Curricular Perspectives on Teaching English as a Foreign Language in the World

Foreword

This book has been prepared to help researchers who are interested in gaining a multi-dimensional perspective on different approaches to teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) in the world. As we all know, curricular decisions are shaped under the influence of societal, economic, political, philosophical, and several other factors. As such, each country goes through a different process, and this can make considerable differences in the integration of EFL approaches to education systems. This book tries to show how different countries handle the situation by depicting both the overall education system and EFL teaching approaches in each chapter. The content of the book will help the readers gain perspective about making a comparative analysis of how English is taught in the world.

Curricular Perspectives on Teaching English as a Foreign Language in the World is organized into 10 chapters. Turkey, Finland, France, Germany, Singapore, Slovakia, Estonia, Mexico, Ecuador, and Israel are examined in consecutive chapters about their education system and their EFL curriculum. Each chapter provides some traces of the history and experiences of the examined country and gives signals about the underlying reasons for and the rationale behind the current implementations. In short, we try to provide readers with a multifaceted perspective on how English is taught in the world with the addition of some background information.

Acknowledgments

I wish to express my deep appreciation to all the authors, who showed continuous dedication and interest in the publication of this book from the beginning. I feel grateful to them as they gracefully and patiently handled my numerous modification requests. I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Tunç Bozbura, the Vice president of Bahçeşehir University for his great encouragement and enthusiasm in preparing this publication. Lastly, I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Şirin Karadeniz, the President of Bahçeşehir University for her continued guidance and support and the peaceful environment she created to concentrate on completing this endeavor.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nihal Yurtseven
Bahçeşehir University, Istanbul, Turkey
July, 2022

Turkey: An Insight into the Language Curriculum

Lecturer, School of Foreign Languages, Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul,
Turkey
PhD student, English Language Education, Bahcesehir University, Istanbul,
Turkey
sballidag@gmail.com / sezgin.ballidag@bahcesehir.edu.tr

Abstract

The education systems of countries have been evolving depending on the needs of learners, and governments are doing their best to increase the quality of their education to compete with the competitive international labour market. Due to the growing need for competent language speakers in international business, teaching, and learning, English has become a vital component in the curriculum of countries. Turkey is one of those countries which highlights the importance of English education as a key to social, economic, and social progress of the nation. This study provides an insight into the new English language curriculum of the Ministry of National Education (MoNE) in Turkey, by developing an understanding of the way English is taught at primary and various secondary school types in Turkey together with the philosophical underpinnings of foreign language education in the country.

Keywords: MoNE, language education, foreign language curriculum, Turkey