The need for a department of teaching Turkish as a foreign language: A proposal


Yildiz U.

Akdeniz Language Studies Conference, Antalya, Turkey, 9 - 12 May 2012, vol.70, pp.1839-1846 identifier

  • Publication Type: Conference Paper / Full Text
  • Volume: 70
  • Doi Number: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.01.261
  • City: Antalya
  • Country: Turkey
  • Page Numbers: pp.1839-1846
  • Keywords: Language teaching, Teaching Turkish as a foreign language, Program development
  • Akdeniz University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

It is assumed that 165 million people speak Turkish all over the world either as a native or foreign language. Turkish as a Foreign Language (TFL) is one of the most commonly spoken languages in the world among the other languages such as Chinese, English, Spanish and Indian. The demand for learning TFL is also increasing rapidly in European Union countries (Balibey, 2010). After the Soviet Union's break up in 1991, in Central Asian and Post Soviet Union countries the Turkish language instruction has become popular. In this sense, it can be assumed that Turkish is on its way to become a world language as a foreign/second language. Along with the rapidly growing importance of the Turkish language in the world, teaching Turkish as a foreign language is growing as a profession and as a field of education. In this context, the quality of Turkish language instruction as a foreign language is open to discussion and exploration. In order to deliver quality and effective foreign language instruction, a clearly defined language curriculum is needed. The aims, content, methods and the evaluation dimensions of the program should be clearly defined in order to carry out a successful educational teaching process (Yildiz, 2004). Today, in the field of teaching Turkish as a foreign language, despite the allocation of considerable amount of resources, money and time, the quality of TFL instruction does not seem to have reached the desired levels. One of the most important results of these negative outcomes is the lack of the quality curricula and departments of TFL that could train the TFL field experts. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of ALSC 2012