Investigating the beliefs of Turkish as a foreign language learners after target-culture integrated language courses

Abstract

This study was carried out with 15 university students who came from different European countries to Turkey within ERASMUS mobility program, for the purpose of learning Turkish as a Foreign Language in a Turkish University in one month period. It was, then, aimed to determine the participants' beliefs on the Turkish courses which were integrated with target culture. To that end, one open-ended and four close-ended questions were asked to participants at the end of the courses, so as to determine their perceptions related to language skills, cultural awareness, attitude towards target culture, evaluation upon current courses. Within qualitative paradigm, by adopting a case study design, the data which were derived from close-ended questions were digitized in a descriptive manner. The data related to one open-ended question were analyzed by inductive content analysis with QSR NVivo 8 software. As a result, it was revealed that there was a meaningful conceptual similarity between scholars' views and participants' beliefs concerning the effects of culture-integrated language courses on success, cultural awareness, and attitude towards target society. Hence, it can be asserted that culture-integrated language courses have a positive influence on TFL learners' motivation, language skills, cultural awareness, and attitude towards target society. The results of this study are also in parallel with the scholar views which assert the necessity of target culture in foreign language teaching. It can also be mentioned that this study would be a seminal research with regard to those of culture and language in this newly founded discipline which is titled as Turkish as a Foreign Language (TFL).