Speaking Errors of Persian and Azeri Turkish Learners in EFL Classrooms: A Comparative Investigation

The purpose of this study was to investigate and compare the frequency and types of the phonological and syntactic errors made by Persian and Azeri Turkish learners while speaking in EFL classes. To this end, two conversation classes, consisting of EFL students having different native languages (Persian and Azeri Turkish), were selected. During the term, students’ authentic conversations and presentations in English language were recorded. The corpus collected from the two classes was then transcribed and analyzed to determine the frequency of phonological and syntactic errors made by the two groups. The results indicated that Azeri Turkish EFL learners made less phonological errors compared with the Persian learners. However, not a noticeable difference in the frequency of errors in the grammatical structures was observed between the two groups. The results were discussed and the implications were made.