International Teacher Education Conference 2014 1

International Teacher Education Conference 2014
3.1) Can Turkish learners improve their listening competence only by listening?
They have problems with the English sounds they hear from English-speaking news Agencies, such as BBC,
CNN, and others. The main reason why they have problems with those sounds is because they have no
additional pronunciation lessons in which the voiced and unvoiced of “th” sounds, the diphthongs, and raising
and falling intonation, pitches, catenation, intrusion, assimilations are mainly taught to follow the stream of
speech. No matter how much they listen to the English-speaking news agencies, it is not possible for them to
improve their listening competence without being learnt the functions of those linguistic peculiarities in English.
3.2) Is Turkish learner’s larynx suitable to pronounce and articulate all sound pronounced in English
language?
The articulation and the pronunciation of the voiced and the unvoiced “th” sounds are initially difficult for
Turkish learners because no such sounds are available in the agglutinating languages, that is, in Turkish.
Secondly, the diphthongs also create another problem for Turkish learners because monothongs are
predominantly used in the articulation. Special interest showed by the learners is the unique key to those
pronunciation problems which are initially thought not to overcome easily. English language which is learnt in
non-English speaking environment, that is, in Turkey is thought to be too difficult for Turkish learners, who are
at the state secondary and high school, to learn at any time, and the majority of the learners think that English is
the most difficult language that cannot be learnt because their larynxs are unsuitable for either learning or
pronouncing. However, Turkish learners’ larynxs are suitable to articulate and pronounce the sounds of every
language spoken all over the world. The main issue derives from the fact that they do not dedicate enough time
to study English at the RP level.
When they go to the U.K. to improve their English after having intermediate level, they notice that they can
articulate and pronounce the sounds of English easily without having difficulty with their larynxs. This proves
that, to a certain extent, Turkish learners who are willing to learn how to be able to overcome the issue of
articulation.
4.0) Are additional pronunciation and articulation training necessary for Turkish learners with
listening and speaking lessons at schools in Turkey?
Absolutely it is. Owing to the remarkable differences between English and Turkish in terms of articulation,
pronunciation, and language families that they have, the pronunciation and articulation of English sounds
should be taught at the elementary level because it is extremely difficult to correct the wrong articulation and
pronunciation at the upper levels.
All the students are Turkish, and they do not know any other foreign language. They have 30 lesson hours of
English weekly. 8 of the 30 hours is speaking and listening at the pre-intermediate level. However, no
pronunciation lesson is evident in the weekly schedule to support both listening and speaking lessons. The
students generally have difficulty in understanding the connected speech when they are exposed to listening.
I selected six students from different classrooms at the pre-intermediate level. I divided them into two groups.
The three students in the first group were said to listen to the news from BBC, CNN, and other English
broadcasting channels in an hour period every day for two months. They were checked every three days, and I
wanted them to record what they listened regularly from the English broadcasting channels.
The three students in the second group were exposed to weak forms of the sounds three hours in the first
week. The second week, the catenation /linking were given to them so that they could understand whether the
sound or sounds were one word or two words or a combination of a few sounds of the words. The following
week, the intrusion in which /w/, /J/, /r/ sounds are , and the fourth week, the elision, and the last week,
assimilation are given to the students with the examples of the sounds in the connected speech.
The rest of the three weeks, they were let to listen to the English speaking channels after those training.
As a conclusion, the students in the second group have been observed to be much better than those in the first
group. This shows that English is a confusing language to pronounce. Its 19 vowel and 25 consonant sounds,
joining rules, weak forms, stress and intonation all present challenges. Perhaps the most confusing aspect of all
is the way written English can appear so different to its spoken form.
In particular the 5-week- training course has made them gain, to a certain extent;
*How to pronounce every vowel and consonant sounds of English from IPA chart.
* The rules of joining and sound selection in the intrusive sounds.
*Accurate use of intonation patterns and stress.
4.1) The function of “r” sound is important in British English pronunciation. “R” , “W”, “J” sounds play
important roles in intrusive sounds in connecting the sounds one another as if they were one word in English
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