Pronunciation Errors in English Dental Fricatives and Postalveolar Affricates Among Indonesian EFL Learners

Abstract

Accurate pronunciation is essential for intelligible oral communication, yet English consonants absent from the Indonesian phonological system remain challenging for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. This study investigated pronunciation errors involving the English dental fricatives (/θ/ and /ð/) and postalveolar affricates (/tʃ/ and /dʒ/) among 21 Indonesian vocational high school students and examined the factors contributing to these errors. A descriptive mixed-methods design within the Error Analysis framework was employed. Quantitative data were collected through a 40-word pronunciation test, while qualitative data were obtained from written interviews. The findings identified 557 pronunciation errors, with /θ/ producing the highest error rate (33.39%), followed by /ð/ (23.34%), /dʒ/ (21.54%), and /tʃ/ (20.83%). The interview results indicated that interlingual transfer from Indonesian and Javanese was the primary factor underlying students' pronunciation difficulties, while low learning motivation and limited pronunciation practice also contributed to the errors. These findings highlight the need for explicit and systematic pronunciation instruction for English consonants that have no equivalents in learners' first-language phonological systems.