Phonological Problems among Indigenous Students in Oral Communication Skills using English Language

บทคัดย่อ

In the teaching profession, one of the most important skills needed for a successful teacher is the good command of English particularly in speaking skill. If a teacher commits mistakes in the pronunciation of the English Language across disciplines, learners would also perceive wrong meaning and interpretation on the content of the lesson. In fact, good pronunciation should be one of the first things that should be learned in English. Thus, teachers across curriculum must have the pedagogical knowledge on phonology and speech articulation sounds in English Language. This study aimed to determine and analyze the obstacles encountered by the indigenous students in learning the correct pronunciation of the English Language. The participants of this study were the maranao, subanin and Higaonon students of the College of Education, MSU-IIT during second semester 2014-2015. The total number of participants were 25 indigenous students. The research method used was purely qualitative design using the individual and group interviews, observation through listening of their informal conversation using English Language. Video was used during the conduct of the data gathering procedure. Then,  it was analyzed through categorizing the themes and coding for the concepts leading to the final content analysis. Based from the results, indigenous students have difficulty in pronunciation due to their lack of phonological awareness that caused their problem in speech articulation sounds. According to the findings, indigenous students’ speech articulation sounds were affected with their native language or mother tongue because of the different accents, poor foundation of speech sounds in English Language during their early childhood education, parents pedagogical knowledge on English sounds and their ecosystem at home particularly the places prone to conflict in Mindanao. Hence, based from the findings of this study, speech improvement in English Language intervention is needed to be integrated in the teacher education curriculum.