Problems Encountered in Teaching Turkish to Arabs: the Case of Baghdad
Authors:   Independent Researcher, DAYAN Serdar 
Published: February 2021

Many nationsfused withone anotherin history and felt the need to learn each other’s languages due tothis fusion. Turks and Arabs have lived together for centuries and united under the roofs of the same states due to their intersection in many common aspects. Their mutual efforts to learn each other’s languages as a result of developing relations and common grounds havepersevered till the present. In addition to Turks’ efforts to learn Arabic, there have been intense efforts of Arabas to learn Turkish. The endeavors to learn and teach Turkish, which rose with Divan-u Lugati’t-Turk in the past, are now carried out in an abundance of resources in modern areas through technological tools.Although Arabs and Turks lived together for many years, they have had difficulties and problems in learning each other’s languages as their language come from different language families. This study focused on problems encountered in teaching Turkish to Arab students. Data on the problemsexperienced by Turkishlanguage teachers who teach in schools and training centers in Baghdad were collected through interviews. Exam papers, homework, and other works of the students were examined. A survey for teachers was conducted in this regard. The study focused on the problems identified as 14 items in line with the examinations.Keywords: Foreign language, Teaching Turkish, Teaching Turkish in Baghdad.IntroductionOur world is developing rapidly in every aspect. Interactions on matters such as social, economic, education, etc., among nations are at a high level. These interactions have created the need to learn foreign languages. The need for foreign language increased the importance of foreign language education. There have always been problems in teaching language to foreigners. In general, students experience difficulties in differences between their language and the foreign language they try to learn. The problems in this study usually consisted of such problems. Comparison between the foreign language to be learned,and the native language will make it easier to determine the will arise later. Comparisons allow the teacherand the learner to anticipate the difficulty,make preparations,and carry out studies accordingly(Bölükbaş, 2001).Teaching Turkish to the Arabs beganwith the Divan-ü Lügati't-Türk,written by Kasgarli Mahmut. Turks and Arabs felt the need to learn each other's languages because they have lived together for many years.Among the reasons for long life and fusion, there were reasons such as common religion, common land, trade, common goals, cultural affinity, and social life similarity. Both languages have affected each other with the impact of living together. The influence of Turkish on Arabic is seen in the dialects of Arabic rather than the academic Arabic called “Fusha.”The abundance and still intense use of Turkish words in Iraqi dialect among the public revealed the influence of Turkish. As it is known, there were more expeditions to the eastern countries during the reign of Yavuz Sultan Selim,and the Arab population in the Ottoman State increased as a result of these campaigns. However, the most important event of this period was thatthe