An Investigation into European Learners’ Needs with Regards to Turkish as a Foreign Language

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to determine the content topics, language skills, learning environments, learning preferences, teaching-learning materials, in-class activities, out-of-class activities, and the teaching and assessment methods that are needed by the European learners of Turkish as a foreign language (TFL). The paper also aimed to discover the European language learners' level of interest in Turkish and reasons to learn it as a foreign language. The research was conducted with 137 European learners who were attending a Turkish language program called the Erasmus Intensive Language Course (EILC) at four state universities in Turkey in the 2013- 2014 academic year. Data was collected using a needs analysis questionnaire. The results revealed that learners were highly interested and motivated in learning TFL. It was also seen that the learners preferred speaking activities, the correction of oral mistakes by the teacher and grammar exercises in the language learning process.