Our Turkish Language and Literature Department (TDE) aims to educate students in excellence in education and in both languages (Turkish and English), in line with the objectives of our school. From this perspective, we aim to enable our students to use their native language competently and to strengthen their written and oral communication skills. We aim to develop our students’ critical and analytical thinking skills, their ability to look at issues from different angles and their social intelligence, as individuals connected to Atatürk's Principles and Reforms. In the context of ’multiculturalism”, which is one of the values adopted by Robert College, we attach importance to the fact that our students have both absorbed the national culture and are able to make strong connections with universal culture.
Our program is based on the Turkish national curriculum, with a focus on excellence in education. As the TDE department, we are both enriching and making it more fruitful with some adjustments, book choices, anthologies, and teaching methods. In particular, while covering different topics, through effective student-teacher cooperation and student-focused learning, students are able to develop lasting learning methods that they can carry with them throughout life.
Our department uses the new curriculum from the Turkish Ministry of National Education (2015-2017). Since the curriculum that was updated in 2017 is a type-based curriculum, there is a structuring on all levels of type. Our program covers all of the topics that may appear on the Turkish university entrance exam, and provides students with a level of Turkish that allows them to respond to questions about Turkish and Turkish Language and Literature that may be directed to them. As elective courses, students generally prefer the SDA course that is aimed at the university exam, or the Turkish Theatre and the Turkish Elocution and Writing classes.
This year, our department organized the 14th Annual Culture and Literature Symposium. This workshop is organized especially for Turkish language and literature teachers at private and public schools. Each year a different topic is selected for the symposium and experts from all over the country are invited to meet with our teachers and Robert College students. Our department also organizes an event called “Book Days and Artist Talks” every year in May. During this 10-day event, our students can purchase a variety of books at a special rate, including books that they will read in the following year's Turkish Language and Literature courses. In addition students meet with writers, illustrators, poets and critics at the Robert College Library. Our students produce the Martı, Oda and Sinek magazines, and Köprü newspaper under the guidance of TDE teachers. Within the scope of the Turkish Theater Club and the Elective Theater course, at least two Turkish plays are performed each year.
