As a passionate teacher about teaching languages and experiencing different cultures, I am excited to apply for participation as a teaching assistant in the FLTA program that is funded by a prestigious and world-wide organization like Fulbright.
I got my BA in American Culture and Literature at Ankara University and it allowed me to learn more about the history, culture and literature of the US with the help of specific lessons about prose, poetry and theatre. In addition to my courses related to my subject of study, I took classes in the fields of Cinema Studies, Turkish Cinema, Film Criticism and Cultural Studies. My senior thesis was on the American-Armenian author William Saroyan. With the title “Saroyan’s Anatolia”, I had the chance to focus on notions like “border”, “identity” and “nation” in Saroyan’s work which motivated me to learn about different cultures and countries along with my own country.
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Studying certain ethnic groups brought me a wider perspective and I started to focus on their relationship with the Turkish culture and media. Subsequently, I changed my academic discipline to pursue my studies in an interdisciplinary discipline and I got my master’s degree in Media and Cultural Studies at Middle East Technical University (METU). I gained a wider perspective on both my academic interests and other fields like sociology and political science. Also, through this multi-layered perspective, I began to analyze literary works in a more sophisticated way.
Following my graduation from both different fields, I felt the lack of a theoretical repertoire in the field of teaching. Then, I took “pedagogical formation” at Gazi University for a year and I gained an academic perspective in the art of teaching. Furthermore, I had the chance to access various methodologies, especially for teaching English. Moreover, I have always been fond of languages and I worked in different language courses during my master’s period which enabled me to get familiarized with different types of students. In addition, I studied some basic French and I am studying Spanish now and through my own experience in Spanish, I am aware of the challenging atmosphere of learning a new language.
I have considerable experience at various universities, which allowed me to improve my social skills like organizing my time, expressing myself and addressing different kinds of people in various age groups. I am eager to face new challenges and I can take the responsibility to accomplish tasks. In short, I am ready to learn and share my own experiences, I would be very grateful if you would give me a chance to contribute to this project.
Except for my academic interests, I’ve been dancing flamenco for about ten years now and I had some stage experience with professional musicians. I visited Spain, attended a worldwide flamenco festival and worked with the masters of flamenco. It enabled me to meet the other dancers from all around the world and I have understood how important it is to share your own experience internationally both in a professional and in a personal way. FLTA is also a great opportunity for a language teacher and a life-long learner. I strongly believe that it would create a dialogue between my colleagues and with international students. Without a doubt, I will gain more experience by teaching my mother tongue and improve my skills in English.
When I return to my country, I am planning to continue my teaching career as an instructor in universities and get a certificate for teaching English to foreign students and I will improve myself about teaching Turkish in a professional way.
Finally, as an enthusiastic teacher, I strongly believe that I can teach Turkish through a filter that is aware of the cultural and geographical aspects of the language and as an American literature and cultural studies graduate, I suppose that I will contribute to the program both academically and professionally
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