Turkish

Learning Turkish at UT

The Department of Middle Eastern Studies offers a minor in Turkish and opportunities for undergraduate students to study Turkish/Turkey within its BA degrees in Middle Eastern Studies, Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, and Islamic Studies.  Students majoring in International Relations and Global Studies, Government, History and Economics often choose to study Turkish. Students interested in advanced degrees concentrating on Turkey may enroll in programs such as Middle Eastern Studies, Government, History, Comparative Literature, Ethnomusicology or Anthropology.  Master students in the UT Center for Middle Eastern Studies Dual Language Track Program often choose Turkish as one of their two Middle Eastern Languages.

All students taking Turkish have the opportunity to study the language for at least 2 years on the UT-Austin campus with the goal of achieving a minimum of advanced proficiency.  Thanks to the intensive nature of the beginning courses, students can attain intermediate proficiency and complete their Foreign Language Requirement in just 2 semesters (with TUR 601C and 611C). By the 4th semester, students transition to thematic content classes taught entirely in Turkish.  Students may take a second content course (TUR 329) in their 3rd year or may choose to study abroad in Turkey or Azerbaijan.

Training in the Turkish language is accompanied by related course offerings in Middle Eastern Studies, European Studies, Slavic and Eurasian Studies, and the Butler School of Music.  Students may also pursue further area studies coursework abroad via our full campus exchange program with Boğaziçi University in Istanbul.  The Boğaziçi exchange program allows students to apply their scholarships and financial aid packages toward summer, semester or year-long study abroad and receive transfer credit for their coursework upon their return.  The UT College of Engineering also runs a college-wide exchange program with Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey, enabling engineering students to study abroad and graduate on time. Boğaziçi University and Middle East Technical University, Turkey’s premier English-language campuses, offer our students both rigorous coursework in English and excellent Turkish language training.  Students who complete Turkish language coursework elsewhere and wish to continue in UT Turkish language courses must take the DMES Turkish placement exam. Details on the placement exam can be found here.

Oral Proficiency Interviews

Please note that at the end of the 611C course, you may be asked to complete an oral proficiency interview (OPI). Each year Middle Eastern Studies is required to administer OPIs to a pool of randomly selected students, to verify that we are meeting curriculum goals in our first-year language courses. This process is dependent on voluntary student participation. The interviews are extracurricular and will not figure into your course grade, but students selected to participate will receive a notification letting them know their proficiency level in the language. The test is administered over the telephone (or Zoom) and rated by an ACTFL Certified Tester. OPIs can be rated according to the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines 2012 or the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) scale.

Heritage Learners, Bilingual Students, Native Speakers

Anyone with any knowledge of Turkish written and/or oral must take the placement exam (given prior to the beginning of the Fall and Spring semesters) to correctly identify which level student belongs in. Details on the placement exam can be found here.

Students who want to receive credit for TUR 601C and TUR 611C may take the CBE test which is only offered once a year in the Fall. Details on the CBE can be found here.

Heritage Learners, bilingual students, and native speakers interested in taking Turkish content courses should see the Turkish Program Coordinator, Dr. Jeannette Okur, to determine their eligibility.  Such students are also welcome to participate in the weekly Turkish Tea and Conversation Hour (for Intermediate, Advanced and native speakers of Turkish) and volunteer with Turkish Studies cultural events.  Students interested in volunteer opportunities should contact Dr. Okur.

Wajiha Masroor graduated from UT Austin in May 2023 with a B.A. in Psychology and a Minor in Turkish. She was named a Distinguished College Scholar, and in Fall 2023, will join the Ph.D. program in Counseling Psychology at Texas A&M University. An active member of the UT Turkish program for four semesters, Wajiha writes, "The Turkish Program at the University of Texas at Austin allowed me to immerse myself in Turkish culture. I was able to expand my linguistic skills through interactive and innovative experiences in the classroom, make lasting friendships and be part of an incredible community! This program made my time at UT just that much more meaningful!"

Sophia Ahmad graduated in May 2021 from UT's dual master's program for Global Policy & Middle Eastern Studies. Her thesis, "Post-Reform Saudi Arabia: Space, Time, and the Reconstruction of the Social and Political Order,” was awarded the 2021 Emmette S. Redford Award for Outstanding Research by the LBJ School of Public Affairs. She was awarded multiple FLAS awards to study both Arabic & Turkish at the advanced level during her time at UT, and she was a graduate fellow to the UT Center for the Study of Race & Democracy. Upon her graduation from UT, she spent Summer 2021 as an American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT) language fellow at Bogazici University in Istanbul. She is currently a government contractor in Washington, DC. Sophia remembers the UT Turkish program fondly:  "The UT Turkish program was an incredible experience. The program is rigorous and comprehensive. We had a small (5-7 students) class, which allowed for a tight-knit community to develop. Jeannette Hoca invests a great deal of effort in her curriculum and interactions to ensure her students’ Turkish grammar, vocabulary, and speaking skills grow quickly. The topics we covered were fun and engaging - we were exposed to Turkish cultural and social history through the lens of Turkish literary giants like Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar and Halide Edip Adıvar. Our weekly ’tea hour (çay saati)’ was also a great way for us to practice our language skills in a low-pressure setting!"

Hazem Saleh completed his B.B.A. in Supply Chain Management at the UT McCombs School of Business in May 2021. As an undergraduate, he also studied Turkish, winning the James W. Redhouse Award for Best Progress in the Turkish Language in 2019, and Chinese, earning the Taiwan Ministry of Education Huayu Enrichment Scholarship to study abroad in Taiwan post-graduation. Hazem recalls, "Taking 3 years of Turkish with Dr. Okur had an immense impact on me during my time at UT Austin. The language skills I acquired allowed me to make new friends and connect with many people I otherwise never would have met. Furthermore, all of the classes helped me gain knowledge about various aspects of Turkish culture and Turkey's relation to the rest of the Middle East and the world. As someone personally interested in Middle Eastern Studies, this knowledge has been immensely useful, especially as Turkey continues to become more and more relevant on the global stage." Hazem currently works as a supply chain analyst for Texas Instruments in Dallas.

Dr. Matthew Chovanec graduated in May 2020 from the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, where he studied modern Turkish literature. His dissertation focused on the role of language ideology in the literary history of the Turkish and Egyptian novel. During his time at UT, he also published two peer-review articles on Turkish literature for the journals JOTSA and Monograf. He is also the translator of The Mosquito Bite Author by Barış Bıçakçı and Gavur Mahallesi [Infidel Quarter] by Mıgırdiç Margosyan. His recent article in Asymptote details the former novel and its importance to contemporary Turkish books. He currently works for The College Board as Director of its International Middle East and North Africa division.