CURRENT ISSUES IN SPANISH AND TURKISH LANGUAGE DIDACTICS IN ALBANIA

Öz

This study examines the historical evolution and current challenges of foreign language didactics in Albania, focusing specifically on Turkish and Spanish. During the communist regime, Albania faced strict linguistic and political isolation. Russian was enforced as the official academic language, yet it failed to resonate with the society, leading to a sudden rupture after the system's collapse. Conversely, Albanians developed a strong autodidactic tradition by secretly learning Italian and Greek via neighboring radio and television broadcasts, driven by affection and sympathy rather than formal instruction.  Following the transition to a free-market economy in the 1990s, institutional language teaching expanded significantly. Turkish language education became prominent, supported by the University of Tirana, TİKA, Yunus Emre Institute, and Maarif Foundation. However, Turkish didactics faces several pedagogical and linguistic challenges. Available textbooks, designed primarily for language school systems, lack the contrastive analyses necessary for academic environments and contradict the historical Albanian autodidactic tradition. Furthermore, theoretical inconsistencies in Turkish grammar books regarding sentence elements, such as the indirect complement, complicate syntax instruction. The fundamental structural differences between the two languages also significantly delay learning. While Turkish follows a Subject-Object-Verb order and uses postpositions alongside mandatory possessive suffixes, Albanian employs a Subject-Verb-Object structure, prepositions, and relies heavily on context rather than explicit possessive markers. Interest in Spanish is also growing steadily, driven by cultural interactions, economic relations, and youth migration trends. Although Spanish is less prevalent in public primary education, it maintains a strong presence in private language schools and university philology programs. The main challenge impeding the expansion of Spanish language programs is the severe shortage of qualified Hispanist academics and teachers, an issue exacerbated by the absence of an official Cervantes Institute in the country.In conclusion, despite existing structural challenges such as up-to-date material and educator shortages, the future of both Turkish and Spanish in Albania is highly promising. Overcoming these educational barriers requires integrating contrastive linguistic studies into the learning process and emphasizing the close cultural heritage carried by the languages

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Foreign Language Teaching
• Turkish Didactics
• Spanish Instruction
• Albania
• Contrastive Analysis
• Autodidactic Learning

Proje Numarası

2026/4 FGJH

Kaynakça

1. Aksan, D. (1998). Her yönüyle dil ana çizgileriyle dilbilim 3 [Language in all its aspects: Main lines of linguistics 3]. Türk Dil Kurumu.
2. Bilgegil, M. K. (1982). Türkçe dilbilgisi [Turkish grammar]. Dergâh Yayınları.
3. Cervantes Institute. (2023). El español en el mundo: Informe anual 2023 [Spanish in the world: Annual report 2023]. Instituto Cervantes.
4. Chomsky, N. (2001). Dil ve zihin [Language and mind] (A. Kocaman, Trans.). Ayraç Yayınevi.
5. Çatıkkaş, A. (2001). Türkçe cümle bilgisi [Turkish sentence knowledge].
6. Ediskun, H. (1988). Türk dilbilgisi [Turkish grammar]. Remzi Kitabevi.
7. Ergin, M. (2003). Türk dil bilgisi [Turkish grammar]. Bayrak.
8. European Commission. (2020). Language teaching and learning in European schools. European Union Publications.

9. Gencan, T. N. (1975). Dil bilgisi [Grammar] (3rd ed.). Türk Dil Kurumu Yayınları.
10. Gjinari, J. (2019). Foreign language policies in Albanian education system: Trends and challenges. Journal of Balkan Education Studies, 4(2), 55–70.
11. Gramatika e gjuhës shqipe 2 [Grammar of the Albanian language 2]. (2002). Akademia e Shkencave e Shqipërisë.
12. Günay, D. (2003). Metin bilgisi [Text knowledge]. Multilingual.
13. Institute of Statistics of Albania. (2023). Education statistics 2022–2023. INSTAT.
14. Jackendoff, R. (1994). Patterns in the mind: Language and human nature. BasicBooks.
15. Jackendoff, R. (1998). Linguaggio e natura umana [Language and human nature]. Il Mulino.
16. Karahan, L. (1995). Türkçede söz dizimi [Syntax in Turkish]. Akçağ Yayınları.
17. Kola, L. (2021). Multilingualism in Albania: Historical and modern developments. Southeast Europe Review, 29(1), 112–130.
18. Martin, L. (1986). Eskimo words for snow: A case study in the genesis and decay of an anthropological example. American Anthropologist, 88(2), 418–423.
19. Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth of Albania. (2022). National education strategy 2021–2026. Government of Albania.
20. Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs of Albania. (2023). Bilateral relations: Albania–Spain. Government of Albania.
21. National Erasmus+ Office Albania. (2022). Higher education internationalization report. NEA.
22. Sánchez, M. (2018). The expansion of Spanish language in Eastern Europe: Sociolinguistic perspectives. Revista de Lingüística Hispánica, 15(3), 205–223.
23. Slobin, D. (1996). From thought and language to thinking for speaking. In J. Gumperz & S. Levinson (Eds.), Rethinking linguistic relativity (pp. 70–96). Cambridge University Press.
24. Sterneman, R. (1983). Einführung in die kontrastive Linguistik [Introduction to contrastive linguistics]. VEB Verlag Enzyklopädie.
25. Whorf, B. L. (1956). Language, thought, and reality. MIT Press.
26. World Bank. (2022). Western Balkans education report. World Bank Publications.