Designing a Turkish Language Course Design - Case Study Example

Designing a Turkish Language design Introduction This paper is mainly meant to provide a coherent result about the need for studying Turkish language as a second language to students in the western universities. Despite the fact that the curriculum design covers undergraduate program, the syllabus goes beyond the second language coverage and extends deep to improving the level of Turkish culture and the use of such language among international students. Moreover, the syllabus broadly tackles spoken, reading and listening skills that are quite essential in developing students’ progress in relation to understanding how to interact through Turkish language within an environment inhabited by such communities (Biggs, 2003). This program design purely entails strong influence and the need for Turkish culture where students are dedicated at improving their spoken speech and grammatical skills towards the above language (Biggs, 2003). After mutual six-week coverage of the whole of this course, learners will acquire sufficient knowledge to handle simple assessments to determine their level of competency in Turkish language in relevance to a similar environment. 2.0 Myths surrounding Turkish language According to Bloom (1954), several myths and beliefs revolve around the study of second languages especially Turkish among western students. Whereas, most of these myths are characterized by stories learnt from others, such myths come from those who have had enough experienced in Turkish language or with personal experiences gained through the language learning process. Some of the belief to support the presence of mythology of Turkish language includes; 2.1 Learning Turkish language is difficult and takes time to study More related to every other earning process there is no exception that learning Turkish language consumes time. Depending on the level of intellect and the mentality of an individual, it still takes time to learn the vocabulary and morphine in a Turkish sentence structure (Colis & Moonen, 2001). However, with thorough commitment and being consistent with the language learning process, students get to understand the flow of the sentence and the contexts of words. Due to its structure and composition, learning Turkish language consumes a lot of time, but that does not guarantee such language to be categorized as difficult Palincsar & Herrenkohl (2002), clarifies. 2.2 Turkish contains vague dialect and unclear structure Due to variations of languages in the western countries, it is believed that learning Turkish language has proven difficult due to its dialects’ that seems difficult to be understood by western student. Conversely, Turkish dialect is regular in most local and international media thus students are able to encounter such a language in most sectors of the society (Bloom, 1954). 2.3 Perfect accent is required for learning Turkish language The course supports that the construction of language concerns thorough knowledge of the instructor. If an instructor of Turkish language has a perfect accent, then there is a definite understanding that students who engage in his session get complete knowledge needed to stabilize such a language (Seker & Dincer, 2014). 3.0 Course assessment criterion The program assessment criteria for this course is moderated on weekly basis through a Pbworks system where students log in through their user accounts take personal evaluation testes to determine their level of progress through concerning what has been learnt. Besides, student personal evaluation acts a preliminary process in preparation to the final evaluation of this course. The curriculum is moderated to suite grammar, vocabulary and spoken speech as per the standard of any other second language. However, the integration follows a similar process expected in any other linguistic assessment; the illustration is based on (Abbasnasab et al. 2013) assumptions. According To Rovai (2004) observation, the course assessment involves an independent assessment at each level of practice. Since it does not follow double duty assessment criteria, it gives the assessors easy time in doing the grading. Besides, the program entails evaluating students on basic aspects and skills of phrasal development and better achievement of grammatical skills. The assessment criteria embrace the required language standards and invoke comparison between individuals’ explicit communication grammar thus eliminates tension making the program reform much more affordable. 4.0 Conceptual invitation to help weak students With an aid of a Pbworks system, Turkish syllabus is arranged accordingly in such a way that students who are perceived to be slow in learning the language can be easily invited by fast learners through a similar portal thus a leverage process to the instructor. Moreover, the process embraces interaction that is quite substantial to the language development process. through such methodology and the learning environment, participants to engage in activities that foster faster mastery of the language outcome (Richards, 2013). Moreover, the training of grammar skills are harmonized to allow development of speech work and analytical skills of spoken words thus making the assessors to be more informed on the best possible method based on the context of students’ perception to language and grammar. 5.0 Organization of the program structure Carless (2007), Turkish language program structure mainly concentrates on grammatical contexts, phrasal and speech development. The syllabus constitutes studying necessary abilities and essential approaches aimed at improving phrasal development especially among students who have joining the course for the first time while associating to each other. Moreover, the program is designed to include contents that go beyond the usual single language coverage to accommodate other relevant skills leant in any other language thus providing adequate opportunities in mastering the important concepts and important skills of any other complimentary spoken language. With an imminent target of addressing the need of Turkish language adoption, it is believed that students who have undergone such training acquire the best practical experiences to write and identify short and simple instructions concerning the daily speech, read or listen to Turkish language worldwide (Wolf, 2002). Moreover, learning a second language such as Turkish as a complimentary acquisition of language is essential in helping students in western universities to develop suitable additional knowledge outside the classroom to interact in conversations and discussions expressing and justifying their points of view. Through the course moderation of Turkish language, several grammatical skills, sentences and phrasal structures are incorporated to foster interactive and speech work. Therefore, skills learnt synchronize the vocal adoption while expressing thoughts in speech through the Pbworks while interacting with friends, answering short or simple questions, order/request things, making appointment with a doctor and demonstrating language communication skills in simple and routine tasks (Ozsevik, 2010) 6.0 Course entry guide and the duration The study of Turkish language study is entailed sequential units. However, the plan is designed such that all the students are able to finalize by the end of the sixth week. Whereas, the result is purely governed by the skills each graduate can demonstrate after written and spoken assessment that determines students’ progress. Entry requirement into a Turkish language course is for both students who have not interacted together with all those slight previous experience in a similar language. Taking the duration of 40 contact hours’ students shall have gained competent skills to be granted as graduates while for the students who might not have gained enough formal experience, upgrades will be necessary to meet the requirements successfully. Meanwhile, every student must go through preliminary grammatical score before starting the real Turkish language study explains Cousin, 2006). 6.1 Safety and program quality Minor changes are accommodated during the course moderation period by being communicated directly to students undertaking class sessions. However, the source of changes and regulations concerning accreditation of the research is a pure responsibility of the examining board. Moreover, language instructors have been assigned roles of inspecting and introducing partial changes as an ongoing process when handling classroom participations. Besides, Turkish study also engages the board of studies who has been given a mandate to carry out the study audit (Cousin, 2006). The boards’ main responsibility is to ensure that the delivery of Turkish language undergoes delivery as per the required standards, and the assessment is credited at a similar level with the other languages. Moreover, the board has an obligation to ensure that every teacher addresses his duty accordingly while ensuring that all the necessary records concerning students’ performances undergoes proper maintenances to allow for easy evaluation during actual audit process. Based on the safety concern, it is within the mandate of the institution to ensure that all students undertaking Turkish language program are safe while undertaking their studies. Ultimately, it also forms role of the institution to exercise health standards and safety measure needed by all the students undertaking the language study. 6.2 Grammar and training selection All the students pursuing Turkish language studies must pass through a registration-training provider where they are assigned access codes to interact through the system that is used to facilitate training outcomes at every level of study. With the help of the registration office, the institution’s linguistic department does the assessment to ensure that the credibility of the result is certified. Besides, it is also done to allow for rating of all the results needed in the succeeding levels as determinants in comparison to all the other linguistic studies that shares similar department to Turkish language (Morales & Ferreira, 2008). To students who have successfully passed grammatical assessment, certificates and grading points shall be provided to allow students to continue to other succeeding levels of study. Whereas, for those who fail to get the required grades, provisional papers would be given that shows the level of performance and areas that require student to put more effort. 7.0 Basic topics of study More related to any other linguistic studies; Turkish language study must tackle certain specific sections to be certified as a comprehensive linguistic study. The general section of Turkish study design embraces all the linguistic demand of the students. The phrasal and grammatical topics form the core sections of the study because they demonstrate a leeway concerning the students’ progress (Attwood, 2009). The use of speech, grammar and written skills are here-in given attention to ensure that students comprehensively cover entire units thus add more skills to those undertaking the course of study (Shanaha & Meyer, 2006). The above specific areas of study have been identified as key areas of benefits that students receive due of learning such a language • Phrasal skills about their food and drinks, future plans, famous Turkish people • The use of speech in importance to Turkish society • Preparation and presentation in simple phrases and sentence about favorite singer or poet • The use of Turkish vocabulary in response to speech, small texts and dialogue The use of the above topics is based on certain categories in accordance to the relevant to the relevant perception of the knowledge requirement while making a provision of the right guidelines to both the students and the instructors. However, it is categorically designed, in a way, that all the topics are covered at different intervals with a surety that they utilize similar duration. The duration of study and means of moderation purely depends on the subject of study and students demand concerning a particular need addressed. Moreover, students shall be expected to include a detailed study of the first three sections while developing a projection of future progress on studies to be covered in the fourth topic as illustrated by (Attwood, 2009). 8.0 Expected activities of the learning outcome After the first orientation of the course, all the students must undergo exposed on relevant activities and objectives required learning activities of the program. With an a id of the pbworks system, the student are exposed to what is termed as cons. The above is a link that take students sequentially in understanding all the activities that is expected of them even in absence of the instructor. Moreover, the learning approach to divert from the usual structures towards a permanent linguistic model. The above design is vital to the process of learning Turkish language since it enables the students to practice their best line of interest throughout the language learning process (Jonassen, 1994). Moreover, by associating students with peers’ in-group discussions, the syllabus gains a possibility of being inverted to achieve the utmost best result of the course. The following includes the desired result after attending some of the main topics. In order to alert the students concerning new activities introduced into the pbworks, icon (new= yeni) is used to embrace an alert process (Davies, et al. (1991). 9.0 Major stages of Turkish language study Studying Turkish language is a development process that requires six-week duration of study. However, the syllabus is moderated tackling a specific area of study every week. For instance, Week 1 - 2 Students get introduced to the first approach of listening skills as indicated in the pbworks system. This stage does not require students to have learnt Turkish language previously as every student is given equal opportunity to listen to simple speech concerning what they are expected to cover throughout the whole course. Week 2 - 3 The second to third week of study is are succeeding weeks of what has been learnt in the previous week. At the second week, students are introduced to further incite of listening activity. The students are exposed to slight grammatical aspects and vocabulary structures thus helps in reduction of simple lexical errors. Week 3 - 4 The duration of study, allow students to take their first simple self evaluation tests such as intonations and vocabularies as this would enable them to gain confidence in taking the succeeding exams. Moreover, it acts as an overview in reduction of redundancies that students experiences in every linguistic study. Week 4 -5 This is where the actual assessment moderated by the instructor starts from. At this stage, students carry out assessments through the guidance of the instructors and submit their files for marking to determine the grammatical, written and spoken skills that have been learnt since the admission to this course. The grades at this evaluation stage are retained for the final grading of Turkish course. Week 5 – 6 This is the final duration of study where students take ultimate study to Turkish language. The stage enable the students to review all that has been leant in the other weeks from the listening skills to written and spoken aspects. Moreover, it is also, where the final evaluation takes place to determine if a student has gained any development throughout the learning of this course. The stage is considered incomplete until the students undertake their final assessment tests. It has also been pointed out that all the six- week duration must be accompanied by the following concepts of study. Facilitation – Meyer & Land (2003) illustrates that extending the training of Turkish language to the level of group work does not eliminate active role of instructors. Instead, it helps to foster the accessibility to extra contents outside the classroom that guides the learning process thus helping to improve the development of language assertion and enhances the growth of information. Development of social contract – learning of Turkish language entails active participation of all students in all topics of study. Therefore, it allows the students to interact with each other more often through speech and phrasal expressions thus improving connectives and connective language that are best developed by means of group work and group interactions (Meyer & Land, 2003). Besides, it helps in fostering the syllabus through conservation, interactions and discussions because without the active involvement of learners of Turkish language, the structure and moderation Turkish language study will otherwise remain limited. Open accreditation – despite major challenges that are associated with training and the deliverable of learning Turkish language, the study is based on training models that give students more privilege to discuss topics of the study that they feel require some adjustments. This type of accreditation is different from traditional models of learning linguistic research because it allows accreditation to determine if learners of this language are gaining any substantial knowledge through the learning topics of study. It is also vital to the moderation of peripheral aspect of phrasal studies that help students to gained informed decisions concerning the learning process and whatever the linguistic gains they are capable of receiving throughout the division and association by other learners who are also taking a similar type of study from the other departments (Meyer & Land, 2003). Curriculum design - Being a comprehensive study that embraces the design principles needed to improving both grammatical and spoken aspect of linguistic research, Turkish language study embraces several principles of linguistic studies, but the most general principles includes include some amongst the following 9.1 Syllabus jewels As identified by Cousin (2006), jewel is mainly used to define major transformational joints of the linguistic research embodied with the threshold to cover necessary points of experience while identifying the most important factors of the mastery of language. In addition, relenting more focus on the use of jewels instigates richer aspects of grammatical research that is necessary for identifying areas of instructors concerning specific areas where students may encounter problems and conceptual hindrances in linguistic studies. Listening aspect - The curriculum of Turkish language also covers listening a view of the language studies. As such, it provides instructors easy time to be able to trace and carry out corrective measures concerning specific areas of coverage where students may have misunderstood language progressive instructions. Such engagements allow for mutual productive interactions in solving linguistic problems concerning the basic understanding of each student’s level of understanding. Other than concentrating on the lexical problems performed by students, instructors will be in a position to determine the listening skills and comprehend the understanding of the students at every subject of study because this is vital in shaping up the student level in understanding the language study (Meyer & Land, 2003). The assessment process After every one week duration of study, students undertake an assessment process by checking into a form contain five question and five marks that enable them to make varied choices concerning what has been covered. The form is then uploaded to the instructor where it is retained until the end of the course and used in the ultimate grading process. Form usage as indicated above applies to all the skills of studying Turkish language. Embracing room to correct erroneous confusions - Through this view, Turkish language instructors have been given the responsibility to embrace and make necessary corrections to students’ chances of confusion that may arise during the course moderation period. In addition, the concept is designed in such a way that no student including the international students who are taking Turkish linguistic study of the first should develop fear of being neglected concerning the coverage of difficult topics of the linguistic studies. Consequently, by embracing room for a correction of erroneous confusion students also get opportunities to develop their skills while avoiding chances of fear and stigma that might lead to chances of resorting to plagiarism as a way of gaining success through the course clarifies (Carr, 2010). 10.0 Technology and Turkish language assessment Students taking Turkish language subscribe to a language account where they get specific platforms to carry out an assessment, go through the course contents, checks on expected outcomes amongst other desired requirements within the course. With an aid of such technological platform, students taking Turkish language get into direct contact with their instructor where they can find all the relevant information concerning the course submits their assignments for markings and find relevant updates concerning Turkish language study. Besides, the platform is designed such that it allows for integration of students accounts to their face book portals where they can easily receive instant messages when there is a need. It also enables students to communicate back concerning the necessary amendments or what they feel should be implemented into the course curriculum. Other than taking self-evaluation assessment every week through the platform, Turkish linguistic students undertake technological assessment to determine their level of competencies. It is perceived that the reliability and validity aspect of technology puts it in a better place to be used as a grammatical assessment tool notably in determining the progress of students perusing second stage of Turkish language with results projected in a table at the end of the evaluation process. The academic curriculum also explores different stages of assessing the process with attention to the role that technology plays in the assessment of Turkish linguistic students. Besides, it also provides credible reports concerning the curriculum defects and basic alternatives on how such defects can be corrected. Away from the literal aspect of linguistic assessment, technological assessment covers beyond the typical objectives and tackle the following assessment objective mainly meant to improve both grammatical and spoken aspect of Turkish linguistic (Bhalerao & Ward, 2001). Diagnostic aspect that is meant to discover the needs of the students Placement view that entails allocating to students duties to perform at group levels Proficiency aspect, which tries to determine how best a student has absorbed every stage of learning Formative relevance that entails the feedback from learners as an element to be used in determining future learning alternatives of this course. Based on Timothy & Abarbanel (1999) assumptions, technological assessment mechanism is not applied as a mutual assessment method, but it is mainly used as a preliminary to a secondary function. For instance, the information feedback that is acquired from the students reports at the end of the assessment period may be used as a determinant to improving students’ success in the other subsequent levels of learning. 10.1 How technology affects the assessment process The application of technology as a media tool in the learning of Turkish progressive language creates direct and imminent results on what level of achievements do students acquire in every level of such study. However, the process is considered comprehensive when an experienced instructor who gives a concise of what is considered best practices from an overall evaluation process finally interprets the actual results from the computer system. By incorporating technological assessment in Turkish linguistic studies, students become assured that the evaluation criteria is valid and not capable of entertaining chances of plagiarism and may not generate erroneous grades compared to when the evaluation procedure is carried out physically. Besides, the use technological assessment also demonstrate a culture of openness while uplifting the evaluation process to a level of internationality thus creating room for comparison with other levels of linguistic study (Timothy & Abarbanel,1999). Technology also easily determines the level of students’ speech performance based on the choice of options of texts and dialogs. Skills such as the ones above can be addressed by use of a unique program that allows for audio recording thus making easier to determine the level of progress. With the aid of technological programs, the evaluation processes are simplified such that the examiner can easily point out mistakes that students have incurred during the writing process (Timothy & Abarbanel, 1999, Smythe, 2006). 11.0 Instructors’ and students role through training of Turkish language Pursuant of success in training of Turkish language based on a new learning environment relates to the relevant classroom activities together with roles played by instructors and students who are both involved in the participatory of ensuring that the right outcome is achieved. On the contrary to traditional language moderation system of study, all the students must be actively engaged in class work studies to ensure that the result achieved is based on team work rather that an independent perspective. Once registered to undertake the course proceedings, any other person would be considered as an active member of Turkish language learning process. the above mentioned persons’ are both vital to improving Turkish grammatical and written language learning process, but the instructors roles are quite distinct as they incorporate the following functions • Facilitation of the communication process through active classroom support concerning all relevant activities of study • To act as an active participant coordinating the actual learning process of all the groups • Engages in active teaching support as an instructor and researcher in delivering the knowledge at the best interest of the institution 12.0 Conclusion The ultimate aim of this paper was to provide coherent analysis while offering the relevant rationale concerning the need and procedural stages incurred in learning Turkish language. Besides, it demonstrates how the earned knowledge becomes vital to improving students’ needs in their daily lives. Moreover, to come up a comprehensive curriculum of the above course, technological aspects must be combined with the other methods of evaluation to ensure that students receive relevant substantial development. Reference list Biggs, J.B. (2003). Teaching for quality learning at university. Buckingham: Open University Press/Society for Research into Higher Education. (Second edition) University of Wollongong, (2002) Code of Practice - Teaching & Assessment (2003)http://www.uow.edu.au/about/teaching/teaching_code.html#group. Accessed 26th February, 2002. Bloom, B.S. (Ed.). (1956-1964). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York: David McKay Company Inc.. Moon, J (2002) the module and programmer development handbook. London: Kogan Page Chapter 6: "Writing and using assessment criteria", pp 79-106. ©Jennifer Moon, 2002. Reproduced by permission of Taylor & Francis Books UK. Carless, D. (2007). Learning-oriented assessment: conceptual bases and practical implications .University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Innovations in Education and Teaching International Vol. 44, No. 1, February 2007, pp. 57–66.\ Timothy A. Pychyl, Darlene Clarke & Tracy Abarbanel (1999) Computer-Mediated Group Projects: Facilitating Collaborative Learning With the World Wide Web, Teaching of Psychology, 26:2, 138-141, DOI: 10.1207/. Cousin, G. (2006). Introduction to threshold concepts Higher Education Academy .London and NewYork: Routledge. Attwood, K. (2009). “Get It Out in the Open,” Times Higher Education, September 24, Meyer, J & Land, R. (2003). Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge: Occasional Report 4, May 2003. Enhancing. Teaching-Learning Environments in Undergraduate Courses. Occasional Report 4, May 2003. Smythe D M (2006) Research paper assignments that prevent plagiarism, in Carless D et al (eds) How Assessment Supports Learning: Learning-Oriented Assessment in Action, Section 3.1, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Bhalerao, A. & Ward, A. (2001). Towards electronically assisted peer assessment: a case study. Association of learning technology Journal, 9, 26–37. Rust, C. (2005). Improving student learning Diversity and Inclusivity. Oxford: Center for staff and Learning development. Carr, N. (2010). Designing and Analyzing language Test: A hands - on introduction to language testing theory and practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Davies, B. and Durkin, M. (1991)”Skill’, ‘competence’ and ‘competencies’ in youth and community work’, Youth and Policy 34: 1-11. Orsini, M & Jones D. (2007) Arts and Humanities in Higher Education. Supporting Collaborative Grammar Learning via a Virtual. Cousin, G. (2006), in Meyer, J.H.F. and Land, R. (eds.) An introduction to threshold concepts. London and York: Routledge. permission of Taylor & Francis Books UK. Richards, J.(2013). Curriculum Approaches in Language Teaching: Forward, Central, and Backward Design. University of Sydney, Australia; RELC, Singapore 44(1) 5 –33 Rovai, A. P. (2004). A constructivist approach to online college learning. The Internet and Higher Education, 7(2), 79-93. Abbasnasab Sardareh, S., Saad, M., & Rashid, M. (2013). Malaysian Primary School ESL Teachers Questions during Assessment for Learning. English Language Teaching, 6(8). Seker, M., & Dincer, A. (2014). An Insight to Students’ Perceptions on Teacher Feedback in Second Language Writing Classes. English Language Teaching, 7(2), p73. Palincsar, A. S., & Herrenkohl, L. R. (2002). Designing collaborative learning contexts. Theory into practice, 41(1), 26-32. Ozsevik, Z. (2010). The Use of Communicative Language Teaching (Clt): Turkish Efl Teachers ’ perceived Difficulties In Implementing Clt In Turkey (Doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois). Morales, S. & Ferreira, A. (2008). La efectividad de un modelo de aprendizaje combinado para la enseñanza de inglés como lengua ex- tranjera Lingüística Teórica y Aplicada, 46 (2), 95-118. Shanahan M & Meyer, J.H.F. (2006), The troublesome nature of a threshold concept in economics, in Meyer, J.H.F. and Land, R. (eds.),Overcoming Barriers to student understanding: threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge, London and New York: Routledge. Jonassen, D. H. (1994). Computers in schools: Mindtools for critical thinking. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press. Colis, B., & Moonen, J. (2001). Flexible learning in a digital world: Experiences and expectations. London: Kogan-Page. Wolf, A. (2002) Does Education Matter. Myths about education and economic growth, London: Penguin books. Kennedy, D., Hyland, A., & Ryan, N. (2007). Writing and using learning outcomes. A Practical Guide. Read More