Turkish Language and Literature Department

Hi, I am Ayşe Emel KEFELİ. After 30 years of working in Turkish language and literature department at Marmara University, I retired and started to work at Istanbul 29 May University. I work as a department chair in Turkish language and literature. If we have the chance to be our stdent, we want to plan and share healthy and attractive education period with young motivated people who can recognize the past, shape the future, and have cultural values. As for Turkish language and literature, we need to think about the sections of language and literature. Of course, the Turkish language, which has been ruling in a vast geography for centuries, aims to introduce the contemporary and classical texts through Turkish literary and Turkish cultural language and to analyze, understand, evaluate and teach text analysis with classical methods and from a scientific perspective. In general, we offer the following lessons: Firstly, we introduce our students with a general cultural context through world history lessons, then with Istanbul society and literature lessons is an educational policy of our university. Later, we continue our academic English classes contain 30% English program. We continue a contemporary literature program starting with a classical literature dating back to the 19th century, the 20th century and so on. Apart from that, we teach Turkish, Turkish dialects and if they want to work on contemporary Turkish dialects we also teach them. First of all, we have compulsory courses. In this frame we generally give the main lines of Turkish language and literature. In elective courses, we plan to develop compulsory courses with special topics and compare them with world literatures so that they can discuss the literature, produce ideas on literature and think critically. This program takes a very long time to cover. So, even if you look only in the perspective of the new literary, we have to know and recognize the work that was going on in the 19th century and continuing up to the present day, and evaluate them with scientific perspectives. For this reason, these programs are not always enough. It is also important to note that a university student cannot learn everything in the class. The only way to get to know our contemporary literature is, by improving the way of accessing the information, the theoretical approaches and beyond that - by improving itself with additional courses or additional workshops. In this case, we have AGEP (Academic Development Program) program that is unique to our university and are very healthy. We are trying to develop specific topics that we can evaluate which we feel incomplete in their aspects or other similar topics in the framework of these programs. We also organize workshops with the help of AGEP (Academic Development Program) programs. We strive to continually renew our program by diversifying and developing upon today's needs or demands of students. Because we know that life is going on too fast. At this stage, we have to recognize the modern while learning classics, to recognize what is happening today, and to educate students who can develop ideas about the future while learning all of them. Our department does not have an internship program. Because we do not educate Turkish literature like education faculty. But of course this option always exists for students. Students who receive special education formation program may become teachers. We do not have an internship program because we have been training in a more philological format. During the last semester in the final year, students are doing a research study under the title of graduation thesis. Here, they are doing a lot of affecting activities that are, choosing a topic, or sometimes taking a project in the department, and writing short essays and thesis on that topic. Sometimes a successful thesis can also be made in our graduation thesis. It is also a very important advantage for those going for post-graduate and doctorate program. We also have agreements with Erasmus. Because they are constantly updated and changing, our candidates can follow it on the website. But apart from that, Istanbul 29th May University has a very special opportunity. One of them is to master English with a 30% English program. They have the chance to strengthen their English during lessons. Especially for classical Turkish literature, Arabic and Persian are two very important foreign languages. And in these two languages, our students have a chance to learn from native speakers. Teachers in language exchange program come from their own countries so they have a chance to learn Arabic or Persian from very talented native speakers. I think this is a good chance for them. Also, if they work in AGEP (Academic Development Program) program or in cooperation with translation department, they can take English and Arabic courses. If there is a demand and appropriate conditions they may have the chance to learn other world languages like Russian and French. As we work with small groups, foreign languages can be learned much better with small amount of students. I believe that they will be able to learn very quickly because they have the chance to work with small groups. Our students who graduate from the department can easily teach Turkish language literature provided that they also complete teaching formation. International Universities also provide a chance to teach Turkish language in international context. Apart from that, they can work in visual and written media. They can be editors, publishers. They have a chance to be presenters. We meet our students in so many different areas. Especially we have very successful students on broadcasting and visual media. Especially, when students from abroad come, they face trouble and difficulty in absorbing Turkish accent. They have problem in Ottoman Turkish. But we have a private study area at our university: we do consulting. Within this structure, higher class students who can help and guide the students in the topics they need, help to work with each other in a healthier, friendly, supportive way. We think that counseling is very helpful for students. Peer counseling is done in case of demand. Of course, it can also be done for one person. Within the framework of the AGEP (Academic Development Program) program, we have the opportunity to study individually among the students in text schedules programs, which are parallel to the subjects of the students, e.g. literature history and language lessons. But I must also say that because we have classes that do not exist in 40-50 people, the relationship with the student is already easier. The subjects of difficulty are mainly Ottoman Turkish lectures. But they also get used to it over time. The encouragements I mentioned earlier make it easier. First of all I advise students to love reading. Because we do not have to know it: Scholar without reading, book without writer is not possible. So, they need to love reading. That's what I always ask in the first lessons. I need to love reading, if I love literature. But when choosing this department, they have to choose without forgetting that they will approach literature as a science. Writing is something different, approaching literature as a science is something else. But we are open to all our students who are willing to spread literature to the future generations. We take great pleasure in being with them and moving forward with them towards a beautiful future. In fact, Istanbul is a city that nourishes even if it is a difficult to live in. From the moment you walk into the street, if you look around - if you know what to look and see - and you come across different cultural values in lots of things. For one thing, our students have a chance like this. It is like walking around Sultan Ahmet Square, encountering cultural values there, facing individuality and living in a sense of history. Of course there is another feature in Istanbul: There are too many cultural activities. Even if we leave the students, maybe they will not enter the classes because of dealing with cultural events. It really is a great chance for them. Because they have the chance to see the people they read here for years in their books. They have the chance to face them, ask questions, and discuss them. There are many things for them if they are interested in cinema. They are very lucky in this sense. It has the advantages of seeing the historical and aesthetic beauties of the city as well as seeing the beautiful Istanbul through poetry. In our university, we also have occasions such as introducing Istanbul with such activities from time to time and even introducing different cultural centers. It is nice to live in Istanbul. I think that it is a chance for Istanbul 29th May University students to learn the literature that live without neglecting those activities and observations of the living world. After all this, we look forward to seeing you. I wish our students a best of luck who will choose our university and will continue to take care of literature at our university. I hope we get together.