Use of English articles by speakers of Turkish in the EFL setting

Bu çalışma başlıca Türkçe anadil konuşucularının ikinci dil olarak edindikleri İngilizcedeki tanımlık tercihlerini incelemektedir. Katılımcıların yanıtları belirlilik, özgüllük ve tikellik olan anlamsal özellikler açısından analiz edilmiştir. Bu çalışma ayrıca katılımcıların tanımlık tercihlerinde ikinci dil olarak edindikleri İngilizcedeki yeterlilik seviyelerine göre farklılık gösterip göstermediğini araştırmaktadır. Bu çalışmada kullanılan veri toplama aracı altı tip cümleyi içeren boşluk doldurma testidir. Test 30 düşük-yeterlilik ve 30 yüksek yeterlilik seviyesindeki katılımcılara uygulanmıştır.Boşluk doldurma testinin sonuçları altı tip cümledeki doğruluk oranlarının aşırı kullanımlardan yüksek olduğunu göstermiştir. Başka bir deyişle, çalışmanın katılımcıları the tanımlığını [+özgül] bağlam ile; a tanımlığını ise [-özgül] bağlam ile ilişkilendirmemiştir. Ayrıca the tanımlığının aşırı kullanımının [+özgül, +tikel] bağlamda en üst seviyeye ulaşmadığı da bulunmuştur. Bu çalışmanın farklı yeterlilik seviyelerindeki katılımcıların tanımlık kullanımlarını da incelediği düşünüldüğünde, mevcut çalışmanın sonuçlarının yeterliliğin ikinci dil olarak edinilen İngilizcedeki tanımlık tercihlerindeki rolünü kanıtlayan önceki alanyazın ile aynı doğrultuda olduğu görülür.

This study mainly investigates L1-Turkish speakers’ article choice in L2-English. In the study participants’ answers were analyzed on the basis of the following semantic features: definiteness, specificity and partitivity. This study also examines whether the article choice of the participants varies according to their proficiency levels in L2-English. The data collection instrument adopted in this study was a fill-in-the-blanks test which included six types of sentences. The test was administered to 30 low-proficiency and 30 high-proficiency level participants. The results of the fill-in-the-blanks test showed that accuracy rates in six types of sentences were higher than the overuses. In other words, the participants of the study did not associate article the with [+specific] contexts and a with [-specific] contexts. It was also found that the overuse of article the did not reach its maximum level in [+partitive, +specific] contexts. Considering that this study also investigates the article choice of the participants of different proficiency levels, it is clear that the results of the current study are in the line with the previous literature which evidences the role of proficiency in the article choice in L2-English.

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