The auditory perception of north american English diphthongs in vocabulary items by english teachers in Turkey

Abstract

Diphthongs are double vowel sounds made by combining two vowels in the same syllable.During their articulation in the oral cavity, the first vowel sound glides onto the next vowelfrom one position of the mouth to another within the same syllable. That’s why they are heardas single-vowel phonemes by listeners. Because of a gliding movement in their articulation,most learners find them difficult to articulate and understand them at first. Hence, they can betricky sounds to master for non-native speakers. The aim of this research is to explore theperceptibility of North American English diphthongs (NAE), which are /a?, o?, e?, ??, a?/ byTurkish English language teachers. A pre-test will be used to measure the perception of themin vocabulary items, which will be given to 30 Turkish English language teachers in a five scalemultiple choice tests. The participants will be asked to choose the correct option. Then, a threehour implicit and explicit teaching will be conducted by doing practices in a variety of exercisesin the classroom. After the elapse of two weeks, the same pre-test will be administrated to theparticipants as a post-test. A comparison and contrast of the two tests results will be made tofind out the existence and degrees of the perceptibility of the diphthongs in vocabulary itemsby Turkish English language teachers.