English Language Problem Areas of Turkish Students

Due to the lack of an independent form of the verb ‘to be’ in Turkish, learners tend to drop the form in English - I happy.

As the boundaries of the use of plurals are more restricted in Turkish than in English, learners tend to overuse the singular form - there are many book.

Learners often use the present continuous form of the verb to describe everyday repetitive activities - I am going to school everyday.

The boundaries of the use of countable and countable nouns are often confusing to Turkish students - a news, informations, advices, a money.

The consonants ‘th’ in three, ‘th’ in there, the vowel sounds in 'hot' and 'hat', the diphthong in 'stage' are all sounds that cause problems.

Words in Turkish do not normally end in /d/, so learners tend to end English words in /t/ inappropriately - standart, hart.

Where English has a rising pitch on lists (we’ve got green cars, red cars, black cars...), Turkish has a falling pitch.

Learners, especially males, tend not to use fall-rise intonation as much as they should, perhaps due to shyness or even a feeling of ‘unmanliness’.

Direct translation of words, phrases, collocations will result in footfinger for toe, win an exam for pass an exam and win a salary for earn a salary.

Overuse of intensifiers and major confusion about the difference between too and very will result in he drank too much milk where 'he drank a lot of milk' would be correct.

There are some false friends: words in Turkish that resemble words in English but whose meanings are not the same. They will confuse students and teachers alike. Look out for the Turkish false friends sempatik and sportmen.

Words which have different boundaries of use than their Turkish equivalents include ... to control/check, say/tell, professor, nervous, excited, loan, debt.

Style, register and connotation problems will result in overuse of words such as 'capricious' and 'parsimonious'.

Words which have no equivalent in each others language cause problems. At elementary level, learners will be confused with terms for family members. Turkish is much richer than English here, having separate words to describe uncle-on-my-mother’s-side and uncle-on-my-father’s-side, father’s-mother and mother’s-mother etc.

Turkish has a wide selection of everyday idioms with no English equivalent. This will not stop your students from translating them anyway. Common Turkish idioms include Afiyet Olsun as you start a meal, Güle Güle Kullan when you give a present, Sihhatler Olsun to someone who has taken a shower and Gecmis Olsun to someone who has had an unpleasant experience.

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