(Over)Passivization Errors of Turkish Learners of English as a Foreign Language

Turkish learners of English as a foreign language make many (over) passivization errors in English. In this study, one of our aims is to find out the underlying reasons for these errors, and to provide some implications on English Language Teaching. In order to find out the underlying reasons for these errors, the semantic properties of the verbs which are frequently used incorrectly in the passive voice are analyzed in terms of transitive/intransitive and unaccusative/unergative distinctions. We focused on the Unaccusative Hypothesis presented by Perlmutter (1978) in investigating our data. The other aim is to find out if there is a relationship between the error rates and L2 proficiency levels. Therefore, 30 students from advanced levels and 30 students from upper-intermediate levels are chosen among Turkish speaking students who learn English as a foreign language at Mersin University, by using the Michigan Placement Test. Data is collected through 4 written tasks and analyzed quantitatively