The Effect of Using Shared Vocabulary of Persian and Istanbul Turkish on the Reading Comprehension of Persian-learners of Turkey

This research aims at investigating the effect of shared vocabulary of Persian and Istanbul Turkish on the reading comprehension of Persian-learners of Turkey (PLT), and at which level of language-learning (beginner, intermediate, or advanced) this shared vocabulary (i.e. the words with phonological and semantic resemblance) ​​facilitates the reading comprehension process. At first, an accessible sample of 75 PLTs (25 from each level) was selected randomly. The data gathering instruments were separate exams of reading comprehension for each level. To prepare the exam materials, we selected a text for each level from Dehkhoda Institute couresbooks of Reading and Comprehension. Then, each text was divided into two almost equal parts. In the first part, the shared words were substituted by non-shared words to reduce the usage of shared vocabulary without changing the meaning in the text. In the second part, more shared words were employed to increase the usage of shared vocabulary in the text. PLTs of each level participated in two parallel exams with shared and non-shared vocabulary texts on two separate times with one day interval. Participants’ scores of the exams were analyzed through paired t-tests and two-factor In-group/Out-group design. The results confirmed our first hypothesis: the reading comprehension increases as we increase the usage of shared vocabulary. Furthermore, our second hypothesis was confirmed for the beginners: as we moved towards more advanced levels of language-learning, the effect of shared vocabulary increased. However, we could not observe any significant changes among intermediate and advanced learners with regard to this hypothesis.
Extended Abstract:

Introduction

This research aims at investigating the effect of shared vocabulary of Persian and Istanbul Turkish on the reading comprehension of Persian-learners of Turkey (PLT), and to analyze at which level of language-learning (beginner, intermediate, or advanced) this shared vocabulary (i.e. the words with phonological and semantic resemblance) ​​facilitates the reading comprehension process. As our main research problem, we focused on the possible effect of using the shared vocabulary of Standard Persian and Istanbul Turkish on the reading comprehension skill of Persian-learners of Turkey. There are two hypotheses which are followed in this research: 1) the reading comprehension increases as we increase the usage of shared vocabulary; and 2) as we move towards more advanced levels of language-learning, the effect of shared vocabulary increases.

Theoretical concepts

The shared words have approximately similar form and meaning in the two languages. Either they come from the same genetic (i.e. family) origin, or they are a consequence of language contact and lexical borrowing. These words have the same linguistic origin and are generally similar and have a similar meaning. They do not necessarily have to appear in the same form, and there may be slight phonetic differences between them. There may also be a semantic difference between them. Borrowing is a process which is triggered as a result of language contact and through bilingual people, during which phonetic, lexical and even syntactic elements are introduced from one language to another. Then, due to various factors, these elemments are accepted by the majority of a language community and become commonly used.
Generally, there are three types of linguistic borrowing: phonological, lexical and grammatical. Phonological or phonetic borrowing is a process in which the phonetic elements and patterns of a language are adopted by another language, and they make changes in the phonetic system of the target language. Lexical borrowing at the vocabulary level is the most common type of borrowing, and therefore, it can be seen in most languages. Finally, grammatical borrowing is the transfer of morphological or syntactic elements and patterns, grammatical roles or grammatical relations from one language to another.

Review of literature

As a result of geographical proximity of Persian- and Turkish-speaking people ​​for thousands of years, a large amount of shared vocabulary between them is observed as a consequence of lexical borrowing. They ​​have borrowed a lot of words from each other throughout their history, or both have borrowed the same words from other languages, e.g. Arabic, French and English. Ahmadkhani & Rashidian (2016), Nazari & Asadollah-pour Araqi (2015), Pourmohammadi Amlashi & Ghafourian (2020a), Pourmohammadi Amlashi & Ghafourian (2020b), Rasuli-nejad et al. (2021), Meshkin-fam et al. (2021), and Taheri & Ghafurian (2022) can be mentioned as studies on borrowing and/or second-language learning. They show that loanwords can have a facilitating or interfering effect on foreign language learning. Some researchers emphasize the advantage of cross-linguistic similarity in foreign language learning, and consider loanwords as great resources in language learning.

Methodology

For the aims of the research, an accessible sample of 75 PLTs (25 for each level, i.e. beginner, intermediate, and advanced) was selected randomly. The data gathering instruments were separate exams of reading comprehension for each level. To prepare the exam materials, we selected a text for each level from Dehkhoda Institute couresbook series “Reading and Understanding Persian for Non-Persian language Learners” (Jafari et al., 2014; Jafari & Navvabi, 2017). Then, each text was divided into two almost equal parts. In the first part, the shared words were substituted by non-shared words, so that the usage of shared vocabulary is reduced as much as possible, without changing the meaning in the text. In the second part, more shared words were employed to increase the usage of shared vocabulary in the text. PLTs of each level participated in two parallel exams with shared and non-shared vocabulary texts on two separate times with one day interval. 25 questions were designed for the beginner group and 30 questions for each group of the intermediate and advanced learners. They had to recognize the practical meaning of the words from the sentential context. Furthermore, for the beginners, the questions were translated to Turkish as well, so that the learners could answer the questions more easily, without much problem. In order to extract the examples of shared and non-shared words in Persian and Turkish, we relied on Anvari (2002) and Kanar (2012), respectively.

Data analysis

Participants’ scores of the exams were analyzed through paired t-tests and two-factor In-group/Out-group design. These statistical analyses were employed to verify or reject the two hypotheses which were mentioned in Section 1 (Introduction).

Conclusion

The results confirmed the first research hypothesis: the reading comprehension increases as we increase the usage of shared vocabulary. Furthermore, the second research hypothesis was confirmed for the beginners: as we moved towards more advanced levels of language-learning, the effect of shared vocabulary increased. However, we could not observe any significant change for the intermediate and advanced learners with regard to this hypothesis.