Problems that face students in studying Turkish as a foreign language: Azerbaijan model

Our research aims to identify the problems faced by students learning Turkey Turkish in Azerbaijan. Since Azerbaijan Turkish and Turkey Turkish belong to the same language family, although both languages (dialects) seem close to each other, this closeness creates various problems. If students cannot cope with these problems, Turkey Turkish education cannot be completed, and the process can fail. To reveal the causes of the problems, the interview technique, which is one of the qualitative data collection techniques, was applied to the students. The interview process was carried out face to face by the researcher. Semi-structured interview questions were asked to the participants, and additional questions were added as needed by the researcher to provide more comprehensive data collection. Findings were evaluated according to the application. The participants were formed from 2 different groups, especially those whose language of education was different. In this way, the different problems faced by 2 different groups in the education process were also examined in a comparative way. As the sample, B2 group trainees of Yunus Emre Institute in Baku, whose language of instruction is Turkey Turkish, and 4th grade Turcology students in Baku State University whose language of instruction is Azerbaijani Turkish were selected. The implementation of our research was completed in the spring semester of 2021. There are many studies in the field of Teaching Turkish as a Foreign Language. Most of these studies are aimed at teaching or foreign students studying in Turkey. Our research, on the other hand, will take a different place as it is a research for learning. At the same time, the fact that this study was conducted in another country will make the study different. In this way, not only the learning problems of foreign students in Turkey, but also the problems faced by students learning Turkish in Azerbaijan will be determined. Keywords: Learning Turkish, Turkish as a foreign language, Azerbaijani Turkish, Foreign language learning, Learning process, The effect of the language of education.