U L U S L A R A R A S I DÜNYA DİLLERİ
ÜNİVERSİTESİ (IUWL – UDDÜ)
Doç. Dr. Ahmet GÜNGÖR
Greetings!
00.00.03: Mother tongue education, the teaching of foreign languages, and the teaching of Turkish as a foreign language are of among the most important present-day problems in Turkey.
00.00.14: Furthermore, this includes students from abroad studying in Turkey, coupled with increased world interest in the Turkish language.
00.00.28:Case in point, we spend $6 billion dollars on foreign languages annually.
00.00.38: According to the statistics done, $6 billion dollars is a very low spending amount for foreign languages.
00.00.47:A1, A2, B1, B2, and C1-level foreign language training is being done through higher education and private foreign language institutions.
00.01.08:Turks need to have a bang for their buck, given all this remarkable spending.
00.01.20:The issue before us, therefore, stems the whole of language teaching.
00.01.25:Also, worth noting, the recent decision in Turkey toboost private universities.
00.01.40:Efforts to increase the number of such universities in the past year are admirable in terms of powerful management.
00.01.49:There is thus a need to upgrade the International World Languages University as part-in-parcel with the state’s establishing of private universities as a means of solving the issues surrounding foreign language teaching.
00.02.00: As we all know Turkey has had, for over two centuries, a continual history of language teaching and education.
00.02.05:Until the end of the Ottoman Period, we know that Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Turkish were taught.
00.02.18:History has however taught us that the teaching of Arabic, Persian, and western languages hasn’t been enough.
00.02.34: Furthermore, our Turkologists go abroad to universities like the Sorbonne and Harvard etc. to complete their PhDs in Ottoman Turkish.
00.02.55: The teaching of the languages of Islam, Arabic and Persian, are still in their infancy.
00.03.27: Our universities don’t even have an Arabic <>Turkish Translation and Interpretation department.
00.03.32:The number of Turkologists with knowledge of Chinese, which has 1.5 billion speakers, is countable on one hand.
00.03.39:We also crave those who know Hindi, again the language of another 1 billion people.
00.03.42: We therefore must think about the importance knowing the languages over 1.5 billion Chinese and 1 billion Indians, in terms of Turkey’s cultural, political, and economic strategy and, respectively, our academic communities, private and public-corporate institutions, Ministry of the Interior, and universities.
00.04.10: Another point of note is foreign language teaching resources and textbooks patented abroad.
00.04.20:Although our universities use a great many of these materials, books, and dictionaries, we must be careful to make sure that each one is sufficient for usage.
00.04.41:Language is a bridge of friendship between countries and peoples.
00.04.46: We’re aware that there are British, German, Spanish, and French private and legal associations and foundations that make a point enriching world cultures through their respective mother other tongues as a foreign language.
00.05.01: Thus we see that putting the understanding of both culture and language at the forefront is how country succeeds.
00.05.13: In the European Union, in terms of language and culture, one principle is that every European Citizen is taught at least two foreign languages in addition to their mother tongue.
00.05.28: In the 50 – 60 year struggle in Turkey’s attempts to join the EU, there are 32 countries in Council of Europe including Croatia, Estonia, Slovenia, and Malta which are represent with respect to language teaching, whereas Turkey is still yet to be represented.
00.05.53: It can be said that the International World Languages University was to address the root of Turkey’s problem regarding mother tongue and foreign language education.
00.06.10:One must wonder whether there are examples elsewhere in the world?Undoubtedly!
00.06.15:Specifically, Kazakhstan’s World University in the city of Almaty, Uzbekistan’s World Languages University in Tashkent, as well as Azerbaijan’s own World Languages University.
00.06.27: Some of the problems we face in terms of foreign language instruction include:
- Turkey’s foreign language education policies and how they’re manifested in terms of infrastructure—how and in what form?
- Foreign language instruction and conversational skills in that foreign language.
- Mother tongue education in Turkey.
- The impact of mother tongue learning on foreign language learning.
- Many other such problems in the management and methods of foreign language teaching.
00.06.49: The problems are being are being concluded through studies and reports within the frame of the departmental level, the faculty level, and the National Ministry of Education. However, each of these problems will recur unless, within a scientific backdrop,an international, but universal language and international language university is established.
00.07.19: What interests us that Turkey ranked 43 out of 44, alongside African countries on the English Language Proficiency Index, according to the world’s leading private international group EF Education First.
00.07.40:Norway came in 1st in terms of language teaching, Germany 8th, Poland 10th, South Korea 13th, France 17th, China 29th, and Brazil 31st.
00.08.05: With being in 43rd place in mind, what amount is spent on education?
00.08.15:As we can appreciate, foreign language education should start in the first year, at the primary school level.
00.08.32: According to these statistics, the amount of money spent per person emerges as fundamental.
00.08.45:$700 million is the annual cost to the public of the Ministry of Education’s 52,000 employed English teachers. Their level—B1.
00.09.06: Outside figures indicate $9 billion spent on2nd to 12th grade classes (11 million people). The cost of per person of studying languages abroad is $20,000 – $30,000.
00.09.20: It is thought that the cost of Turkey’s 30,000 to 40,000 students studying abroad is approximately $900 million.
00.09.34:Turkey spends $6 billion annually for foreign language education on higher education-level English instructors fees, special courses, textbooks from abroad, and additional fees.
00.09.57:The yield obtained from what is spent through this budget is almost zero.
00.10.12:With this in mind, if the International World Languages University is to be established, how must it exist?
- Interdisciplinary approaches.
- Academic freedom.
- Scientific approaches.
- Student support, love, and understanding.
- Community service.
- Participatory management.
- Life-long learning.
- Environmentalism, pacifism.
- Respect for religion.
- International rights, law abiding.
- Treating all people equally regardless of gender, religion, language, race,or nationality.
- Providing the necessary solutions to challenges that may arise in the field of language training.
- Emphasizing mother tongue education with parallel purpose and tools as foreign language learning.
00.10.56:Theseare the university’s features and missions.
00.10.09:We (now) will visit the intended objectives of the teaching of Turkish to foreigners as well as foreign languages to Turks.
00.11.40What must the university feature? It’s faculties?
- Faculty of Western Languages
- Department of English
- Department of French
- Department of German
- Department of Italian
- Department of Russian
- Faculty of Eastern Languages
- Arabic
- Japanese
- Persian
- Chinese
- Hindi
- Urdu
- Hebrew
- Faculty of Translation & Interpreting
- English <>Turkish
- Arabic <>Turkish
- Chinese<>Turkish
- Japanese <>Turkish
- Persian <>Turkish
- Hindi <>Turkish
- French <>Turkish
- German <>Turkish
- Faculty of Turkology
- Turkish Language & Literature
- Kazakh Language & Literature
- Kyrgyz Language & Literature
- Turkmen Language & Literature
- Uzbek Language & Literature
- Tatar Language & Literature
- Linguistics
- Ethnology
- Department of Ottoman Turkish & Palaeography
00.12.36: As we’re all aware, there are Turkish-based studies surrounding the teaching of Ottoman Turkish, which is a 700 – 750 years old language. Should the theologians give this class I wonder?
00.12.57: Or, graduates from either the Department of Turkish Language & Literature or the Department of Archives could give it? As part of the mentioned discussion…
00.13.07: If this is to be seriously discussed, we’re thinking that there needs to be a separate Ottoman Turkish department.
00.13.20: How and in what matter must this university campus be like?
00.13.24: First and foremost, with respect to the religions, languages, and cultures to be found, the campus must first a place of peace, environmental-friendliness, and respect for nature.
00.13.40: Of the campus’s most important features, a Culture Assembly Centre would be one of our most lively and well-received spots.
00.13.48: This campus would have 500-person, 250-person, and 100-person conference halls with translation services in 18 languages.
00.14.00: A space where the Ministry of the Interior can hold conferences must be put in place. Simultaneously, this Culture Assembly Centre would have a library, our university’s central library.
00.14.15: Another particularity would be areas for interpreters and translators to practice.
00.14.26: Now, about the Kashgarli Mahmut Language Institute. Here, two possibilities. A language institute as a separate institute by itself is possible. Or, either a literature institute or a language & literature institute under the umbrella of a single institute is possible.
00.14.46: International leadership would be one of the university’s most fundamental features, alongside keeping up with Masters and Doctoral studies.
00.14.56: Therefore, this institution will, as a result of activities of international and Turkish scientists who are developing services through scientific developments and techniques, become an institution with circulating capital.
00.15.19:One of the most crucial points for our campus is, as we’re saying, that the International World Languages University is a private university-college that will bring in its revenues through language teaching centres like TÖMER or an applied research centre.
00.15.38: This campus would have branches both within Turkey and abroad. The branches will operate whereby Turkish citizens can benefit. Foreign languages can be taught to Turkish citizens, and Turkish to foreigners.
00.15.58: Student dormitories are very important to us. In order to have modern-approached dorms, they would be single, double, and triple-roomed, with bursaries given with student success in mind.
00.16.22: We feel it appropriate to be that another feature of this university would be, within the context of natural culture, religious place(s) of worship on campus— a mosque, synagogue, Buddhist temple, and church.
00.16.41: In other words, suitable houses of worship.
00.16.50: Another thing, an R&D research and development centre.
00.16.56:
00.17.09: We’ve also been thinking about a language museum, one that no other university has, including indoor and outdoor areas.
00.17.26: The zoo—as part of the concept of our university being environmentally friendly, we are thinking about animals, a zoo with animals, whether wild or domesticated.
00.17.46: Let’s say that you give the Russian Language & Literature students a pet eagle. That class, from first year to graduation, would take care of that eagle.
00.18.12: In our campus forest, every student and academician will have a tree that they plant, such as plum trees from which, upon graduation, the we would [collect and] ship you their fruit.
00.18.43: Here, to, the campus zoo’s forest must give one a sense of belonging.
00.18.50: I think that my university, the one I graduated from, is very, very important.
00.18.58: One of the most basic points is desiring more environmentally friendly transportation. When we enter the campus, there won’t be motor vehicles, but instead electric cars as well as bicycles from Far Eastern China.
00.19.23: Thus, we will try and embrace a “minimal-noise” concept.
00.19.36: Our classroom’s features; windows must be very high and insulated.
00.19.53: Every classroom must be equipped with Internet and a live-streamed media-dependent system.
00.20.01:
00.20.30: The living quarters for those with disabilities are very important to us.
00.20.30: A system must be in place whereby no obstacles are faced, spanning classrooms, to the cafeteria, library, sports halls, and rector’s quarters.
00.20.46: A special lane road would be provided for the visual and hearing impaired as well as physically challenged.
00.21.00: How can we provide this university’s energy?
00.21.09: To the best of our knowledge, the faculties, markets, and restaurants that use waste and chemical substances are of benefit to green (environmental) buildings. We need a setting that benefits from solar, right alongside wind energy.
00.21.28: A wastewater treatment facility.
00.21.29: A radio and television station—the most important thing to our university being to have a radio and TV station that can both generate revenue and broadcast live.
00.21.46: Restaurants for various religious and cultural groups, a vegetarian restaurant, as well as European-style lounges.
00.22.03: There are to be Turkish and Finnish bathhouses.
00.22.05: There would be a helicopter pad, [which is] especially important for rolling out the welcome mat for academicians and international guests coming from abroad.
00.22.28: There is planning with respect to the university’s revenues.
00.22.27: Yes, these studies are relative.
00.22.39:Our target point is that, rather than the income obtained from students, as I said, it [instead] will be earned from the language teaching centres, radio and television centres, and institutions, as well as produced from the activities of [our] scientists and academicians.
00.23.04: Thanks!
00.23.06: Greetings!
We will now look at an example model for the International University of World Languages.
00.23.14: First, I want to give some information relating to the model, albeit on a small scale.
00.23.20 This model had to be prepared in a tight two and a half month period. My little son Can, and daughter Nazlican helped!
00.23.32:Apart from that, the Turkish-language teaching staff of Giresun University’s TÖMER program also contributed. Now, the International World Languages University we anticipate, as we were saying, is a university of such… a campus of such interest to the entire world, its colours and languages, living in peace.
00.24.04: This campus must consciously benefit both peace lovers and environmentalists.
00.24.12: We’re saying that student (or individuals) come to our rector’s campus’s main campus and leave their cars here.
00.24.26: Either electric vehicles or cars arrive to the faculty. We have a bike path and a surrounding road for cars and electric vehicles. We have our rector’s building.
00.25.03: There is our Faculty of Turkology. And there, our institute. Over there, our Faculty of Eastern Languages. And there, our Faculty of Western Languages. That place over there is both our Congress of Culture Centre and Faculty of Interpretation & Translation.
00.25.18: One of our features that makes us different from other universities are the pools surrounding the faculties. These pools converge into the pool in front of the rector’s building.
00.25.35: The philosophy here is this: every person is part of one ocean, all of us from the same pool of water, regardless of country, language, culture, or continent.
00.25.58: In other words, be it colour or tongue, we are not different from one another. Here, we obverse Rumi’s philosophy.
00.26.17: Here we carry down from the swimming pools.
00.26.34:There are, for example, western-style restaurants and markets, around the vicinity of the Faculty of Western Languages, and likewise eastern venues around the Eastern Language Faculty.
00.27.01: This is what that means: It takes approximately 15 minutes to arrive at and view (experience) our European cultural hub.
00.27.21: Coming in from the left, we have our sports hall. Within, one can find every sporting activity.
00.27.37: Also, we have the student housing. These are in the form of block units. Next to that, there’s a language museum. This, for us, is very important. Over there also is our RTU station. It’s feature: the taught languages are/can be broadcast to the entire world via the Internet. Next to that, the research and development printing office…the place where exams and questions are done and prepared. Here too is rather important.
00.28.58: There will be a foreign language reference centre for people.
00.29.07: We have forests. We will ship by cargo the fruit planted by students and academicians.
00.29.25: We have a zoo, pink buildings, housing for academicians, and villas.
00.29.44: Here we have a villa that accommodates prominent guest academicians.
029.57: There’s a mosque, movie theatre, church, and Buddhist temple.
00.30.06: Here, a concept this like is doable. A beautiful atmosphere can be created in the shared garden of the pathways of the houses of worship.
00.30.32 One of the most important elements too alongside the role of brining language instruction is to have a good school for academicians’ children, provided they may be staying for several years, to complete their primary, middle, and secondary-level education.
00.31.38 Our language teaching center, RTU station, and institutes are our life lines. The language teaching centre’s most important role is also foreign affairs; there will periodic language teaching camps for groups of individuals coming from the Turkish Republic’s private, legal, and public institutions.
00.32.04: These people will stay at the university hotels.
00.32.11 There will be people year all year; our students will study kind of foreign language.
00.32.26: Here we have a helicopter pad.
00.32.30: I’ll say this, the open/closed concert hall surrounding the large pool is a subject particularly of such interest to our students that we prioritize it; our convention centre is our main artery.
00.32.56: An area whereby special legal meetings at the international level can happen.
THANK YOU…