Problems experienced by teachers and solution proposals in the context of teaching Turkish as a foreign/second language to children: The case of Alanya district

Alanya is one of the districts where children from different countries reside in large numbers due to its high tourism potential and multinational population structure. This situation necessitates the teaching of Turkish as a foreign/second language to children in schools and courses and complicates the instructional process in various respects. Foreign national students studying in the district differ significantly in terms of their language proficiency levels, prior educational experiences, cultural adaptation processes, and socio-economic conditions. These differences are observed to increase the challenges teachers encounter in planning and implementing instruction. In particular, school adaptation, the development of basic communication skills, inadequacies in instructional materials, families' limited proficiency in Turkish, and classroom management are among the most frequently reported problems in the region. Nevertheless, teachers working in Alanya are seen to make efforts to develop instructional methods appropriate for multicultural classroom settings and to support students' language acquisition processes. In this respect, Alanya constitutes a noteworthy example in which the teaching of Turkish as a foreign/second language is shaped by real conditions in the field.