Turkey, with a population of seventy million, vast economic resources and a thriving tourist market, is one of the fastest growing countries in the world. It is a member of NATO and an associate member of the European Union, and has close ties with the Balkan countries and Turkic states of Central Asia.

The official language of Turkey is Turkish, a branch of the Uralo-Altay linguistic family. While Turks have used many alphabets over the centuries, including Armenian, Georgian, Greek and Arabic, Modern Turkish uses the Latin alphabet. The richness of the language's transformations has enabled the Turks to produce works of outstanding literature in a variety of alphabets. Millions of books and official documents written particularly in Ottoman and Modern Turkish provide invaluable insight into the history and culture of not only Turkey, but also the Middle East, Central Asia and the Balkans.

Learning outcomes

Students will acquire limited skills and knowledge to:

• write texts in Turkish in the appropriate genre, with correct grammatical structures and thematic vocabulary relevant to the level of the student;
• read and  comprehend at a limited  level newspapers, magazines and simple literary  texts written in Turkish;
• engage with authentic media such as Turkish news, movies or music;
• communicate verbally at a basic level in a variety of settings with proficient Turkish speakers;
• identify and differentiate aspects and issues of the cultures and societies associated with the Turkish language.