Teaching Turkish through Turkish novels - Essay Example

Teaching Turkish through Turkish Novels TEACHING TURKISH THROUGH TURKISH NOVELS GRACE SARKAR Order No. 417747 02 March TEACHING TURKISH THROUGH TURKISH NOVELS Lesson Proposal This paper proposes to provide insight into teaching the Turkish language by the use of Turkish novels. Teaching Turkish through Turkish Novels The Turkish culture is specially endowed with novels for the purpose of teaching and learning the Turkish language. Teaching a new language or learning one’s mother tongue becomes especially gainful when there is good collection of books that tell a story, narrate events, or simply convey daily situations in beautiful prose (Dino, Guzine; 1986).

The Turkish language is blessed with significant writers who took pains to write exquisite books portraying life around a plethora of backgrounds and events that had readers glued to the books they wrote. They are interesting and make the business of language learning so much simpler and easier (Dino, Guzine; 1986). Introduction/Rationale Turkey is the only Islamic nation in Europe. It is westernized and has better proportion of educated populace. Undoubtedly, it is personally as well as economically beneficial to learn the Turkish language.

Aims and Objectives of Using Novels in Turkish Language Learning To aim and objective of this paper is to teach the Turkish language by the use of Turkish novels. The use of novels arouse the student’s interests and he is willing to spend more time in reading the novel which translates to spending more time to learning the language. Teaching Turkish through Turkish novels is a wonderful challenge. The teacher has only to encourage the hesitant student to take the plunge. The process may be slow initially because the student has to stop time and again to check grammar and vocabulary.

But soon, armed with improving language, the student will gain confidence and discard the use of grammar text books and the dictionary. Today, learning the Turkish language using novels makes learning a quicker and simpler proposition. It works well when these novels are translated into English or the learner’s mother tongue. The student can then read the novel in his own language and then continue with the novel in the Turkish language. Materials: There are various novels. For instance, there is Turkish Peasant Novel or the Anatolian Theme (Dino, Guzine; 1986).

Anatolia until Alexander the Great (Anatolia until Alexander the Great, 2000) Suggested Readings A History of Muslim Philosophy (Development of Turkish Prose and Poetry) Elementary Turkish (Öztopçu, Dr. Kurtuluş; 2006) Persian and Turkish Languages and Cultures (TCMO) (Schaaik, Gerjan van) Procedures: The course may be done in 3 or 4 months, beginning with the basics of the Turkish language, under a teacher of the Turkish language. Intense study for 1to 2 hours daily will be required to be made.

Evaluation: This depends on the capacity of the student to learn, and a written test at the end of the course. Some basic expressions can be learnt fairly quickly. Simple expressions such as: Ne yapıyorsun? (What are you doing?), Evli misiniz? (Are you married?), or Selam Özge, nereden geliyorsun? (Hi Ozge, where are you from?) are capable of being learnt fast. However, grammar and vocabulary takes time. But novel reading helps in learning grammar and vocabulary faster (Öztopçu, Dr. Kurtuluş; 2006).

Sources: Anatolia until Alexander the Great, 02 February 2000, http://www.turkishodyssey.com/turkey/history/history1.htm Department of Turkish Language Education, http://egitim.baskent.edu.tr/english/tlep.pdf Development of Turkish Prose and Poetry, Turkish Literature, A History of Muslim Philosophy, http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/hmp/LIV-Fifty-four.pdf Dino, Guzine; The Turkish Peasant Novel, or the Anatolian Theme, 1986, http://www.jstor.org/pss/40141696 Esen, Nuket; The Turkish Novel, http://www.lingfil.uu.

se/afro/turkiskasprak/IP2007/Nuket2007.pdf Mevlana, Celebi, http://www.exploreturkey.com/exptur.phtml?id=239 Öztopçu, Dr. Kurtuluş; Elementary Turkish, 2006, http://www.elementaryturkish.com/content/ Schaaik, Gerjan van; Department of Arabic, Persian and Turkish Languages and Cultures (TCMO), Information Technology & Teaching Turkish, http://www.lingfil.uu.se/info/GerjanvanSchaaik.pdf The Turkish Library, June 2005, http://www.unionsverlag.com/pdf/turkish-library.pdf Turkish minorities on Greek Aegean islands deprived of their rights, Sunday’s Zaman, 28 February 2010, http://www.

sundayszaman.com/sunday/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=149837 Turkone, Mumtazer; The Turkish education system and the official ideology, 18 July 2009, http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/columnists-181252-the-turkish-education-system-and-the-official-ideology.html