Turkish Olympiads Nerve-racking for Teachers as well as Students
The 7th International Turkish Olympiads were not only a test of nerves for the students competing in them; they were also a nerve-racking competition for the volunteers who teach Turkish all over the world.
A competition looking for the best ways to teach foreigners Turkish put teachers against each other, producing an exciting atmosphere. The competition had teachers show how they would best teach nonnative Turkish speakers the language, and it was 36-year-old Kadir Yildirim who walked away with the prize. Yildirim uses songs and games to get the language across. He has been teaching Turkish in different countries for the past 12 years, working for the last three at Georgia's Özel Demirel Koleji, a private high school there. This successful teacher employs unique teaching methods, making his lessons as interesting as possible to hold students' attention and get them to learn more. Songs and games are an intrinsic part of his lessons.
The competition between teachers was judged by a panel of 15 academics from the Turkish language and literature faculties at a variety of Turkish universities. The second-place prize was taken by teacher Şule Coşkun, who teaches Turkish in Pakistan. A lesson in which Coşkun uses cardboard and a selection of different materials to teach the weather won many points from the jury. The third prize was shared by Zeynel Ödemiş, who teaches Turkish in Macedonia and whose lesson was based on the question "Which fruit would you like?" and Ahmet Kamalak, who teaches Turkish in the Ukraine, and whose lesson was based on the question of "What is your job?" Ödemiş uses the technique of bringing actual fruit to the classroom, and then using it to teach the names of various fruits. He then peels, cuts and slices the fruit to teach the verbs "peel," "cut" and "slice." At the end of this lesson, he offers the fruit to the students.
In the "Teacher Knowledge Competition," participating teachers were asked questions on language, education, writing dictation and punctuation. The champion of this part of the competition was 28-year-old Oğuzhan Aras, who came to the competition from the US state of Arizona. This young teacher graduated from İstanbul Bosporus University's faculty of literature and has been teaching Turkish for four years now in Arizona. Aras, who will be teaching Turkish in the coming year at a university in that state, says Turkish is increasing in popularity in the US. The second-place prize in this part of the competition went to Mikael Ayman, who teaches Turkish in Turkmenistan, and the third prize went to Ahsen Çakez, who teaches in Iraq.
The head of the jury, Professor Mehmet Tekin from the Turkish language and literature department of Selçuk University's faculty of education, said that he was very pleased with the lessons shown by the teachers in this competition. "First and foremost they do a great job making themselves likeable, and then they really do teach our wonderful Turkish language. It is a matter of great pride that Turkish is being taught and spoken in 115 countries around the world. In a word, it is going just brilliantly, and I believe the road forward will also be marvelous." The general secretary of the Turkish Olympiads, Tuncay Öztürk, said video copies of the lessons taught by the various teachers and shown to the jury will be sent to Turkish teachers all over the world. Öztürk noted that an archive was being created with ideas for lessons and ways of teaching and that this would help teachers develop their own strengths in the future.
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