THE GRAMMAR DIFFICULTIES THAT NATIVE TURKISH SPEAKING STUDENTS FACE WHEN LEARNING SPANISH

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the difficulties for Turkish students while learning Spanish as a foreign language. It is also aimed to exhibit the origin of the difficulties that appear when these students intend to learn some grammar units of Spanish. The corpus of the study consists of 100 questionnaires and written exams realized by Turkish students which come from a different group of language compared to Spanish. The mentioned group has been students of Cervantes Institute in Istanbul of Level C1. The study analyzes some grammatical units and other parts of the sentence in which the Turkish speaking group repeatedly makes mistakes. The same grammar units are asked in fill in the blanks questions and also in translation skills part. The results for the same grammar topics are similar. It is also examined the effect of the difference between the students' native language and the targeted language. Moreover some PhD Thesis and articles about Spanish learning for Turkish speakers are investigated and presented with their recommendations about the subject in the related part of the paper. The findings demonstrate that Spanish, being a Latin language is diffficult to learn for the Turkish students for its distant grammar rules. To overcome the mentioned difficulties some arrangements have to be done in the Spanish as a Foreign Language classroom.