Mandarin Chinese plays an increasingly important role in the fields of education and employment. With the advancement of globalization, proficiency in Mandarin has become a highly relevant requirement. However, learning Mandarin is often considered challenging by many learners, primarily due to the differences in pronunciation between Mandarin and Indonesian, resulting in frequent pronunciation errors. This research aims to describe the types and factors contributing to the errors in the phonological pronunciation of initial sounds: ㄅ b [p], ㄉ d [t], ㄊ t [t’], ㄍg [k], ㄎ k [k’],ㄐj [tç],ㄑq [tç’], ㄘc [ţs’] in Mandarin words among the 11th-grade students of Science and Mathematics Program 3 at SMA Negeri 1 Lamongan.
This research is qualitative research because this research data is in the form of speech errors pronounced by students, while this research method is a descriptive method because this research aims to describe the forms and factors that cause errors. Data in this study were collected using tapping techniques, free involvement skills, recording techniques and analyzed with descriptive analysis techniques.
Based on the analysis of the form of errors, it was found that in the initial ㄅ b [p], the word with the most errors was /bù/ with a total of eight students. In initialㄉ d [t], the word with the most errors is /dì/ with a total of ten students. In the initialㄊ t [t'], the word with the most errors was /tīng/ with a total of twenty-four students. In the initial ㄍg [k], the word with the most errors was /gè/, /gēn/, /gēge/ with a total of five students. In the initial ㄎ k [k'], the word that has the most errors is /kěndìng/ with a total of thirty students. In the initialㄐj [tç], the word with the most errors is /jǐ/ with a total of eight students. In the initialㄑq [tç'], the word with the most errors is /qù/ with a total of thirty three students. In the initialㄘc [ţs'], the word that had the most errors was /cídiǎn/ with a total of thirty three students while the causative factors were language interference, environmental influences, lack of speaking practice, and lack of understanding of the Chinese phonological system.