The study investigates the effect of the sound system of Turkish on Turkish adult speakers' English pronunciation of words that also exist in Turkish as loanwords from Indo-European language. More specifically, it examines the sounds that speakers of Turkish transfer from their native language when producing these words as well as the accuracy of their pronunciation of selected target words. Eight Turkish doctoral students participated in this study. The data were collected through a questionnaire and an elicitation instrument. The questionnaire gathered information, including the participants' English learning experiences, length of residence in the U.S., and amount of interaction in the target language. The elicitation instrument focused on twenty-one words that Turkish and English share, which the participants were likely to use in their current lives. The participants read 21 words in isolation and in sentences, and their speech was audio-recorded. The recorded data were evaluated by two raters to determine how close their pronunciation of each word was to that of native speakers of English, based on a 5-point scale. Findings revealed that Turkish adult speakers had difficulty producing the English phonemes θ, ð, ɹ, ᶵ, æ. Because these phonemes do not occur in their native language, the participants replaced these sounds with the closest Turkish phonemes t, d, r, t, e. The findings also suggested that the only participant who received an explicit instruction in English phonology and pronunciation did not experience any difficulty with the English specific phonemes. Finally, the participants' pronunciation of the selected target words that are spelled the same in Turkish was more accurate compared to the ones that are spelled differently. / A Thesis submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Fall Semester, 2012. / November 2, 2012. / contrastive analysis, L1 phonology, L2 pronunciation, Turkish adult learners of English / Includes bibliographical references. / Mariko Haneda, Professor Directing Thesis; Lawrence C. Scharmann, Committee Member; Rebecca Galeano, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_185056 |
| Contributors | Varol, Miray (authoraut), Haneda, Mariko (professor directing thesis), Scharmann, Lawrence C. (committee member), Galeano, Rebecca (committee member), School of Teacher Education (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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