Abstract

THE ROLE OF AUDITORY DISCRIMINATION TESTS IN THE EVALUATION OF BULGARIAN PRIMARY SCHOOL LEARNERS OF ENGLISH PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS

 

Tsvetelina Harakchiyska

University of Ruse

 

 ABSTRACT

 

The paper presents the results from a study of the level of L2 phonological awareness of 9-10-year-old Bulgarian children who study English in the primary. It focuses on the analysis and interpretation of the data from an auditory discrimination test used to pinpoint which target language phonemes pose difficulties for Bulgarian learners and highlights the key role of L2 phonological awareness in the teaching and learning of English.

 

Key words: phonological systems, second language learning, interference of L1

 

RESUMEN ABSTRACTO

 

El trabajo presenta los resultados de un estudio del nivel de conciencia fonológica L2 en niños búlgaros de 9-10 años de edad quienes estudian inglés en primaria. Enfoca en el análisis e interpretación de los datos de una prueba de discriminación auditiva usada para señalar qué fonemas del lenguaje producen dificultad para los aprendices búlgaros y resalta el papel clave de la conciencia fonológica L2 en la enseñanza y aprendizaje del inglés.

 

Palabras clave: sistemas fonológicos, aprendizaje de un segundo idioma, interferencia de L1

Tsvetelina Harakchiyska is a university lecturer at the University of Ruse ( Bulgaria) in the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Education. She has recently completed her Ph.D. degree in the field of Comparative Linguistics. Her research interests include English language teaching, Psycholinguistics, Comparative Phonetics and Phonology.