LANGUAGE EDUCATION AND ELT MATERIALS IN TURKEY FROM THE PATH DEPENDENCE PERSPECTIVE

This paper examines the role of traditional language teaching methodology on the current language teaching methodology in Turkey from the Path Dependence Theory perspective. Path Dependence claims that the past continues shaping the present. Similarly, traditional approaches still shape foreign/second language education. Turkey has inherited a foreign language education methodology from the Ottoman Empire. It equates language education with studying formal aspects of a target language and consists of mechanical practice of the isolated formal aspects of a target language at the sentence level. To elaborate on the issue, the 4th and 5th grade English coursebooks are evaluated first and then comments are made with reference to Path Dependence.