Prospectus

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Pre-Intermediate Turkish

Course
2017-2018

Admission requirements

Beginner’s Turkish 2.
This course goes in parallel with Turkish through Media, both courses must be taken simultaneously.

Description

Through a communicative approach, Pre-Intermediate Turkish emphasizes lower-intermediate conversational skills without underestimating grammar. All four skills (reading, writing, speaking and listening) are integrated into the course. New grammar topics include but are not limited to the future, the reported past, the aorist, the abilitative, the epistemic copula, the aorist, nominalizations, and converbs to express adverbial subordination. Reading activities are solely based on authentic texts to provide access to naturally-occurring language tailored for students’ needs and interests. Speaking and listening activities underlie real communicative events with information gaps. By the end of the fourth block, students will have developed a pre-intermediate to intermediate proficiency level of Turkish grammar and vocabulary as well as pre-intermediate communication skills (A2), and will have become ready to take the next level (B1).

Course objectives

  • Grammar: In this course, further Turkish morpho-syntax will introduced. By the end of the course, students will have learned to accurately use the future, the reported past, the aorist as well as some combinations of these from the perspective of the past, present and future. In addition to these tense and aspect markers, some basic modals, nominalizations and converbs will also be introduced.

  • Vocabulary and use: Students will continue building on their existing vocabulary through communicative activities as well as texts. New vocabulary will include words related with family, careers, hobbies, history, story-telling, world cultures, geography, the media, health and travel.

  • Reading: Students will become able to find specific information in everyday texts, understand short and simple letters, follow directions and understand the course of events in narrative style.

  • Writing: By the end of the course, students will be able to write short descriptions of events and states, and personal letters.

  • Spoken interaction: We will emphasize spoken interaction since language is primarily for interacting with people. By the end of the course, students will be able to interact with other speakers of Turkish for simple and routine tasks.

  • Listening: By the end of the course, students will be able to recognize high-frequency words and phrases, understand the main point in spoken form that is short and clear and of immediate relevance.

  • Speaking: By the end of the second block, students will have a pre-intermediate level of spoken production, and will become able to talk about events with reference to past, present and future, narrate events and stories in meaningful ways.

European Common Framework goals after fulfilling Pre-Intermediate Turkish:

  • Listening: A1

  • Reading: A2

  • Spoken interaction: A2

  • Spoken production: A2

  • Writing: A2

Timetable

Timetable

Mode of instruction

Seminar with mandatory attendance.
Class participation is extremely important in learning a language. It is even more important in learning a language for which the classroom context is the main source of input. You are therefore required to attend every session. The percentage of absence may affect your grade. In case you have to be absent in order to observe any religious holidays during the semester, you must let the instructor know within the first two weeks of class through email. Assignments or projects are expected to be submitted on time. Deadlines will be enforced strictly with exceptions like documentation from a hospital or athletic/academic excused absences. Mobile phones and electronic devices are allowed only if they are used for classroom purposes, such as when using a dictionary app.

Course Load

Total: 280 hours

  • Lectures: 90hours

  • Assessment: 10 hours

  • Class preparation: 90 hours

  • Homework assignments: 90 hours

Assessment method

Student performance in this course will be based on the following distribution:

  • Quizzes: 4 × 50 points 20%

  • Creative projects: 2 × 100 points 20%

  • Homework assignments: 10 × 20 points 20%

  • Midterm exam: 150 points 15%

  • Final exam: 250 points 25%
    Total: 1000 points 100%

  • Quizzes: At the end of each module, you will be given a quiz. Each quiz will take about 15 minutes and cover topics of grammar, vocabulary and communicative interaction from the relevant module.

  • Creative project: There will be a project at the end of each block. The first one will be a presentation on a topic related to the Turkish culture. The second one will be a poetry recitation event at the end of the semester.

  • Homework assignments: You will be given 10 homework assignments during the semester. These will be based on both previous material for review and on future material to prepare for the next module.

  • Midterm exam: The midterm exam will be at the end of the first block. It will be based on all the content and skills covered in Block 3. It will be in two parts, a written part which includes grammar, vocabulary, use, reading and listening, and an oral part which includes speaking and spoken interaction.

Final exam: The final exam will be in the same format as the midterm exam. It will include content and skills covered in both blocks with more emphasis on Block 4.

Important note: The resit exam is a make up for your scores for the midterm and the final exam only.

Blackboard

Blackboard will be used for course information (syllabus and deadlines), course documents (homework assignments and review materials for each module), announcements, student grade center and for some occasional links to websites of Turkish language and culture.

Reading list

The main textbook is Yeni Hitit Yabancılar için Türkçe Ders Kitabı 1 (TÖMER Ankara Üniversitesi Yayınları) for both blocks.
A supplementary reference grammar A Student Grammar of Turkish (Nihan Ketrez, 2012, Cambridge University Press) is also required.

We will also be using a number of extra materials to supplement this book. The extra materials include grammar and vocabulary exercises, reading activities based on authentic texts, writing activities, listening activities, guidelines for spoken interaction in the classrooom. You will be given hard-copies of these materials. Soft-copies will also be uploaded to Blackboard, under “course documents.”

Registration

Enrolment through uSis is mandatory.
General information about uSis is available in English and Dutch

Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs

Not applicable.

Contact

Dr. D. Tat

Remarks