Director’s Message

Operating within the Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University, the Turkish Education and Teaching Application and Research Centre, IZUTEM, is a centre that conducts research and applications on Turkish language. IZUTEM has undertaken the important task of teaching Turkish properly, in accordance with our University’s vision of “A Good Education Word,” to international students from almost all over the world who want to come to our country to study in a real campus that is alone with nature and has a warm and friendly atmosphere and intend to learn our language in the meantime.

Our centre provides education in teaching Turkish as a foreign language in accordance with the principle and methods in the “Common European Framework of Reference for Languages” prepared by the European Union commissions. In IZUTEM, training is given at A1, A2, B1 and B2, C1, C2 levels in each term of the year. In the lessons, by following the order of listening-speaking-reading-writing, it is aimed that students are equally proficient in Turkish in four basic language skills. Lessons are held on weekdays and weekends, and each level takes approximately 8 weeks (140 hours). All lecturers working in IZUTEM are graduates of Turkish Teaching, Turkish Language and Literature, Linguistics and Turkish Language and Literature Teaching departments of universities. Most of our lecturers have completed or have been continuing their master’s and doctoral programs. Our centre believes that it will fulfil the important task it has undertaken thoroughly with its academic staff and the program it has developed.

Thematic teaching is essential in our centre. The course materials developed by IZUTEM lecturers are generated on the basis of the necessity of the themes in daily life and the relationships between the themes. Hence, students learn related words and concepts together. By using information technologies intensively in the learning process, the information is presented to the student in visual, audio, and written forms, and students can easily learn Turkish in lessons that take place in a fun atmosphere.

Teaching Turkish is not thought only as a language teaching, but also, along with language teaching it is about transferring our culture; and for this end, social activities are conducted in two ways, in and out of class. While different programs like speaking lessons, culture lessons, cinema hours and writing workshops are prepared within the scope of in-class activities; for out-of-class activities, trips to historical and cultural places of Istanbul are organized and nature trips are made.

Our Centre, located in Istanbul, the cultural capital of the world, with its young and dynamic staff, is waiting for everyone who wants to learn our Turkish language which is one of the richest world languages, spoken in a wide geography, and whose roots go deep into history; and thus wants to enter our cultural climate.

Dr Fac. Mem. Ahmet SACKESEN
IZUTEM Director