Pronunciation Problems of Turkish Efl Learners in Northern Cyprus

This study investigated the pronunciation problems of Turkish EFL learners in state schools in Girne, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Thirty high-school students participated in the study. The researcher collected data through a pronunciation test and school visitations. The purpose of the pronunciation test was to elicit pronunciation problems of Turkish EFL learners. The performance of participants was video-recorded. In order to increase the validity of the results, two native raters listened to the recordings and rated the problematic sounds as correct or incorrect. Microsoft Excel was used to calculate the coded and analysed data, and SPSS (Version 20) was used to find the percentages and the frequencies of the data. The findings indicate that Turkish EFL learners have serious problems in pronouncing certain English consonants (i.e., /th/, /ð/, /w/, /v/, / /) and some English vowels and diphthongs (i.e., /i/, / /, / :/, / /, /a /). Mother tongue interference seems to be the main cause of these errors since Turkish lacks most of these sounds. The results of the study are thought to be useful for teachers who teach English EFL learners.