The images of the students in English language teaching and Turkish language teaching departments towards Turkish and British

Abstract

In this study, we attempted to identify, compare and contrast both positive and negative images of the students in English Language Teaching (ELT) and Turkish Language Teaching (TLT) Departments towards Turkish and British people in terms of “me and the other.” For this purpose, the data have been collected through a questionnaire administered to 117 ELT students and to 115 Turkish Language Teaching Department students in order to compare and contrast. The participants were asked to choose 10 adjectives among 115, which they think are the best representatives to identify Turkish and British people, and then they were asked to sequence them from the most representative to the least. Our results reveal that ELT students have only identified positive stereotypes for Turkish people but they have identified both positive and negative stereotypes for British people. On the other hand, Turkish Language Teaching students have both positive and negative stereotypes for Turkish and British people. Both groups of students have identified the two nations with varying frequency, sequence and interesting contrasts.