The principle purpose of the study was to describe the problems faced by the dayaknese students in pronouncing English dipthongs and the students solve their problems in pronouncing English diphthongs. This study was done by doing at the study program of English Education (TBI) of STAIN Palangka Raya. The analysis of the problems of pronunciation that existed was based on Ramelan classification where the problems of pronunciation are categorized into three problems of pronunciation. They are: (1) The identification of foreign sounds; (2) The production ability of the foreign sounds in listening and identifying the acoustic quality of the foreign sounds; (3) The different nature especially in Supra-segmental features (stress, length, pitch and intonation).
Qualitative approach with case study method was used by the writer in this study. In collecting the data, it was used some techniques, namely: (1) interview and (2) documentation. In analyzing the data, it was used some techniques, namely: (1) data collection; (2) data reduction; (3) data display; (4) conclusion/ data verification. The subjects of the study were the dayaknese students at the Study Program of English Education (TBI), the students are choosen based on the characteristics, as follows: (1) The students are the new students at the Study Program English Education (TBI) of; The State Islamic College Palangkaraya; (2) The students are an original dayak ethnic; (3) they always use the Dayak language every day in their daily life and in their environment to communicate. It meant the purposive sampling was used by the writer.
The result of the study, as follows:
1.The Dayaknese students have problems in pronouncing English diphthongs. They problems were suitable with the problems classified by Ramelan. First, based on the result of study they have some difficulties in identification of English diphthong symbols such as; [ə℧], [aI], [a℧], [Iə], [eə], [℧ə]. Second, the poor ability by the Dayaknese students of the foreign sounds in listening and identifying the acoustic quality of the foreign sounds especially about English diphthong symbols’ sound. So, they cannot be able to imitating the native speakers correctly.
2.The different nature especially in Supra-segmental features (stress, length, pitch and intonation) which made the acoustic quality by them in pronouncing English diphthong symbols was different with native speakers.
3.In general they solved their problems by listening music by native speaker. Without having heard the quality of a given sounds before, one cannot be expected to pronounce it; when he has heard the sounds produced by someone else, he may be able to produce it to himself by imitating the speaker.