This thesis aims to investigate socio-psychological factors that affect
foreign language learners&rsquo / pronunciation and focuses on the relationship between
in-class injunctive norms for English pronunciation and Fear of Negative
Evaluation (FNE). Injunctive norms are a type of social norms that define the
expected behavior from the group members and sanctions for disobedience. They
are evaluative in their nature. FNE is one of the three components of foreign
language classroom anxiety and experienced when a person is in an evaluative
situation. For this study, the quantitative data were collected through a
questionnaire developed by the researcher and the qualitative data were gathered
from the interviews. Freshman students at the Department of Foreign Language
Education at Middle East Technical University participated in the study.
v
The results indicated that speaking with native like or Turkish-like English
pronunciation and having some pronunciation mistakes, which are commonly
observed in the classroom, are approved according to in-class injunctive norms for
English pronunciation. However, if speakers cannot achieve sounding native like
when they are trying to emulate native pronunciation, or if they make
pronunciation mistakes which are not commonly observed in the classroom or
overemphasized by the instructors, these performances are not approved. Speaking
with an English pronunciation in the classroom which is not approved according to
these norms triggers FNE in the learners. Therefore, learners generally prefer
speaking with Turkish-like English pronunciation, which is within the frame of inclass
injunctive norms. The results also demonstrated that the pronunciation rules
that teachers emphasize become a part of injunctive norms / therefore, teachers
have an important role in the determination of these norms.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:METU/oai:etd.lib.metu.edu.tr:http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/3/12609597/index.pdf |
| Date | 01 June 2008 |
| Creators | Olcu, Zeynep |
| Contributors | Yemenici, Alev |
| Publisher | METU |
| Source Sets | Middle East Technical Univ. |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | M.A. Thesis |
| Format | text/pdf |
| Rights | To liberate the content for public access |
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