Common pronunciation errors of seventh grade EFL learners: A case from Turkey


Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Eğitim Fakültesi, Yabancı Diller Eğitimi Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2015

Öğrenci: BESİME AKTUĞ

Danışman: PERİHAN SAVAŞ

Özet:

This thesis analyses the common English pronunciation errors of the seventh grade Turkish students. Since the vocabulary of subjects are limited due to their age and curriculum, a specific rubric compatible with the official curriculum was designed to test the different qualities of the non-native pronunciation such as vowel, consonant and word stress. More than 2400 sentences uttered by more than 80 seventh grade students were digitally recorded and two non-native professional evaluators and a native evaluator rated a total of more than 7300 audio records in three different categories. The results were analyzed statistically for the common errors quantitatively. Furthermore, the results of quantitative analysis was then compared with the qualitative analysis of the five interviews with professional English teachers teaching 7th grade students. The results show that the pronunciation errors of the 7th grade students present a common nature and the least successful pronunciation errors occur for vowels. In this respect, the study aims to provide a comprehensive survey of the pronunciation performance of secondary school students.