THE STUDY OF STUDENTS’ MASTERY OF ENGLISH HOMOPHONES BY THE SIXTH SEMESTER STUDENTS OF ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM OF UNIVERSITAS BENGKULU IN 2015/2016 ACADEMIC YEAR

This descriptive research aimed to rev eal the s tudents’ mastery of English homophones by the sixth semester students of English Education Study Program of Universitas Bengkulu in 2015/2016 Academic Year. The subjects of this research were 53 students who had taken Phonology course, Listening 1, Listening 2 and Listening 3. They were taken using total sampling technique. The data were obtained through homophone test with audio that covers three parts. Based on the result of this research, students’ m astery of English Homophones was at Excellent category in recognition level. There were 94.34% of students at excellent category on mastering homophone. 5.66% of students were classified in Good category. The mean of the total score was 94.2. At Production level, there were 11.32% of students at excellent category on mastering homophone. 13.21% of students were classified in Good category. The students who were classified as Enough category was 45.28%, and the students who were classified into Low category was 13.21%. 16.98 % of the students were failed to master English homophones. The mean of the total score was 60.5. The result showed that there were three highest frequencies of incorrect answers were the homophone of the word “ foul -fowl” (90.57 %), the word “ flour -flo wer” (73.58 %), and the word “pane-p ain” (58.49 %). The result of the research also showed that there were three highest correct questions answered by all (100%) the students. The homophone words wer e the word “knows -nos e”, the word “blue -bl ew”, and the word “r ead -red”. In conclusion, the students had higher English homophone mastery in recognition level than in production level, but they faced difficulty on dealing with some homophones