CIU offers Turkish lessons to foreign students

Senior year students in the Department of Turkish Language Teaching of Cyprus International University (CIU), Faculty of Education, embarked on a project to teach Turkish to foreign students studying at the Democracy Secondary School. 

The program designed to span over a period of  10 weeks and to be held four times a week, was  organized within the scope of the  social responsibility activities performed by the Department of Turkish Language Teaching students.

Project Manager Dr. Esra Karakaş Kurt noted that the high school students participated in the Turkish language education class on a voluntary basis, and the prospective teachers who contributed were namely Ezgi Nur Çetin, Selver Çakır, Bahtiyar Tınas, Hasan Mert Toprak and Melek İbrahimoğlu.

Kurt said that families were asked to grant permission to those foreign students to attend these classes offered on the premises of the Democracy Secondary School.  Yunus Emre Institute's "I'm Learning Turkish" set was used as the teaching material. 

Noting that teaching Turkish to foreign students is an important issue, Kurt stated it is highly important for foreign students to learn Turkish because as such they will feel themselves included in the learning process.

Kurt pointed out that allowing foreign students to start attending classes without knowing any Turkish is an important problem in the education system. She added that  the pre-service teachers noticed this problem in their practicum classes and hence embarked on this project to solve it.

She also noted that they were happy to observe foreign students trying to communicate in Turkish in these classes.  Kurt also said, "I am proud our prospective teachers and thank them for this long-term education they carried out voluntarily, and I wish them a bright future in their career."

At the end of the 10-week long program, Emine Garanti, Principal  of Democracy Secondary School, and Dean of CIU Faculty of Education Prof. Dr. Halil İbrahim Yalın presented certificates of appreciation to Ezgi Nur Çetin, Selver Çakır, Bahtiyar Tınas, Hasan Mert Toprak and Melek İbrahimoğlu, who gave these Turkish lessons to foreign students on a voluntary basis.