Directional Patterns in Turkish Listeners' Perception of English Word Stress

Uzun T.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE LITERATURE AND CULTURE RESEARCHES, cilt.9, sa.3, ss.1198-1215, 2026 (TRDizin)

Özet

The location of word stress varies across languages and

may present a perceptual challenge in second language

(L2) listening. This study investigates the directional

nature of English perceptual stress placement errors

made by Turkish listeners (N=74), examining whether

these errors reflect the word-final stress default of

Turkish as their first language (L1). A 38-item

perception-based stress placement task was designed

and administered in classroom settings and participants

identified the syllable carrying the primary stress.

Stimuli represented four syllable-count conditions (2-

,

3-, 4-, and 5-syllable) and included eight loanword items

which carried a conflicting stress position in Turkish

relative to English. Responses with incorrect stress

placement were first coded by syllable position (final,

penultimate, antepenultimate, and other). Then, error

patterns were examined descriptively and through chi-

square goodness-of-fit tests to determine whether they

were systematically distributed across these positions.

Findings revealed that error patterns were sensitive to

word length. A final-syllable bias was observed for two-

and three-syllable words, yet errors were frequently

shifted toward earlier syllable positions in four- and

five-syllable words. Loanword errors also revealed L1

influence in perception. These results highlight the value

of drawing learners’ attention to differences between

Turkish and English stress placement, particularly in

longer words.