Dwi Septiyanda, Citra Oktasari, Esy Solvera, Vioni Saputri, Lulu Fahkrunisa
Word stress has a linguistic importance in English. The mistakes of the word stress are common causes of misunderstanding in English. This study aimed to investigate the systematic barriers, difficulties and the influencing factors on the Indonesian EFL learners learning English word stress. The study also analyzed how the participants put the stress on the 12 words which have different word class. The study used qualitative methods. The data were collected by focus group discussion. The findings are presented with themes and sub themes and table description. The research subjects were senior high school students from two reputable schools in Jambi, Indonesia. It revealed that the participants were difficult to predict where the stress falls in a word because they lack experiences learning word stress. They put the stress incorrectly and flatly pronounce each word without any special stress on the syllables. The findings of this research are expected to provide some references and contributions for EFL teachers, particularly in teaching word stress in English pronunciation. Thus, the teachers could anticipate the students’ problems in learning word stress and concern to create possible ways to address those difficulties. The teachers need to deal the students’ barriers with appropriate practical method. It is also essential to know students’ attitudes and voices toward English word stress because it can be piloted to the involvement for future teaching strategies. © 2023 American Institute of Physics Inc.. All rights reserved.
Queen’s University, Belfast, United Kingdom; Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, Indonesia; Universitas Padjadjaran, Bandung, Indonesia; Universitas Negeri Padang, Padang, Indonesia; Central Luzon State University, Science City of Munoz, Nueva Ecija, Philippines
