Indonesian EFL Pre-Service Teachers and Phonetic Negative Transfer

Abstract

Abstract

Language transfer, especially in terms of phonetic level, may be positive or negative. Positive transfer happens when the native tongue (L1) can assist in the acquisition of the target language (TL). In the contrary negative transfer occurs when L1 does not facilitate, or even impedes the acquisition of the TL. This research strives to investigate the negative phonetic of Indonesian phonetic system onto English speech production performed by pre-service EFL teachers. By employing phonetic transfer analysis (Altenberg & Vago, 1983), the negative phonetic transfer includes transfer of [f], transfer of [t], transfer of non-aspirated [p^h], [t^h], and [k^h], and transfer of [s]. These results call for more attention of teacher educators to promote phonetic awareness of their students in English language classrooms.

Keywords: Phonetic negative transfer; EFL pre-service teachers; English Language teaching