Abstract
TEACHING TURKISH TO AMERICANS IN THE USA “PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEERS CASE”
The Peace Corps first appeared, just before the presidental election of the USA in 1960, by the Presidental Candidate of the Democrats, Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy as a promise to the university youth. It began to act after he had become the president of the USA, by winning the elections. The goals of the Peace Corps were to introduce the USA to the other nations, to know more about them and to assure less-developed countries a superior quality of labor concerning their social and economical progress.
Indeed, Peace Corps Volunteers starts their missions in accordance with protocols signed by the governments of the country which they are sending to work. By the way, Peace Corps Volunteers started coming to Turkey according to the agreement between the USA and Turkish Governments that was signed in 1962. Through this agreement, 1460 Peace Corps Volunteers were in Turkey between 1962-1971. Before coming to Turkey these volunteers were taken under training camps at several universities and colleges in the United States. Language teaching was one of the leading education and training activity at these camps. In this context, language teaching courses constituted the largest part of preparatory training. Citizens of the countries which volunteers will be send for their missions and returned peace corps volunteers have been served at the training lessons as lecturers. The majority of these people are university students whom studying in the United States and also some teaching staff from the universities of the host country have been brought to work during the preparatory training. In this context, the preparation of the volunteers who will be sent to Turkey, have been trained by the Turkish citizens. In those training camps, Turkish language courses starting from grammar, basic words and sentences were taught and then volunteers have been prepared by speaking practices. In addition to these lessons, as to reinforce their language skills, several stage plays have been played and theatre plays have been performed by volunteers in Turkish language.
Keywords
American Peace Corps Volunteers, Turkish Teaching, Turkey, USA.