Developing a language teaching policy for the endangered languages in Turkey

Abstract

The present study mainly aimed to investigate the discursive construction of macro-level language teaching policy for the living languages and dialects in the context of Turkey introduced as part of the 4+4+4 education reform. To do this, first the official documents were examined in order to reveal the regulations conducted on macro-level, then the discursive construction of these documents were explored with the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis. The results indicated both promising and disappointing attempts as regards to the development and implementation of the policy indicating two main contradictory premises as democratization and bureaucratization. Furthermore, the exercise of these contradictory premises were revealed via two major discourse categories each of which involving two extreme points of a continuum as obviousness versus obscurity, and equality versus dominance. The implications of the study suggested development of policies with higher-level involvement of relevant actors in all procedures of language policy and planning and developing equal opportunities for all the languages spoken among the local communities.

 

Keywords: Language teaching policy, endangered languages, critical discourse analysis, living languages and dialects.