In spite of the increased emphasis since being designated by the United States National Security Language Initiative (NSLI) as one of the sixteen critical languages, the number of students studying Turkish at the university level is small (MLA, 2015). During implementation of this project, several problems unique to Turkish arose. According to the Defense Language Institute (DLI), the degree of difficulty for English language speakers to learn Turkish is greater than that of most European languages because of the vast cultural differences between the United States and Turkey. There is one commonly used textbook at the university level across the United States (Öztopçu) which succeeds in delivering the teaching materials suitable for a traditional classroom but fails to provide opportunities for students to develop cultural and communicative competence. Additionally, it fails to offer digital technology, such as online study materials, which many students would prefer to have included in their academic studies (ECAR, 2014). The Turkish Global Simulation (TGS) project offers a solution: the development of effective teaching materials that would provide students access to the Turkish language and culture using the latest technologies that students already use and enjoy. The TGS was based on the French Apartment Building (Dupuy, 2006a, 2006b), which exemplifies relevant task-based instruction. The French Apartment Building project helps students attain communicative competence and cultural literacy through books and web resources, and focuses on improving students' reading and writing skills. The TGS allows students to experience a virtual life as a tenant in an apartment building in Istanbul. This is accomplished with the use of web applications (Facebook, Google Earth, Google Docs, Google Voice, emails, Blogger, chats, text messages, podcasting, audio-video files, 3-D maps, and Google Bookmarks), and authentic materials (e.g. movie/music clips). I delivered the tasks and the materials—in accordance with the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) standards—through the TGS project, which was first piloted and run successfully for several years to teach second-year second-semester university Turkish learners. The project involves a semester-long simulated life in a Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) environment, and promotes cultural and communicative competence while motivating students to be virtually connected to a new culture, autonomous, and lifelong learners. The specific research questions address: 1. How does the TGS project affect student’s cultural competence? 2. How effective is the TGS project as a context for language learning? 3. How do students compare the TGS with more traditional learning methods? How do teachers evaluate the Turkish textbook? 4. How effective is Internet technology in the TGS project? A number of different instruments were used to measure the effectiveness of global simulation in promoting cultural competence: oral interviews, ACTFL standards textbook evaluations, Flashlight surveys, teacher-course evaluations, and the TGS final exams. The results revealed that the success of global simulation in Turkish has clear implications for teaching not only Turkish, but also other less commonly taught languages, for which the classroom is the predominant method for American university students to learn a foreign language and culture.

Ciência e Tecnologia são considerados empreendimentos culturalmente referenciados, p ira além de históricos e sociais. A categoria dual Fragmentos e Totalidades é contemplada tanto na criação científica quanto no seu ensinar-aprender. Diante das prevalências do conhecimento fragmentado e do componente inercial que resiste ao novo na educação científica dos vários níveis de escolarização, é proposta a adoção de conceitos supradisciplinares e unificadores para ancorar o tratamento didático-pedagógico desse conhecimento. As possibilidades de conquistas de ganhos culturais pelos educandos na estruturação de unidades interligadas de saber são discutidas e avaliadas. / Science and Technology are determined by cultural relations, besides their constraints with historical and societal process. The dualistic category Fragments & Wholeness is considered in epistemological and pedagogical references. In opposition to the fragmentation process and the inercial component to the new knowledge that still remains in all the Science Education levels, the adoption of unifying concepts as anchors for the didatic treatment of this knowledge is proposed. The possibilities of cultural acquirements conquered by the students during the construction of knowledge structures in the perspective of linkages and unities are discussed and evaluated.

Ciência e Tecnologia são considerados empreendimentos culturalmente referenciados, p ira além de históricos e sociais. A categoria dual Fragmentos e Totalidades é contemplada tanto na criação científica quanto no seu ensinar-aprender. Diante das prevalências do conhecimento fragmentado e do componente inercial que resiste ao novo na educação científica dos vários níveis de escolarização, é proposta a adoção de conceitos supradisciplinares e unificadores para ancorar o tratamento didático-pedagógico desse conhecimento. As possibilidades de conquistas de ganhos culturais pelos educandos na estruturação de unidades interligadas de saber são discutidas e avaliadas. / Science and Technology are determined by cultural relations, besides their constraints with historical and societal process. The dualistic category Fragments & Wholeness is considered in epistemological and pedagogical references. In opposition to the fragmentation process and the inercial component to the new knowledge that still remains in all the Science Education levels, the adoption of unifying concepts as anchors for the didatic treatment of this knowledge is proposed. The possibilities of cultural acquirements conquered by the students during the construction of knowledge structures in the perspective of linkages and unities are discussed and evaluated.

No description available.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / El uso del cine en el aula provee a los estudiantes oportunidades visuales en combinación con las auditivas de oír la lengua meta con las sutilezas y los matices de los hispanohablantes. Es decir, el cine les proporciona la inmersión en la lengua auténtica. Las imágenes les permiten a los estudiantes sentirse parte del país, involucrados con las personas, las situaciones y las circunstancias de la vida cotidiana.