Problems in Language and Culture Differences for Kurdish Students - Research Paper Example

Adoption Problems in Language and Culture Differences For Kurdish INTRODUCTION In Turkey, apart from few public schools and private schools, no other language is allowed except Turkish (Web). 2012 witnessed the inception of Kurdish language in schools as an optional course. Still, this was not received as sufficient enough to place Kurdish students in Turkey’s educational system (Creese 224). According to Creese (224), in 2013, Turkish Prime Minister declared that Kurdish could be used as a second media of instruction in private schools and not in public schools. Nonetheless, this is still very contentious. Researchers have majorly focused on bilingualism that is a happening in most countries (Creese 225). Bilingual education implies that the kind of educational programs that accommodate two more than languages that are taught and used in academic instruction. There have been divided opinions on the vernacular in relation to multicultural and bilingual system of education in Turkey (Web). As per the current worldwide situation, it is necessary for people to be proficient in more two or more languages so that they can operate efficiently within the different societies. 1.1. Research Question: Do Kurdish students who come from East to west have problems to adopt the language and cultural differences? 1.2. Research Objectives and Goals: 1. To understand the language barriers Kurdish students encounter in Istanbul. 2. To comprehend the culture differences Kurdish students encounter in Istanbul. 3. To investigate whether language barriers and culture differences impact the way Kurdish students perform at universities. 1.3. Justification for the study This study is relevant as provides knowledge on cultural aspects in learning Kurdish, a knowledge that can be harnessed to enable the students become better Kurdish speakers and writers. The relationship between culture and language would be used by teacher in teaching the students on how to better their speaking and writing skills. The study will show the connection between the culture and speaking Kurdish, an area that has been of limited scholarly attention. It will, therefore, add to the currently scantly body of knowledge on the concept of culture and language teaching. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW The culturally diverse teaching approach has turned to be an indispensable requirement in the majority of the states where minority populations are growing rapidly. According to multicultural education proponents, a country’s education system should offer equal opportunity and access to high-quality education to each and every citizen without discriminating against any. Skutnabb-Kangas (23) argues that education should satisfy the learning expectations of students coming from different ethnic backgrounds, socio-economic, and migrant students who live in the society. Altinyelken (175) says that multicultural education aims at offering training in learning institutions or schools based on the principle of equality for students from different cultures, social classes, language differences, and ethnicities. According to Gunderson (697), this school approach is also aimed at ensuring equal conditions without gender discrimination, for them to demonstrate their academic success. Polat (34) defines an inclusive or multicultural education as one that has its programs reflecting diverse cultural and ethnic lives, and also considering lives of different gender groups, their values and cultures. Altinyelken (176) describes an inclusive education as one that is culturally plural, socially equal, as well as one that embraces all the different languages that exist in that particular region. According to him, all the school programs should reflect the differences of all the learners. Tortumluoglu et al., (172) support this claim by stating that multicultural education is one that embraces cultural pluralism and rejects discrimination. These include language, ethnic, religious, racial, gender, economic sidelining. They add that it is the best known way of sustaining collective cultures and shared values in society. Multicultural education was formed as a reaction against mono-cultural system that was indented towards raising racism, aggression and apathy. According to research findings, a student who sticks to his culture has little chances of knowing different lifestyles found in other values and beliefs (Atay & Ayse 34). Such student may also fail to recognize the diversity of worldviews. In fact, he can perceive these aspects as an insignificant part of humanity. Vygotsky (1978) proposed that experiences gained within a culture with a pronounced impact on a person’s development, languages, concepts and symbols together with gaining of cultural experience, are pertinent for mental development of an individual. These experiences also give an insight of the seriousness of the cultural and language bounds. In unity with this view, researchers, like Ammann (1012) accentuate that language develops alongside culture. They proceed to mention the importance of awareness about behavior within a person’s group experiences. When referring to multicultural education, it is compulsory to mention the aspects of culture and language since language, culture and multicultural education are closely interrelated terms and concepts. For instance, language as a concept, is intertwined with culture. In addition, multicultural education approaches are termed as bilingual or even multicultural language education. Several report findings have observed that culture and language have a significant influence in the learning lives of people. From their studies, Rhodes (67) reported that Hispanic students who take part in bilingual education activities in schools are more successful academically than an average Spanish student. A similar study indicates that students who take part in multilingual education programs tend to apply the use of their mother language later in their lives compared to those who fail to take part in these programs. As stated above, students living or learning in different cultures and with multilingual education perform differently from those whose knowledge is grounded on an understanding of the state of the nation. Turkey as a country has been ruled for years, by the mindset of a nation-state (Helms-Lorenz et al., 10). It has been a country that has made little progress concerning multicultural education. This occurs in spite of the fact that turkey is a multicultural society with several subcultures. Notably, the Kurds, having a population of around fifteen million, they had been legally denied their culture and language besides being ignored in their country for many years (Helms-Lorenz et al., 10). This mindset of denying different languages their culture and language as well as viewing them as a threat forms the greatest hindrance to their students acquiring education in turkey. As a result of such practices, the Kurdish students who come from East to West experience problems of adopting language differences, as well as cultural differences. According to research findings, these students continually face language barriers, particularly in Istanbul (Van Bruinessen 47). These language barriers originate from the differences in the cultures of the students, and those in Istanbul. In fact, being a minority language, the Kurdish students have always faced many challenges in their attempt to secure quality education in the West. They are not conversant with the language being spoken in Istanbul. For them to cope well with learning in the West, they are compelled to hire language experts who can translate whatever is being taught. This venture is quite expensive, and not all of these students are can afford these services. This, therefore, negatively affects their academic performance since some of them do not understand the content being learned. The multicultural social structure of turkey needs to be reduced to one that can create a cultural richness with several languages and cultures. The schools in the West should also consider this multicultural structure and embrace multilingual and multicultural education programs (Edmonds 90). This study hence intends to reveal Istanbul’s need for multilingual and multicultural education. In addition, within the framework of the multilingual and multicultural education, the study seeks to refer to the significant place of Kurdish language. It also asserts the legitimacy of the demand of the Kurdish for quality education, particularly in Istanbul. Lastly, the study demonstrates how Kurdish language ought to be included in the curriculum in the West. 3. METHODOLOGY The purpose of this study is to examine the need of having a multicultural education system in Turkey. It also needed to establish value that the Kurdish language teaching needs to take place at every level of the educational system in the Turkish ranging from primary to universities. 2. 3. 3.1. Choice of Research Method (Qualitative; eight semi structured interviews) Qualitative research method was employed. This was because the language being a complex aspect; it entails peoples’ views and opinions, qualitative research design, were the most suitable method to employ in this study. 3.2. Target Group This study was carried out with eight individuals who live in different regions in Turkey and even abroad. In this study, the participants were purposively chosen, and they consisted of three teachers, four students and one academician who are a faculty member in the realm of education in Turkey. 3.3. Sampling A purposive sampling technique was used in data collection processes. 3.4. Data Collection Data was collected through interview. Eight open-ended question interviews were used to examine the necessity of multicultural educational system in Turkey and the educational requirement for Kurdish language. During the arrangements of the interview, the researcher finished a literature review relating to multicultural education system and the need for Kurdish language education. For the purpose of ensuring the reliability, opinions were first obtained from the experts. The researcher contacted the participants through e-mails and further obtained data by using face-to-face interviews with students, teachers in that University. The semi-structured interview was faintly audio-taped and then transcribed to enhance data content analysis. 3.5. Data Analysis The research used content analysis to analyze the data. The Participants’ answers ware noted down, and common opinions summarized for easier analysis. The analysis was based on the interview questions directed to the members. Each question was analyzed differently, and the dialogue was presented at the end of each question, while main points were highlighted for quick analysis. 3.6. Research Findings and Interpretation The findings of this qualitative study reveals that Turkey needs to firstly, reform the educational system of native languages. The schools should do so to accommodate programs and better approaches that help in eliminating the language barrier for students who communicate in Kurdish as a vernacular or have a little understanding of Kurdish. This study further reveals that the Turkey government should provide a multicultural curriculum which would assist students, faculty, and the staff to be more of advocates for multicultural sensitization (Van et al., 204). This type of awareness shall inform on the ways whereby teachers, counselors, and the administrators serve all students equally. The majority of the respondents defined vernacular as the first language that an individual learns. They added that is the language that relates to a person’s ethnic origin. The majority of the respondents postulated that vernacular is a fundamental right and language that relates to an element of their social dialogue, and emphasized that there was a need for education in vernacular. 4. CONCLUSION Multilingual education seems to be very necessary. It is thought that individuals who passed through this type of education system develop as multilingual group and become aware of these differences. Moreover, the ability to use a particular language correctly entails the social rules involved in communication in a given community. This calls for one adequately to comprehend the impact of social factors on speech conduct while teaching the learners as this will play a role in understanding the influence of the cultural diversity. Additionally, it has been noted that various people adopt different aspect of culture to speak a given language based on the communities that they are coming from (Van et al., 204).This agrees with the finding as they slightly varied across the native origin of the participants. The results indicated that as far as reading is concerned, then majority of the Kurdish students are fluent in it. The only difference is on the accent. It was noted that the participants spoke with various accents. This can only be linked to their specific country of origin (Van et al., 204). Additionally, realization of the students’ culture results into increased critical thinking. This is because that the student will be more imaginative and have a sensitivity of culture in developing the written script. This will be done on the process of improving the communication and reading abilities. The aim of the study was accomplished since the study successfully examined the extent to which culture awareness is vital in enhancing the writing skills. This was done by evaluating communication, reading together with writing capability among the participants from different tribes before and after administering a cultural awareness course (Cummins 24). It is however evident that the students wrote well notwithstanding their origins. Moreover, the results emphasized that cultural awareness plays a critical role in developing both the reading as well as the writing skills of a student. Therefore, the ability for one to write well depends on ones level of knowledge of the different culture. Works Cited Altinyelken, Hulya Kosar. "Coping strategies among internal migrant students in Turkey." International Journal of Educational Research 48.3 (2009): 174-183. Ammann, Birgit. "Kurds in Germany." Encyclopedia of Diasporas. Springer US, 2005. 1011- 1019. Atay, Derin, and Ayse Ece. "Multiple identities as reflected in English-language Education: The Turkish perspective." Journal of Language, Identity, and Education 8.1 (2009): 21-34. Barkey, Henri J. Turkeys Kurdish question. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2000. Creese, Angela. "Language, ethnicity and the mediation of allegations of racism: Negotiating diversity and sameness in multilingual school discourses." 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