The summer Turkmen course will follow the communicative approach to language teaching and
learning.  Its primary goal will be to enable learners to interact successfully in everyday and
workplace situations in the target language and culture at a proficiency level of 1 (ILR
guidelines).  Course materials will promote communication through a variety of activities in the
skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing.  Authentic Turkmen language materials will be
used throughout the course and consist primarily of video- and audio-taped materials, as well as
printed texts.  Grammatical structures will be presented within focused drills, while grammatical
explanations and paradigms will be kept to a minimum.  In addition, lectures on Turkmen culture
and dinners featuring national dishes will be held on a weekly basis.  Students will be able to
interact with several Turkmen resident in Bloomington.

The focus of the course is on authentic use of language as opposed to knowledge of language.
The course will be organized topically.  Lessons initially will stress receptive skills and move
towards production skills.  They will focus on the specific tasks that learners will need to
accomplish through the language (e.g., accepting an invitation, asking for clarification, etc.).
Lesson objectives will stress language situations and functions within the culture.  A variety of
student activities will address the diversity of student learning styles.  Utilizing authentic materials,
lessons will include ample practice and key points will be re-introduced in different contexts.  The
script used throughout the course will be the Cyrillic-based Turkmen alphabet.