A Study on Identifying Pronunciation Learning Strategies of Turkish EFL Learners

AbstractPronunciation is an integral part of foreign language learning since it directly affects learners’ communicative competence as well as performance. Poor communication skills can decrease learners’ self-confidence, restrict social interactions, and negatively affect estimations of a speaker's credibility and abilities. Therefore, one of the key elements of language proficiency is to secure acceptable pronunciation for the language learners. The literature on the pronunciation studies revealed that language learners use various pronunciation learning strategies; however, there are very limited studies in number on the use of pronunciation learning strategies in the Turkish context. Thus, this study is an attempt to gain some preliminary insights into the pronunciation learning strategies and diverse tactics that help students learn to produce a foreign language. The study focuses exclusively on the responses of two groups of university students collected through the use of a questionnaire and an interview. This is an experimental study which attempts to elicit a general view over the pronunciation learning strategy use and to compare whether there is any significant difference between the group of learners taking a pronunciation course and the group not attending to any specific course on pronunciation learning