Mixing Pronunciation and Writing in Teaching Language: Surveying the Relationship between Pronunciation and Writing errors among Non-Iranian Persian Learners

Language teaching literature shows an isolation and independency between pronunciation and writing. In this paper, focusing on the pronunciation errors of Persian language learners, we test the hypothesis if there is a significant relationship between Pronunciation and writing errors of the same learners. In this regard, it is emphasized that these two categories have a lot in common, and reinforcing of one leads to the reinforcing of the other. First, the data collected from oral speech of the learners are listed. Then the repeated errors in vowels, consonants and phonetic processes are extracted and presented along with some examples. Next, the subjects are asked to compose writings in different topics. Errors extracted from these data are presented in charts and tables, along with the frequencies of each. Formal comparison and statistical analysis of t-student showed that writing errors in the pronunciation field are not simply a performance error in language production; rather they are resulted from competence of the learner. Proving our hypothesis, it is emphasized that pronunciation and writing are two sides of the same coin; therefore, it is suggested that using communicative approach, a kind of complementary attitude in teaching pronunciation and writing, is taken in the teaching methods and the composing styles of Persian language teaching textbooks.