Foreign Language Education

Bu calismanin temel amaci Iran’da konusulan ve yok olma tehlikesi altinda bulunan Halac Turkcesi agizlarini niceliksel agiz olcum tekniklerinden Levenshtein Uzaklik Algoritmasi (LUA) temelinde incelemektir. Bilgisayar programlamasinda siklikla kullanilan bir algoritma olan LUA temel olarak ikili kodlarin (binary codes) silme, ekleme ve tersinim ile birbirlerine olan uzakliginin saptanabilmesi icin gelistirilmis bir algoritmadir (Levenshtein, 1966). Algoritmanin sonucu bir sayisal degerdir ve bu sayisal deger iki sozcukten birinin digerine benzesmesi icin yapilmasi gereken islem sayisini veya maliyetini vermektedir. Sayisal degerin dusuk olmasi daha az degisiklikle benzesmenin gerceklesecegi anlamina gelmektedir. Degerin buyuk olmasi ise sozcukler arasindaki benzesimin islem maliyetinin fazla oldugu ve soz konusu ikili kodun sayisal deger oraninda birbirlerinden uzak oldugunu ifade etmektedir. Doerfer (1998), Halac Turkcesinin agizlarini yon temelli olarak yediye ayirmistir: (i) bati...

The main objective of this study is to investigate and find out the contribution of interjections as indicators of understanding in an Azerbaijani-Turkish Lingua Receptiva (LaRa) communication within the framework of Functional Pragmatics. The data utilized in this study were collected by video recording four Turkish and two university Azerbaijani native speakers who had paired each other and played a world famous guessing game Taboo. The length of data obtained from these recordings is circa two hours. The data obtained from these recordings were transcribed using the transcription software EXMARaLDA. Moreover, phonological features of the Turkish and Azerbaijani interjections were analyzed using PRAAT. Turkish and Azerbaijani interjections, as in all world languages, have been a neglected subject matter (Ameka, 1992) in linguistic studies. In this study, it has been aimed at contributing the literature in the field. According to the findings of the present study, there are instanc...

This study presents an analysis of contact-induced language change process concerning clausal subordination in the Turkish variety spoken in the Netherlands (henceforth, Dutch Turkish). This study also aims at investigating whether the converbial constructions are prone to language change in the speech perception and production of the first and second generations of Dutch-Turkish speakers within the framework of usage-based linguistics (Barlow & Kemmer, 2000). According to usage-based linguistics, there is an “intimate relation between linguistic structures and instances of use of language” (Kemmer & Barlow, 2006, p. 2) which suggests that a more direct relation is considered to exist between one’s language experience and abstract representations in grammar. In other words, linguistic representations are strongly connected to ‘usage events’ in the speaker’s linguistic system. The study aims to answer the following research questions: Is the use of converbial constructions by the 2nd...

Social network and ethnolinguistic vitality have been separately studied in various language constellations with different speech communities and participant profiles so far. However, studies focusing on the interplay between social networks and ethnolinguistic vitality are quite scarce, even though the number of endangered languages is increasing in number. Adopting a mixed-hybrid model involving social network theory and ethnolinguistic vitality, this study aims to investigate whether the interplay between language vitality and language use in constructing or maintaining social networks could be observed in Khalaj-Persian by observing 26 multilingual Khalaj-Persian individuals. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews, field work notes, and a language use questionnaire. The effect of generational difference was also manipulated by dividing the participants into three generation groups (older, middle-aged, and younger) based on their ages. The findings revealed tha...

Translanguaging has recently emerged as a topic of interest in English Medium Instruction (EMI) contexts, where students are expected to demonstrate proficiency in English, particularly in academic writing. This paper explores the potential benefits of incorporating translanguaging practices in exam papers to support multilingual students' understanding and performance. Drawing on constructionist grammar as its theoretical framework, this study discusses the complexities of translanguaging in exam papers and provides practical examples of how it can be implemented in English literature classrooms, especially in EMI contexts. Embracing a mixed-methods design to comprehensively understand translanguaging practices in exam papers and their effects on student performances and using a sample of English literature students in Türkiye, the study analyses exam papers to explore translanguaging and its potential impact on students' written work. The findings suggest that translanguag...

This article reports on some of the results of a project undertaken by researchers at the University of Sheffield with The National Trust in the UK, which seeks to examine the discourse found in guestbooks located in the Trust’s holiday rental cottages. Our key interests lie in the ways in which holidaymakers perform particular identities through the stylistic choices they make when writing entries in guestbooks, the role linguistic creativity plays in these performances, and the extent to which cognitive-linguistic analysis can help us understand guestbooks as socially and conceptually complex sites of linguistic interaction. Between 2014 and 2018, we collected over 800,000 words of data from 13 holiday cottages in two popular holiday regions in the UK: the Roseland Peninsula in South East Cornwall and the Port Quin area of Northern Cornwall. Our dataset was analysed and tagged using NVivo qualitative coding software, which enables the identification of both linguistic and non-ling...

This article analyzes Joanna Russ’s The Female Man (1975) within the frame of science-fiction genre and her feminist concerns. Being a science-fiction writer and scholar, in her literary and critical works, Russ recurrently emphasizes that although science-fiction has the potential to create new contexts to present alternative realities, most science-fiction texts are written by men from and for a male perspective. In such texts, there is no room for a female identity that has power and agency. For Russ, revisiting the thematic and formal conventions of the science-fiction is urgent to challenge misogynist attitudes towards women. Within this framework, this article argues that The Female Man reflects Russ’s aspiration to reshape the content and form of science-fiction, which makes itself apparent in her engagement with themes, plot and narrative techniques that she experiments with in her aspiration to create a more liberating context for women.

How can a novel be written in the language of figs? Sema Kaygusuz’s Yüzünde Bir Yer, recently translated into English as Every Fire You Tend by Nicholas Glastonbury, offers an enchanting insight to this question. Every Fire You Tend is a multi-layered text in which myth, history, religion, guilt, pain, memory and sexuality, among many others, intermingle with each other in such skilful ways that an impressive polyphony becomes the core of the narrative. With its multiple appearances, the fig becomes a captivating narrative device in weaving and flowing the polyphonic spirit of the novel.

Diane Elam argues that feminism’s reliance on a universal notion of women is a drawback for its politics and proposes that women need to embrace a “collective uncertainty” which does not deny differences and has a place for a “groundless solidarity” that is based on “undecidability.” Within this frame, I argue that Angela Carter’s The Passion of New Eve and Fay Weldon’s Praxis call for a “groundless solidarity” which has place for differences and multiplicity, and embrace undecidability as a thematic and narrative strategy. I propose that the novels’ transgressive, unstable and indeterminate characters are endowed with a grotesque power as they shatter the boundaries of normativity generated by both patriarchal and feminist attitudes. Thus, the indeterminacy incited by grotesque representations encourages a space of undecidability featuring a subversively vibrant feminist stance, which is reinforced through the playful narrative strategies adopted in these texts.