that, the front tongue is gradually raised in the direction of /ɪ/ and the lips are rounded for the first element of the diphthong such as soil, coil, point, and coin (Roach, 1998).
Fourth, it is Diphthong /aʊ/.It is a front-back closing full diphthong because the front part of the back of the tongue is slightly raised for the first element of the diphthong /aʊ/.Then, the tongue moves in a direction of /ʊ/ and the lips starts at the neutral position, and gradually rounded (Roach, 1998).For example sow, found, foul and now.
Fifth, it is Diphthong /әʊ/.This is closing half diphthong and the position of the tongue from the position of vowel /e/.After that, the tongue moves to a closer position of /ʊ/ (Roach, 1998).For example also, go, boat and only.
Sixth, it is Diphthong /ɪә/.It is a high-front-centering diphthong.The tongue starts from the vowel /ɪ/ and not from the closer /i/ vowel sound.Then, it glides away in the direction of the central vowel /ә/.The two lips are in neutral position (Roach, 1998).For example we can see it in here, fear, dear and beard.
Seventh, it is Diphthong /eә/.It is a low front-centering diphthong.The tongue starts from an open vowel position, slightly higher than the position for the English /ae/.Then, the lips spread or neutral and the lower jaw are clearly felt to be slightly moving upward (Roach, 1998).For example there are hair, pair and rare.
Eighth, it is Diphthong /ʊә/.Diphthong /ʊә/ is a high back centering diphthong.The tongue moves from /ʊ/ position and not from the closer /u:/ and the direction of the central vowel /ә/.The lips are rounded for the first element.After that, it was drawn back to neutral position (Roach, 1998).For example there are sure, tour and pure.
This study used qualitative method while data were collected through library research.It was done in several steps: (1) finding the speech of Mr. Jokowi (Mr. Jokowi), (2) watching and listening to the speech carefully, (3) transcribing the speech orthographically and in the form of phonetic transcription, (4) reading the phonetic transcription of the speech (5), and (6) identifying English diphthong production from the phonetic transcription.Furthermore, the data were analyzed in some steps: (1) classifying English diphthong from the speech based on Roach (1998), (2) interpreting English diphthong from the speech, and (3) presenting the findings/data in tables.

Findings and Discussion
This study analysed the production of diphthongs in the speech of Mr. Jokowi in APEC forum 2014 in Beijing, China.Mr. Jokowi is the seventh president of Republic of Indonesia who presented the economic situation in Indonesia.Roach (1998)  In the above table it can be seen that the word price was stated five times, but the diphthong was correctly pronounced only twice.The first and the last word that contains diphthong /aɪ/ were pronounced based on the Oxford standard while the second, the third and the fourth attempts were produced differently.Here, the diphthong /aɪ/ was produced as /eɪ/.The word point contains diphthong /ɔɪ/ and it was mentioned once in the speech.Here, Mr Jokowi could produce the diphthong based on the Oxford standard.

Diphthong /aʊ/
In producing this type of diphthong, the tongue moves in a direction of /ʊ/ and the lips starts at the neutral position, and gradually rounded.In this study, there were 7 words which contain diphthong /aʊ/ found.
mentions that diphthong is a vowel with glide form and divided into two types, closing and centering diphthong.Closing diphthong consists of /eɪ/, /aɪ/, /ɔɪ/,/әʊ/, and /aʊ/ while centring diphthong comprises /ɪә/, /eә/, and /ʊә/.After analysing the data, the findings revealed 71 data samples of English diphthongs produced by Mr. Jokowi which were classified into eight types.Diphthong /eɪ/ appeared in 21 data samples, diphthong /aɪ/ stated in 15 data samples, diphthong /ɔɪ/ mentioned only 1 data sample, diphthong /aʊ/ stated in 7 data samples, diphthong /әʊ/ appeared in 16 data samples, diphthong /ɪә/ only stated in 6 data samples, diphthong /eә/ mentioned in 3 data samples, and the last, diphthong /ʊә/, appeared in 2 data samples.Diphthong /eɪ/ is closer to sound /ɪ/ and it begins with sound /e/.In this study, the researchers found 21 data samples of diphthong /eɪ/ and Mr. Jokowi only produced diphthong /eɪ/ correctly in 8 words while in the rest of the words, he could not produce them based on the Oxford standard.Mr.Jokowi also produced the word presentation in the beginning and at the end of the speech.Presentation in The Oxford should be pronounced /preznˈteɪʃn/, but he pronounced it as/ˌpersnˈtesn/ because he produced the diphthong /eɪ/ as pure vowel /e/.After that, the word population word was used only once in the speech and it contains diphthong /eɪ/.Here, he pronounced population as /pɒpjuˈleʃn/.Based on The Oxford it should be pronounced /ˌpɒpjuˈleɪʃn/.This means that he produced diphthong /eɪ/ as pure vowel /e/.Based on the Oxford standard, the target transcription of the word maintain is /meɪnˈteɪn/, but he pronounced that word as /menˈten/.Thus, he produced diphthong sound different from the standard of Oxford.Then, in the case of raise word, the target production should be /reɪz/ but he produced that word similar to that of rice word in English.It means he produced the sound of diphthong /eɪ/ as diphthong /aɪ/ and this influences the meaning of the word.The word refrigerator appeared once in his speech and he pronounced diphthong /eɪ/ as /e/ sound..It means he did not produce the diphthong based on the Oxford standard.Then, the word waiting appeared twice in the speech but all of sounds produced different from the standard of Oxford.Here, he produced the word as /wetɪ /.In the case of the word my, Mr. Jokowi produced it five times and he produced all of them consistent with the Oxford standard.After that, the word island was stated sixteen times during the speech and he produced all the diphthong /aɪ/ contained in the word consistent with the Oxford standard, too.The word fertilizer was mentioned once in the speech and produced correctly based on the Oxford standard.The word five was used five times in the speech and he could produce the diphthong sound correctly based on the Oxford standard.However, here he produced the consonant /v/ as /f/.Next, the word supply appeared once during the speech and he could produce the word and the diphthong correctly based on the Oxford standard.
First, in the word ladies, diphthong /eɪ/ was produced.Here, Mr. Jokowi produced the diphthong sound different from the Oxford standard.The word ladies should be pronounced /ˈleɪdɪz/, but he pronounced that word as /leˈdɪs/.It means that he produced diphthong /eɪ/ as pure vowel /e/.The word today which contains diphthong /eɪ/ appeared once in the beginning of the speech.Mr.Jokowi could produce the diphthong sound well, but he changed a vowel sound /ә/ into /ʊ/ sound.Next, the word irrigation only appeared once and he produced the English diphthong /eɪ/ correctly.The word transportation appeared six times in the speech and he consistently pronounced it as /traenspɔ:ˈtesn/ not /traenspɔ:ˈteɪʃn/.This means that he produced English diphthong /eɪ/ different from the Oxford standard.Meanwhile, the word same was produced as /sem/ not /seɪm/.Here, he produced the diphthong /eɪ/ as pure vowel /e/ similar to that of other previous words that had already produced in his speech.e-mail:teknosastik@teknokrat.ac.idThe word eight appeared once in the speech and it was produced correctly based on the Oxford standard.English diphthong contained in the word days produced correctly based on the Oxford standard as well.Data sample 20: /әˈɡeɪn/ Meanwhile, the word again appeared once and Mr. Jokowi produced the word as /әˈɡen/ not /әˈɡeɪn/.Here, he did not produce the diphthong sound in this word.Data sample 21: / weɪtɪ / Based on the data above, the word I appeared nine times and I'm word was twice during the speech of Mr. Jokowi and he could produce the diphthong relevant to the Oxford standard.
Based on the data above, he could produce the diphthong contained in the word time correctly based on the Oxford standard.In the above table, the word enterprise which contains diphthong /aɪ/ was produced only once and Mr. Jokowi could produce it based on the Oxford standard.The word nine which contains diphthong /aɪ/ appeared once during the speech.Here Mr. Jokowi could also successfully produce the diphthong based on the Oxford standard.Jokowi produced the word invite three times and he could produce all diphthong /aɪ/ correctly.However, he could not produce /v/ sound based on the Oxford standard and pronounced it as /f/.
The word about which contains diphthong /aʊ/ appeared five times in the speech and the diphthong was produced different from the Oxford standard.The diphthong /aʊ/ was pronounced as a pure vowel /ɒ/.Next, the word power appeared three times during the speech.In his first and second attempts, the production of diphthong were different from that of the standard production.Here, he produced power as /ˈpɒә(r)/ not /ˈpaʊә(r)/, while his third attempt was relevant to the Oxford standard.In the next data sample, Mr Jokowi produced the word outer.Here, his speech production was not relevant to the Oxford standard as he pronounced it as /ˈɒtә(r)/ not /ˈaʊtә(r)/.Similar to the previous data sample, the word ground contains diphthong /aʊ/ and he produced the diphthong /aʊ/ as pure vowel /ɒ/.This is closing half diphthong and the position of the tongue is in the position of vowel /e/.After that, the tongue moves to a closer position of /ʊ/.The findings revealed that there were 16 words that contain diphthong /әʊ/ mentioned by Mr. Jokowi in his speech.Jokowi mentioned the word know three times in his speech.This word should be pronounced /nәʊ/, but he produced it as /nɒʊ/ and /nɒ/.In the above data sample, Mr. Jokowi produced the word ago four times and all the sounds of diphthong /әʊ/ produced different from the standard production of Oxford.Here, he pronounced /әˈɡәʊ/ as /әˈɡɒ/.After that, the word so appeared seven times and Mr. Jokowi corrected it once in his third attempt, while the others were pronounced not based on the Oxford standard.Here, the word so was produced as /sɒ/, not /sәʊ/.