Abstract:

It has become a neccessity that individuals and indirectly the countries must know a foreign language to carry forward their international relations in social, political and economic fields. In today’s world English is extensively taught in many countries as a second language and among the reasons of this, some commercial, culturel and social reasons can be expressed. It has been stated that English is international science language as well as the language of mass communication like computer and television and there is no doubt that at the present day the global language is English. This paper discusses how and why English language has become very popular in Turkish educational system while historically French was the most dominant language in Turkish curriculum during the Otoman Period and in the Republican era. German has also been taught along with French and English in Turkish schools for a considerable period of time. However, in early 1980’s French and German languages have dropped from the curriculum and English has become the most prominent foreign language that has been taught in the nation’s schools and in many cases French and German have been made as elective courses to be taken by a few students. In short, this study investigates the historical developments of foreign languages especially English in Turkish curriculum.

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