This book brings together the findings of current studies on the second language (L2) acquisition of Turkish, an Altaic language with more than 140 million native speakers around the world. There is now a growing interest in learning and teaching Turkish as an L2, both in and outside Turkey. Coordinated efforts to produce theoretical and empirical work on the acquisition and teaching of L2 Turkish are therefore an urgent need. The compilation in this volume offers eleven L2 studies that explore the representation and/or processing of various linguistic properties in different domains of grammar (phonology, morpho-syntax, pragmatics) and their interfaces. All studies involve adult L2 Turkish learners with various first-language backgrounds at different proficiency levels. With extensive discussions on theoretical and pedagogical issues, this title will appeal to an international readership that includes L2 Turkish researchers, materials designers, and teachers.
The Acquisition of Turkish in Childhood presents recent research on the nature of language acquisition by typically and atypically developing monolingual and bilingual Turkish-speaking children. The book summarises the most recent research findings on the acquisition of Turkish in childhood, with a focus on (i) the acquisition of phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics, (ii) the acquisition of discourse skills, (iii) literacy development and (iv) atypical vs. typical development. The book also provides the reader with a unique perspective on cross-learner comparative research on the acquisition of Turkish, demonstrating how similar issues can be investigated in a range of various acquisition contexts. By grouping together the recent research on the acquisition of Turkish within a single volume, this book provides a unique opportunity for readers to review the general developmental tendencies and the most prominent hypotheses put forward by scholars.
Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,7, University of Hamburg, course: The Structure of English- Linguistik Vertiefung, language: English, abstract: This paper deals with the process of third language acquisition by Turkish immigrants in Germany. This process is unique and distinct from their first and second language acquisition, as it is influenced by first and second language acquisition. Cultural diversity in different societies around the world, in the 21st century, places a great emphasis on the value of language acquisition. Whether it is in business, politics or other international interactions, and further aspects of life, in particular education, language acquisition has become more and more important. As a result, bilingualism is seen as a norm rather than an exception in many societies around the globe. Although considered fairly recent, linguistics have studied the acquisition of a first language by infants and second language acquisition in children and adults with varying approaches in the past decades. However, people are not only increasingly exposed to numerous languages in multilingual settings but they are also learning them. This is ascribed to the movement of people from one society to another resulting in an increased contact with different cultures. Due to that fact, researchers have begun to put an emphasis on studies about multilingualism and the distinct acquisition of languages past a second non-native language. While many researchers classified any non-native language acquisition as second language acquisition in the past, recent studies discuss the phenomenon of third language acquisition. In this day and age it has become common that migrants who are proficient in their native language and have moved to or are born in a multicultural country will not only learn the official language of that same country but also an additional foreign language. Because of this growing phenomenon bilingualism and its effects on third language acquisition have also gained more attention by researchers in linguistic studies. According to the Federal Statistical Office of Germany and a microcensus which has been conducted in the year 2013, 16.5 million out of the total population of roughly 81 million people in Germany had a migrant background. The largest ethnic group of immigrants, who either migrated to Germany or were born in Germany as second generation immigrants, is comprised of Turks. On this account language acquisition of Turks living in multicultural Germany and their integration in terms of language is significant to the study of third language acquisition.
Turkish-German Bilingual Students' Acquisition of English Word Order in a German Educational Setting investigates the syntactic influences of Turkish and German on the acquisition of English word order in a German educational setting.
With regard to convergence policies Turkey is leaning towards Africa and the Middle Eastern countries and their efforts for global integration, thus intensifying synergy regarding Turkish language education policies. In recent years Turkish has become more popular as a world language. Turkish cultural centers opened in many countries and have played a significant role in gaining increasing interest in the Turkish language. Alongside with this development Turkish as a foreign language has come into prominence as a special study field. Especially when social, cultural and economic effects of powerful nations on other countries are considered, the examination of problems in this field and the immediate presentation of solutions are very important. The contributors to this volume examine the effects of language education methods, the effect of language on cultural transfer as well as the attitude towards and the motivation in language learning by taking a closer look at social platforms like YouTube and Facebook that provide an opportunity for language learning.
Heritage language bilingualism refers to contexts where a minority language spoken at home is (one of) the first native language(s) of an individual who grows up and typically becomes dominant in the societal majority language. Heritage language bilinguals often wind up with grammatical systems that differ in interesting ways from dominant-native speakers growing up where their heritage language is the majority one. Understanding the trajectories and outcomes of heritage language bilingual grammatical competence, performance, language usage patterns, identities and more related topics sits at the core of many research programs across a wide array of theoretical paradigms. The study of heritage language bilingualism has grown exponentially over the past two decades. This expansion in interest has seen, in parallel, extensions in methodologies applied, bridges built between closely related fields such as the study of language contact and linguistic attrition. As is typical in linguistics, not all languages are studied to the same degree. The present volume showcases what Turkish as a heritage language brings to bear for key questions in the study of heritage language bilingualism and beyond. In many ways, Turkish is an ideal language to be studied because of its large diaspora across the world, in particular Europe. The papers in this volume are diverse: from psycholinguistic, to ethnographic, to classroom-based studies featuring Turkish as a heritage language. Together they equal more than their subparts, leading to the conclusion that understudied heritage languages like Turkish provide missing pieces to the puzzle of understanding the variables that give rise to the continuum of outcomes characteristic of heritage language speakers.
Since the last century, language development of children has been a subject of study among linguists. This book presents an investigation of the early development of English as a second language by three Turkish children over a period of seven months. The main focus of the study is to examine the availability of the functional categories both within the nominal and the verbal domain in early second language development. This book is particularly important since it is one of the first studies which focuses on the acquisition of the English Article System by Turkish children. The book consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 provides the reader with a brief background on theories of first and second language acquisition. Chapter 2 discusses functional categories in first language acquisition (L1) and second language acquisition of English (L2).Chapter 3 presents the reader the morphosyntatic properties of Turkish and English within the scope of investigation. In Chapter 4, the methodology of the study is given in detail and Chapter 5 is dedicated to the discussion of findings and their implications for further studies.
This volume consists of a collection of papers that focus on structural/grammatical aspects of the process of first language attrition. It presents an overview of current research, methodological issues and important questions regarding first language attrition. In particular, it addresses the two most prominent issues in current L1 attrition research: Can attrition effects impact on features of core syntax, or are they limited to interface phenomena?, and; What is the role of age at onset (pre-/post-puberty) in this regard? By investigating attrition in a variety of settings, from a case study of a Spanish-speaking adoptee in the US to an empirical investigation of more than 50 long-term attriters of Turkish in the Netherlands, the investigations presented take a new perspective on these issues. Originally published in Language, Interaction and Acquisition - Langage, Interaction et Acquisition 2:2 (2011).
