Students' development of literacy skills progresses from supported comprehension and use of high-frequency and personally significant sight words to understanding and applying basic grammatical features of the language, such as simple verb tenses and verb moods, for example, recognising question and imperative forms such as olay ne? Nerede geçti? Neler oldu? Neden oldu? Başla! Başlayabilirsin...
Students' development of literacy skills progresses from supported comprehension and use of high-frequency and personally significant sight words to understanding and applying basic grammatical features of the language, such as simple verb tenses and verb moods, for example, recognising question and imperative forms such as olay ne? Nerede geçti? Neler oldu? Neden oldu? Başla! Başlayabilirsin, Kalk! Kalkabilirsin! Çabuk gel! They recognise in more detail the relationship between spoken and written language, applying spelling patterns, the spacing rule and the principles of vowel harmony, for example, to question endings such as alır mısın? alıyor musun? They use an increasing range of verbs, adjectives and adverbs to describe actions, places and people, for example, mavi köşkte, Kısa saçlı biriydi, Çok dikkatli yürü and Dün sabah geldi, simple conjunctions to link ideas, ve, ile/-(y)le, ama, çünkü, and prepositions to indicate direction, for example, ileride, ortasında, üzerinde, köşesinde, aşağıda, yukarıda, doğu, batı, kuzey, güney. Students develop metalanguage for talking about language, using terms such as isimler, fiiller, sıfatlar, zarflar, ekler- ismin halleri, zamirler. The development of reading skills and textual knowledge is supported through interaction with a range of spoken, written, visual and multimodal texts. Imaginative and interactive texts, such as picture books, rhymes, stories, puppet play, songs and games, engage the expressive and cultural dimensions of language. Procedural, informational and descriptive texts, such as negotiated classroom rules, tuckshop orders or family and class profiles, show how language is used to ‘get things done’. A balance between language knowledge and language use is established by integrating focused attention to grammar, vocabulary building, pronunciation, and non-verbal and cultural dimensions of language use with communicative and purposeful task activity.
Learning Turkish in school contributes to the process of making sense of the students' worlds, which characterises this stage of development. Students are increasingly aware that the Turkish language is used not only in their own community in Australia and in Turkey, but also in many other places around the world. As they engage consciously with differences between languages and cultures, they make comparisons and consider differences and possibilities in ways of communicating in different languages. This leads them to explore concepts of identity and difference, to think about cultural and linguistic diversity, and about what it means to speak more than one language in the contemporary world.
Students interact with peers and the teacher in classroom routines and a variety of learning experiences and activities. They engage in a lot of listening, and build oral proficiency through responding to rich language input and opportunities to engage in communicative activities where grammatical forms and language features are purposefully integrated. The language they use and hear is authentic with some modification, using familiar vocabulary and simple structures. Students follow instructions, exchange simple information and express ideas and feelings related to their personal worlds. They negotiate interactions and activities, and participate in shared experiences, performance and play. They read and create short texts on topics relevant to their interests and enjoyment, such as family, pets, favourite activities or food. They continue to build vocabulary that relates to a wider range of domains, such as areas of the curriculum that involve some specialised language use. The language used in routine activities is reused and reinforced from lesson to lesson in different situations, allowing students to make connections between what has been learnt and what is to be learnt.
By the end of Level 4, students interact with the teacher and peers to exchange information about themselves and others, everyday routines and events at school and in their local Turkish and multilingual communities. They ask and respond to questions to elicit information about each other, for example, Kendini tanıtır mısın? Nerelisin? Ailen nereden geldi? Ben Türküm ve Avustralyalıyım. Ailem Avustralya’ya İzmir’den geldi and identify wishes associated with events in their communities, for example, Bayramınız kutlu olsun! Mutluluklar dilerim. Kınan kutlu olsun! They compare preferences, for example, Futbol yerine tenis oynamak istiyorum and exchange simple written forms of social correspondence, such as invitations, messages for birthdays, Mother’s and Father’s Days, religious celebrations and national days, for example, Bayramınız mübarek olsun! 23 Nisan Ulusal Egemenlik ve Çocuk Bayramınız kutlu olsun! Anneler günün kutlu olsun!. They use formulaic expressions to participate in shared tasks, activities and transactional exchanges such as working together to organise an event, for example, Doğum günü davetiyesini kim yazacak? Ben pastayı getiririm. They use modelled language...
By the end of Level 4, students interact with the teacher and peers to exchange information about themselves and others, everyday routines and events at school and in their local Turkish and multilingual communities. They ask and respond to questions to elicit information about each other, for example, Kendini tanıtır mısın? Nerelisin? Ailen nereden geldi? Ben Türküm ve Avustralyalıyım. Ailem Avustralya’ya İzmir’den geldi and identify wishes associated with events in their communities, for example, Bayramınız kutlu olsun! Mutluluklar dilerim. Kınan kutlu olsun! They compare preferences, for example, Futbol yerine tenis oynamak istiyorum and exchange simple written forms of social correspondence, such as invitations, messages for birthdays, Mother’s and Father’s Days, religious celebrations and national days, for example, Bayramınız mübarek olsun! 23 Nisan Ulusal Egemenlik ve Çocuk Bayramınız kutlu olsun! Anneler günün kutlu olsun!. They use formulaic expressions to participate in shared tasks, activities and transactional exchanges such as working together to organise an event, for example, Doğum günü davetiyesini kim yazacak? Ben pastayı getiririm. They use modelled language to interact in classroom routines, such as responding to questions, directions and requests, for example, Bugün hava nasıl? Bugün hava güneşli ve sıcak! Bugün önce birlikte bir kitap okuyacağız, sonra bir oyun oynayacağız, asking for help or permission, for example, Anlayamadım, tekrar eder misiniz? Bu kelime nasıl okunur?, attracting attention and rehearsing new language. When interacting, they use Turkish pronunciation and intonation and apply the vowel harmony rule to high-frequency words. Students locate and organise key points of information in different types of spoken, written and visual texts relating to personal, social and natural worlds and, with the assistance of support materials such as photos and maps, present information about home, school and community. They respond to imaginative texts by making simple statements about favourite elements and acting out key events and interactions. They create simple imaginative texts using formulaic expressions and modelled language. Students use key grammatical forms and structures, such as verbs, adjectives and adverbs, to describe and elaborate on action, places and people, for example, mavi köşkte, Kısa saçlı biriydi, Çok dikkatli yürü and Dün sabah geldi and conjunctions to link ideas. They express facts using simple present and past tense suffixes, and use negation and affirmation suffixes to form simple sentences, for example, biliyorum/ bilmiyorum, okur/okumaz, uyudu/uyumadı, geleceğim/gelmeyeceğim, gitmiş/gitmemiş. They translate and compare common Turkish and English expressions, words or gestures and create simple bilingual texts for the classroom and community. Students describe similarities and differences in ways of using language and interacting with people when communicating in Turkish and English, and identify how their individual and group sense of identity is expressed in the languages they use.
Students identify Turkish sound and writing patterns to pronounce and spell high frequency words. They use simple metalanguage such as isimler, fiiller, sıfatlar, zarflar, ekler- ismin halleri, zamirler to talk about language. They identify ways that the features of texts differ according to mode and context, and compare Turkish texts with similar texts in English. They provide examples of how language use varies according to age, gender and social position, for example, lütfen yapmayın/yapmasana!/yapma!, and identify regional differences in language use, including dialects and accents. They identify how languages change over time, providing examples of Turkish words borrowed from other languages such as English and vice versa. They make connections between Turkish language and culture, identifying culture-specific terms, expressions and gestures.
