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Modern Languages Department
MISSION
In a general sense, language helps people to learn about the world and to process and transfer their experiences. Language is also a means of creative and aesthetic communication. It renders people competent in their individual and social interactions.
 Foreign language courses enable individuals to extend and develop this interactive competence beyond the borders of their native language area. Such courses contribute to intercultural communication by covering the languages and cultures that used to remain outside students’ areas of experience up until then.
The aims of the second foreign language courses include inculcating in the students values such as acceptance, tolerance and empathy for the other culture; and providing the suitable conditions for the students to develop an understanding of the other culture and to acquire a broad perspective.
The teaching methods used build on students’ acquired knowledge and learning strategies. Therefore the second foreign language course involves project work and enables the students to establish interdisciplinary links. The lessons always build on students’ own authentic experiences, arouse curiosity in students and help them to understand the everyday life and culture in other countries. This is achieved through interesting contents and teaching methods, which enable the students to enjoy the lessons and allow them space for individual exploration.
The second foreign language courses are organized in line with the instructional and methodological approaches that are appropriate to the target group and its characteristics. In other words;
- A range of learning opportunities are provided in order to address students’ individual differences and this is taken as a prerequisite of the learning process.
- A communicative learning style which fosters creativity, flexibility, clarity, problem solving skills and critical thinking is adopted rather than a grammar oriented approach.
- Eclectic method is implemented based on individual learning styles.
- Students are given as much independence and responsibility as possible in their learning.
- Information technologies are used.
- Efforts are made to develop the student profile, as prescribed by our school.
CULTURAL POLICY
OUR GRADUATES WILL:
- 1. have acquired general knowledge on the cultural aspects of the language that they learn and will have attained intercultural proficiency
- a) They will have knowledge on the educational system of the country, the language of which they have studied.
- b) They will have had a pen-friend starting from 7 th Grade.
- 2. have familiarized with different cultures, ie. they will have developed awareness on the relative validity of the things that they take for granted and on the fact that the world can take different forms outside their known territory and that some of the value judgments that they have may not be relevant or binding at all in other parts of the world.
- a) They will have read at least one work per year, each from a different genre.
- b) They will have visited the Cultural Center in Istanbul .
- c) They will have participated in a relevant international project.
- 3. will have familiarized with and understood the history, society and culture of the countries in which the language is spoken.
- a) They will have made a presentation on the culture of the language that they have studied and will have acquired information on other cultures.
- b) They will be familiar with writers from the Classical World Literature such as Goethe, Schiller, Honore de Balzac, Alberto Camus, Dante, etc.
- 4. will be able to keep track of the current developments in that culture
- a) They will keep track of the current news on foreign channels.
- b) They will be familiar with contemporary writers such as Peter Hartling, Alphonso Dauet, Edmondo de Amicis, Christine Nöstlinger, etc.
- c) They will be subscribed to at least one foreign language journal.
- d) They will have watched at least one film per year in the target language.
- e) They will have developed the habit of reading at least one of the distinguished newspapers published in the target language.
- 5. will have developed their own identity while trying to understand and familiarize with the culture of the target language.
- a) They will know how the national days are celebrated in the country, which they have been learning the language of.
- b) They will be aware of the general customs and traditions of the country, which they have been learning the language of.
- c) They will be aware of the etiquette rules of the country, which they have been learning the language of.
- 6. will have developed tolerance and respect for others and empathy for different cultures.
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