Determination of the Turkish Language Sounds that Arabic Native Speaker Students Experience Problems With and Proposed

Yusuf Sülükçü

doi:10.11114/jets.v6i11.3472

Abstract

The present study aimed to identify Turkish language sounds that Arabic native speakers experience pronunciation difficulties with when learning Turkish and make various suggestions on how to resolve this problem. Qualitative research method and observation technique were used in the study. The data were collected in 2016 and the second half of 2017. The study population included native Arabic speakers who learned Turkish as a foreign language in Turkey, the study sample included 20 students attending Necmettin Erbakan University Turkish Instruction Application and Research Center (KONDIL) and 15 students attending a private course. It was determined that the students experienced difficulties in pronouncing the following sounds in Turkish alphabet: "ç, e, g, ğ, h, ı, j, k, l, o, ö, p, r, s, ş, t, ü, v, z". It was also determined that it was possible to correct certain pronunciation mistakes in the above-mentioned sounds easily while correction of others took longer. It was found that the educational level of the student before learning Turkish was not effective in the pronunciation of the sounds, speaking a foreign language other than Turkish decreased the number of sounds where the students experienced problems and the gender factor had no impact on pronunciation of the sounds. It was determined that the comparison of the articulation points in the native language of the student and Turkish and practical demonstration of these articulation points and repetition of a large number of sounds resolved the problem to a great extent. It was recommended to focus more on the determined sounds in the instruction of the sounds in Turkish.

Highlights

The fact that an adult cannot reproduce certain sounds in a foreign language accurately despite immense efforts and cannot speak a foreign language similar to her or his native language despite the exceptions, her or his accent revealing that the spoken language was learned as a second language lead to the question that whether there is a suitable age for the accurate imitation and pronunciation of the sounds
The study population included Arabic native speakers who learn Turkish as a foreign language at A1 level in Turkey
The study sample included 53 Arabic native speaker learners attending Turkish as a foreign language courses at Necmettin Erbakan University KONDİL in 2016 and 15 students who were learning Turkish as a foreign language in a private course in 2017

Summary

Introduction

Pronunciation is defined as overall movements of the speech organs during the production of the sounds in the language, spoken words, and the voicing of the sounds based on articulation movements (BSTS / Grammar Terminology Dictionary, 2003). The fact that an adult cannot reproduce certain sounds in a foreign language accurately despite immense efforts and cannot speak a foreign language similar to her or his native language despite the exceptions, her or his accent revealing that the spoken language was learned as a second language lead to the question that whether there is a suitable age for the accurate imitation and pronunciation of the sounds. The notion of "language acquisition" reflects the learning of a language by the individual – especially a child – through the subconscious without the systematic instruction of grammar or the processes in a language (Krashen, 1981), and "language learning" includes conscious efforts by an individual to learn a foreign language

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Results

Conclusion