2. Features of the two languages
Turkish belongs to the English belongs to the
Altaic language group. Indo-European language
group.
Turkish uses the Roman English uses the Roman
alphabet and spelling is alphabet and spelling is
completely phonetic. not completely phonetic.
Turkish has vowel English does not have
harmony. vowel harmony.
3. Features of the two languages
All Turkish verbs are regular in Many common English verbs are
all tenses. irregular in the present, past
and/or participle form.
Turkish word order is SOV. English word order is SVO.
Turkish is agglutinative. English is isolating.
4. Features of the two languages
Turkish uses one pronoun for 3rd English requires gender in the
person singular. 3rd person singular pronoun.
He is going
She is going
It is going
5. Features of the two languages
Turkish uses gerunds in English uses gerunds as
many verbal nouns or in
constructions including continuous/progressive
simple past. verbal constructions only.
6. Features of the two languages
Turkish often omits the Standard English never
copula “to be.” omits the copula “to be.”
Turkish does not have English has many initial
initial /sk/ or /sp/. /sk/ and /sp/ sounds.
Turkish does not have English often requires
definite and indefinite definite and indefinite
articles in the articles in the
nominative. nominative.
7. Errors in English made by Turkish
student in beginning ESL
Coming six months. I came here six months ago.
(overuse of gerund
construction for present
perfect and all past tenses –
this was the most common
error made by my student)
8. Errors in English made by Turkish
student in beginning ESL
Grandfather here. My grandfather is here.
(omission of copula)
9. Errors in English made by Turkish
student in beginning ESL:
pronunciation
sıkool school
(the student later self-corrected)
10. Implications for teaching:
When teaching ELLs whose L1 is Turkish, I believe four main
areas need to be addressed:
(1) English pronunciation and, by extension, English
orthography;
(2) understanding and using the definite and indefinite articles;
(3) English verb forms; and
(4) understanding and using prepositions and idioms.
