Language Worldview and Action-Oriented National Folklore Elements Approach for Teaching Turkish as a Foreign Language

Abstract

Linguistics studies have always influenced the field of foreign language teaching. In the 20th century, structuralism prevailed in linguistics. While language is a communication tool, language is also a structure that is formed and developed within the framework of its system. A great deal of important research has been done on these ideas. In addition, new methods and approaches inspired by the same ideas have emerged in foreign language teaching, influenced by linguistics and sub-fields of linguistics. However, the anthropological perspective observed in all fields of science in the last years of the 20th century paved the way for important studies focusing on the cultural studies approach. An applied scientific field of study inspired by the cultural studies approach is cultural linguistics. Country linguistics, a sub-field of cultural linguistics, is an applied field that researches the methods used in teaching a language as a foreign language. In this context, country linguistics has been studied based on the language worldview. Afterwards, the definition of national folklore elements in teaching Turkish as a foreign language was examined within the studies carried out in Western Europe. As a result, teaching Turkish as a foreign language is also accepted as cultural diplomacy. In order to reach a unique approach in this field, the basic principles of the action-oriented approach to national folklore elements were discussed.