AVOIDANCE STRATEGY IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE PRODUCTION

Authors : Selma ELYILDIRIM

Pages : 231-242

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Publication Date : 2017-10-31

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Avoidance is one of the common strategies employed by second language learners in the production of the target language when they have inadequate and incomplete knowledge about grammatical rules and lexical items. Previous studies have provided evidence for avoidance. In view of this observation, this study aimed to find out whether Turkish learners of English avoid any grammatical structure or lexical items while producing English sentences, and if so, to what extent they use it as a learning strategy to cope with the difficulties they face in the process of second language acquisition. The subjects of this study were forty Turkish learners of English studying English as their major. Data were collected from the compositions they wrote about one of their earlier memories first in their native language and then in the target language. They were asked to write the same composition in both languages to identify the modifications and omissions they were making in the compositions they wrote in their native language when producing them in the target language. The results obtained from the study provided evidence that learners did avoid some structures when writing their compositions in their second language. The findings of the study were important as regards its pedagogical implications.
Keywords : Avoidance, learning strategies, second language acquisition, writing