Courses: Department of Central Eurasian Studies

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Media Turkish: II
Catalog Number CEUS-U 320/520
Kemal Silay

This course is designed to address the needs of students of Turkish in coping with the linguistic and cognitive difficulties generally associated with media language. Students with at least two years of modern Turkish are allowed to sign up for this class. Focusing predominantly on available online newspapers and magazines, the course will aim at improving students’ linguistic skills for better comprehension of the contemporary language as manifested in the Turkish media. In addition, up-to-date cultural and political issues associated with these texts will be discussed throughout the semester.

Texts to read, translate, and discuss in class will be distributed by the instructor one week in advance. Before coming to class, all students are expected to study the texts thoroughly in an effort to understand the overall messages of the texts and underline all “vague” sections or sections not comprehended.
Before each class meeting, all students are required to submit an oral report (in Turkish) of a 1-2 page (approximately 500 words) essay of their preference (to be taken from one of the online newspapers or magazines). Please clearly indicate the sources of these materials, make copies of these essays for your classmates and professor, as well.
Lectures will be conducted both in English and in Turkish.
All materials covered in class will be meticulously analyzed in terms of Turkish/Turkic morphology and phonology, often providing the students with an etymology of the lexical elements, both vocabulary and suffixes.
Students are required to carry a dedicated notebook or index cards for recording new vocabulary and idiomatic expressions.
Students are expected to carry a Turkish-English and English-Turkish pocket dictionary with them.
Numerous authentic materials from the Turkish media (music, news, commercials, and films) will be incorporated into the teaching schedule in an effort to help students develop their listening comprehension skills.