The Study of Slip of Tongue in English Classroom Presentation Produced by Thai and Libyan Students at English Language and Letters Department

This study focussed on the study of slip of tongue which is under the umbrella of Psycholinguistics studies. Thus, the common speech error done by everyone in language production is slip of the tongue, which means what they say is actually not what they mean and what they want to say. In addition, this study aimed to observe the slips of tongue of Thai and Libyan students’ utterances in an English classroom presentation in English language and letters department, Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang, Indonesia. The writer used a descriptive qualitative approach since the data obtained were in the forms of words which were transcribed from the Thai and Libyan students’ utterances. In order to do the observations, the writer joined their classes. Thus, the writer collected the data using audio recording and note taking in order to get any information regarding to the observations. Then, transcribed the utterances into written forms and analysed it using some theories. Those theories were theory proposed by Fromkin (1973) about eight types of slip of the tongue, and Clark (1977) about the factors which influenced the slips of the tongue. The writer found almost all kinds of slips if tongue were produced by Libyan student and Thai students in their presentation. Those were anticipations, preservations, blends/haplologies, misderivations/shifts, substitutions, additions, and deletions. Whereas there was one type of slip of tongue which did not occur in their utterances, that was reversals/exchange. In addition, the most type of slip of the tongue was deletion which occurred eleven times. Further, there were several factors which might influence slips of tongue; cognitive difficulty, situational anxiety, social factor. Thus, in this study, the writer found that all factors influenced all the speakers’ performances or utterances in English classroom presentation. Somehow, the most influenced factor was cognitive difficulty. Even though almost all kinds of slips of tongue occurred in their presentations or utterances, but the audience understood about the subjects being told by all the speakers. Therefore, their presentations were still understandable. From all the findings about kinds and possible factors which might influence slips of tongue above, the writer found some possible strategies to overcome it. Due to the fact that the most kind of slips of tongue was deletion and the most factor which influenced it was cognitive difficulty, so it meant that all speakers were less in practices before doing the presentation or they were in hurry when they did the presentations. Therefore, in this case, the speakers should practice more and be calm in presenting their thoughts and understanding concerning with the subject or material being presented in the classroom.