Heritage Language Acquisition and Maintenance of Turkish in The United States: Challenges to Teaching Turkish as a Heritage Language

Abstract

Compared to an extensive amount of research on Turkish heritage speakers in Europe, the heritage language acquisition and maintenance of Turkish in the United States has only recently received scholarly attention. This article discusses the heritage language status of Turkish in the United States from an educational perspective with an emphasis on current challenges to teaching Turkish within this context. The educational needs of Turkish-American learners are contextualized within a brief history of Turkish immigration in the United States. Opportunities for learning Turkish in an institutional setting include attending community-based Turkish heritage language schools in early years or Turkish language programs in American universities in later years. Some of the challenges observed in both educational settings include, but are not limited to, a lack of qualified teachers and relevant educational resources as well as generational conflicts in attitudes towards learning Turkish as a heritage language. The article concludes with a discussion on how these challenges may influence the maintenance of Turkish language and culture in the future in a society where English-only language policies are mandated.