PROBLEMS IN PRONUNCING ENGLISH WORD STRESS OF PROSPECTIVE ENGLISH TEACHERS

A number of studies on pronunciation have shown that most students with English as a foreign language have difficulty in pronouncing word stress in speaking. Prospective English teachers need knowledge of the correct pronunciation of words related to their work in the future, namely being a teacher for students. Based on this fact, this research aimed to find out and to identify students' abilities of the pronunciation of word stress with native speakers as a reference. The descriptive quantitative approach is used in this study because it aims to describe and count the pronunciation of word stress in statistical form use Praat Application. The results showed the differences in scores between students and native speakers with the overall scores of students with native speakers ranged from 1-504 points. The word "January" becomes the most difficult word to pronounce the word stress. The total of 76.9% students have a pitch score were in the range >0.100. Meanwhile, the word that is considered as the easiest word to pronounce among the 10 words in total is "Technology". This is because only 15.3% or 2 pitch scores that have a pitch score range of >0.100. The researcher conclude that students as prospective English teachers have difficulty pronouncing the stress of words on words with a total of 4 syllables. This is evidenced by the high range of pitch scores between native speakers and students. Further studies are suggested to focus more on aspects or factors that affect pronunciation of word stress by students. Key words: pronunciation, word stress, and prospective English teache