LANGUAGE PROBLEMS FACED BY SYRIAN REFUGEE STUDENTS WHILE LEARNING TURKISH LANGUAGE

Turkey, ID LLCE2016-291;        Turkey has been getting a great number of Syrian refuges due to the civil war and conflicts in Syria since March, 2011. Among the many problems faced by these refuges, language problem is beyond doubt one of the most remarkable one. Yet, there have only been a few serious attempts in the literature emphasizing this compelling process of learning Turkish for Syrian refugees or language problems experienced by Syrians. For this reason, this paper aims to reveal language learning problems faced by Syrian refugee students, while learning Turkish. This study specifically focuses on the Syrian refugee students of Kilis 7 Aralık University, located in the southeast of Turkey.  It further sheds light on the process of learning Turkish by Syrian refugee students. The study based on a survey consisting of 9 open-ended questions. The survey reveals that majority of the participants, one way or the other; experience  language problems such as; pronunciation, phonology, alphabet  while learning Turkish.    

Key words: Learning Turkish, Syrian Refugee students, Kilis