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An Overview of Turkey’s Policy Development in TESOL and Multilingualism

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Policy Development in TESOL and Multilingualism

Abstract

The present chapter examines the underlying assumptions about multilingualism, English language education, and language planning that establish Turkey’s multilingual education policy. As an economically and geopolitically advancing country, Turkey has accelerated shaping her image in the international arena by changing perspectives on language planning and policy implementation regarding minority languages and foreign language education. It exemplifies a stellar context embodying different learner populations: (a) the “indigenous’ for whom the language at school and suppressed home language are not the same (i.e., Kurdish-speaking children in Eastern Anatolia); (b) the “displaced” Syrian children whose home language differs from the societal and educational language in Turkey, where they currently reside; and (c) the learners whose everyday language perfectly aligns with the medium of instruction in the education system in Turkey, yet they fall through the cracks, left behind with negative consequences of English as a foreign (EFL) language instruction. The present chapter will further extend (Kırkgöz in RELC J 38:216–228, 2007; Educ Policy 23:663–684, 2009) discussions on Turkey’s EFL polity by distilling the educational policy discussions through a multilingual framework. This chapter discusses the linguistic policy and planning practices regarding the domestic minority language of Kurdish, Syrian refugee integration “presenting a unique picture with the highest number of Syrian refugee [children] after the outbreak of civil war in Syria in 2011” (Ünal-Gezer in Eurasian J Appl Linguist 5(2):303–322, 2019), and EFL instruction in Turkey through multilingualism. Diversity is the reality of Turkey and only when it is embraced, will it leverage access to languages and multicultural and multilingual development with an intact identity and heritage. The linguistic choices of nations bear disguised messages about the value put into a language or the appreciation of certain ethnic groups and their heritage (Reynolds in Language policy in globalized contexts (RR3.2019; WISE Research Series). World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE). Retrieved from https://www.wise-qatar.org/language-policy-in-globalized-contexts/).

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge Prof. Dr. Yasemin Kırkgöz for her support in this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. TED University, Ankara, Turkey

    Melike Ünal Gezer

  2. Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Laurie Quentin Dixon

Authors
  1. Melike Ünal Gezer
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  2. Laurie Quentin Dixon
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Correspondence to Melike Ünal Gezer .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of English, Foundation Program, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar

    Kashif Raza

  2. Dubai Men’s College, Higher Colleges of Technology, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Christine Coombe

  3. Carnegie Mellon University Qatar, Doha, Qatar

    Dudley Reynolds

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Gezer, M.Ü., Dixon, L. (2021). An Overview of Turkey’s Policy Development in TESOL and Multilingualism. In: Raza, K., Coombe, C., Reynolds, D. (eds) Policy Development in TESOL and Multilingualism. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3603-5_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3603-5_20

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