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Notes/Turkish/1. Konu: Türk toplumunda değişim — family, relationships, the world of work, and eğitim fırsatları
Notes · TurkishUK · A-Levels

1. Konu: Türk toplumunda değişim — family, relationships, the world of work, and eğitim fırsatları

This topic carries the whole of Edexcel's first theme, Türk toplumunda değişim, change in Turkish society. The specification sets it in the context of Turkey only, and says so twice: in the preamble to the four themes and again at the head of the theme itself. Its two sub-themes are Aile ve İlişkiler, whose aspects are aile yaşamı ve bireylerinin rollerindeki değişiklikler, evlilik ve boşanmaya karşı gösterilen tutumun değişmesi, and aile bireylerinin sayısındaki değişim; and İş dünyası, whose aspects are genç nesil ve istihdam, gençler için mesleki eğitim, and kadınların iş yaşamındaki yeri. Its research subject is Türkiye’de eğitim fırsatları, with the aspects eğitim sisteminde özel ve devlet okulları arasındaki farklar, zihinsel ve bedensel engellilerin eğitimi, and kentsel ve kırsal bölgelerde eğitim imkânları. In the frozen topic map this theme occupies the first of the two social-issues-and-trends slots, because it is one of the specification's two society themes; the third theme, Türkiye üzerinde görüşler, takes the second. Content from this theme can appear in any of the three papers, and the research subject, if chosen, is examined in Paper 1 Section C for 40 marks. The exam technique carried here is Paper 1 Section A, translation into English.

5 sections·~34 min reading time·4 competencies·Level Foundation 1 · Standard 3 · Advanced 1

T·0111 / 12
Exam profile
AO1 · Understand and respond in writing to spoken Turkish about family life, work and schoolingAO2 · Understand and respond in writing to written Turkish of reportorial and sociological registerAO3 · Manipulate Turkish accurately using the vocabulary of kinship, employment and educationAO4 · Show knowledge and understanding of change in Turkish society, including the research subject Türkiye’de eğitim fırsatları
Operators:açıklamakkarşılaştırmakdeğerlendirmektartışmakörneklendirmekgerekçelendirmeközetlemeksonuç çıkarmak

basic level

At first-year standard the expectation is that the kinship and employment vocabulary is secure, that a change can be described in Turkish with a correct tense, and that any generalisation about Turkish families is hedged rather than asserted.

higher level

The full A-Level expects the difference between a documented change and a claim about its cause to be visible in the sentence, every contested assessment to carry a named holder, and the research subject's three aspects to be covered with named institutions and dated legal facts rather than impressions.

Depth

Reading depth: In depth

Text

Text size: Standard

Contents · 5 sections▾
  1. 1. Konu: Türk toplumunda değişim — family, relationships, the world of work, and eğitim fırsatları
    • 01Aile ve İlişkiler I: family life and the changing roles of its members○
    • 02Aile ve İlişkiler II: attitudes to marriage and divorce, and the size of the family◐
    • 03İş dünyası I: the younger generation, employment, and vocational education◐
    • 04İş dünyası II: the place of women in working life◐
    • 05Araştırma Konusu: Türkiye’de eğitim fırsatları, and its three aspects●
§ 01

Aile ve İlişkiler I: family life and the changing roles of its members#

●○○FoundationLPPearson Edexcel 9TU0 1. Konu — Aile ve İlişkiler: aile yaşamı ve bireylerinin rollerindeki değişikliklerLPDfE GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languages

Key points

Begin with the scoping rule, because it decides what counts as relevant. The specification says that Themes 1, 3 and 4 focus on aspects of the society of Turkey only. A candidate who illustrates a point about Turkish family life with material from Cyprus, or from the Turkish-speaking communities of Germany or the United Kingdom, has written something interesting that cannot be credited under this theme. In the frozen topic map used by these notes, this theme sits in the first social-issues-and-trends slot and the third theme sits in the second, because the specification labels both as covering society past and present. The two artistic-culture slots carry Theme 2 and the two political-life slots carry Theme 4, and each topic says so in its own opening.
The vocabulary of the Turkish family is unusually precise and it is worth learning as a system rather than a list, because the distinctions carry meaning that English collapses. Turkish distinguishes the maternal from the paternal line: dayı is a mother's brother, amca a father's brother, teyze a mother's sister, hala a father's sister. It distinguishes relations by marriage: kayınvalide and kayınpeder for a spouse's mother and father, görümce for a husband's sister, elti for a woman married to a husband's brother, bacanak for the husbands of two sisters, baldız for a wife's sister. It distinguishes household types: çekirdek aile is the nuclear family, geniş aile the extended one, and the phrase üç kuşak bir arada, three generations together, names the arrangement in which grandparents, parents and children share a house.
The aspect the specification asks about is change in the roles of family members, and the honest way to write about it is to describe what is documented and attribute what is argued. What is documented is legal: the Türk Medeni Kanunu of 1926 introduced civil marriage, civil divorce, equal inheritance and the abolition of polygamy, and the revised civil code of 2001 removed the provision naming the husband as head of the family, replaced it with joint representation of the marital union, and introduced the regime of edinilmiş mallara katılma, participation in acquired property, as the default matrimonial property regime for marriages contracted after 1 January 2002. Those are dates and statutes, and they can be stated flatly. What is argued is how far social practice followed the law, and that argument should be attributed to whoever makes it.
The language of change is where AO3 marks are earned in this sub-theme, and it repays deliberate practice. Değişmek is to change intransitively and değiştirmek transitively; dönüşmek is to be transformed, and dönüşüm the noun. Artmak and azalmak, to increase and to decrease, take a subject rather than an object, so boşanma oranı arttı rather than boşanmayı arttırdı. Yaygınlaşmak means to become widespread, and gerilemek to decline. Useful nominalisations include rol dağılımı, the distribution of roles; iş bölümü, the division of labour; kuşak farkı, the generation gap; and toplumsal cinsiyet rolleri, the standard Turkish term for gender roles. Building a sentence such as ailede iş bölümü son yirmi yılda belirgin biçimde değişti gives you a claim, a time frame and a hedge in one clause.
Worked example

Paper 1 Section A: translating a passage on the changing household

Translate into English. Türkiye’de hane halkı yapısı yavaş yavaş değişiyor. Bir zamanlar üç kuşağın bir arada yaşadığı geniş aileler yaygındı; bugün özellikle büyük şehirlerde çekirdek aile daha sık görülüyor. Bu değişimin nedenleri arasında kentleşme, kadınların çalışma hayatına daha fazla katılması ve konut fiyatları sayılıyor.

  1. 01Sentence one, and the compound that names the unit

    Türkiye’de hane halkı yapısı yavaş yavaş değişiyor. Hane halkı is a belirtisiz compound, household, literally the people of a dwelling, and hane halkı yapısı chains a second possessive onto it, household structure — a zincirleme isim tamlaması of exactly the kind Appendix 2 lists. Yavaş yavaş is a reduplicated adverb, gradually. Değişiyor is the present continuous of the intransitive değişmek. Render: The structure of the household in Turkey is gradually changing.

  2. 02Sentence two, and the participle carrying the relative clause

    Bir zamanlar üç kuşağın bir arada yaşadığı geniş aileler yaygındı. The head noun is aileler and everything before it modifies it. Yaşadığı is -DIk plus possessive on yaşamak, with its subject üç kuşağın in the genitive: in which three generations lived. Bir arada means together, in one place. Bir zamanlar is once, at one time. Yaygındı is the adjective yaygın plus the past copula. Render: Extended families in which three generations lived together were once common.

  3. 03Sentence three, and the list of causes

    Bu değişimin nedenleri arasında kentleşme, kadınların çalışma hayatına daha fazla katılması ve konut fiyatları sayılıyor. Nedenleri arasında is among the reasons for it, with the postposition arasında governing the possessed noun. Kadınların ... katılması is a nominalised verb with its subject in the genitive, women's greater participation; katılmak governs the dative, hence çalışma hayatına. Sayılıyor is the passive of saymak, are counted or are reckoned. Render: Among the reasons given for this change are urbanisation, women's greater participation in working life, and housing prices.

  4. 04Notice what the passage does not claim, and keep it that way

    Sayılıyor is a passive with no named agent — the Turkish says these are counted among the reasons, not these are the reasons. An English version that writes The reasons for this change are has strengthened the claim beyond what the source made, and in a points-based scheme that segment can fail even though the sentence reads well. Among the reasons given is the faithful rendering, and the same discipline applies in reverse when you translate an English hedge into Turkish.

Result: The structure of the household in Turkey is gradually changing. Extended families in which three generations lived together were once common; today, especially in the big cities, the nuclear family is more often seen. Among the reasons given for this change are urbanisation, women's greater participation in working life, and housing prices.

Exam focus

  • Theme 1 is Turkey only. Cypriot or diaspora examples cannot be credited here.
  • Kinship terms distinguish the maternal and paternal lines. Dayı and amca are not interchangeable.
  • Two dated legal facts anchor this aspect: the civil code of 1926 and its revision of 2001.
  • Artmak and azalmak are intransitive. Use arttırmak and azaltmak when there is an agent.

Typical mistakes

  • Reaching for a Cypriot or a diaspora example under a theme the specification restricts to Turkey.
  • Translating uncle and aunt with a single word. Turkish requires you to know which side of the family.
  • Asserting that attitudes have changed without saying who says so or what the claim rests on.
  • Writing çekirdek aileler arttı with a transitive verb form. The rate rises; nobody raises it.

Active revision

Write 150 words in Turkish describing how the roles of family members in Turkey are said to have changed since the 1980s, using at least six kinship terms correctly, two intransitive change verbs, and one explicit attribution of the form bazı araştırmacılara göre.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Turkish (9TU0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)

§ 02

Aile ve İlişkiler II: attitudes to marriage and divorce, and the size of the family#

●●○StandardLPPearson Edexcel 9TU0 1. Konu — Aile ve İlişkiler: evlilik ve boşanmaya karşı gösterilen tutumun değişmesi; aile bireylerinin sayısındaki değişim

Key points

The specification's wording is worth reading closely: evlilik ve boşanmaya karşı gösterilen tutumun değişmesi is not the change in marriage and divorce but the change in the attitude shown towards them. The examinable content is therefore about opinion, discourse and social expectation as much as about behaviour, which is convenient, because attitudes can be described honestly without any statistics at all. The institutional facts are available and datable: civil marriage before an authorised registrar has been the only legally recognised form since the civil code of 1926, and a religious ceremony, the dinî nikâh or imam nikâhı, has no civil effect on its own. Divorce is judicial, granted by an aile mahkemesi, and the grounds set out in the code include şiddetli geçimsizlik, irreconcilable incompatibility, alongside the specific grounds of zina, terk and akıl hastalığı.
The vocabulary here is precise and a candidate who uses it precisely sounds informed. Nişanlanmak is to become engaged and nişan the engagement; söz kesmek is the older step of agreeing a match; başlık parası is bride price, which the civil code does not recognise; kına gecesi is the henna night held before the wedding; nikâh is the legal ceremony and düğün the celebration. On the other side: boşanmak is to divorce, boşanma the noun, ayrılık separation, nafaka maintenance, velayet custody, and anlaşmalı boşanma the uncontested divorce by agreement. Evlilik dışı birliktelik names cohabitation. Note that boşanmak is intransitive and takes the ablative for the other party: eşinden boşandı, she divorced her husband.
Writing about attitudes requires attribution as a habit rather than an ornament. The reliable frames in Turkish are göre with the dative — araştırmacılara göre, bir ankete göre, gazetecilere göre — and the reported past in -mIş, which marks a claim you did not witness. A sentence such as bazı sosyologlara göre boşanmaya karşı tutum özellikle kentlerde yumuşamış is doing three things at once: it names who holds the view, it restricts the claim geographically, and its verb form says this is reported rather than asserted. Compare the flat boşanmaya karşı tutum yumuşadı, which asserts a change in Turkish society on your own authority. The AO4 grid rewards critical analysis, and the difference between those two sentences is precisely what critical analysis looks like in a foreign language.
On aile bireylerinin sayısındaki değişim, the change in the number of family members, the temptation to reach for a number is strong and should be resisted, because a fabricated statistic is worse than no statistic and an examiner cannot reward one. The disciplined move is to name the source instead: household size and fertility series for Turkey are published by TÜİK, the Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu, and a candidate who writes TÜİK verilerine göre ortalama hane büyüklüğü uzun süredir düşmektedir has made a checkable claim without inventing a figure. If you have done the research and know the current number, use it and say where it came from; if you have not, describe the direction of the change and attribute it. Related vocabulary: doğurganlık hızı, the fertility rate; ortalama hane büyüklüğü, average household size; nüfus artış hızı, the rate of population growth; yaşlanan nüfus, the ageing population.
Worked example

Paper 1 Section C: turning research notes on attitudes into an attributed paragraph

You have researched Türkiye’de eğitim fırsatları but the unseen text on it opens with a claim about family expectations. Write the paragraph of your response that handles the claim without over-committing.

  1. 01Read what the unseen text actually claims

    Suppose the text says: Ailelerin çocuklarından beklentileri değişti; artık kız çocuklarının da üniversiteye gitmesi doğal karşılanıyor. Two claims sit here. The first, expectations have changed, is asserted flatly with -DI. The second, it is now regarded as natural, is a passive with no agent — doğal karşılanıyor, is received as natural — so the text has not said by whom. AO2 rewards using the text; it does not reward strengthening it.

  2. 02Decide what your own research adds

    Your research on eğitim fırsatları has given you institutional material: the compulsory schooling structure, the difference between devlet okulları and özel okullar, the position of pupils in kırsal bölgeler. The paragraph should let the text's claim about family expectation meet your researched material about provision, because AO4 rewards knowledge of society and culture through research and AO2 rewards use of the text. A paragraph that only paraphrases the text scores in one grid and not the other.

  3. 03Draft the Turkish with the attribution visible

    Metinde ailelerin beklentilerinin değiştiği, kız çocuklarının üniversiteye gitmesinin artık doğal karşılandığı belirtiliyor. Ancak beklentinin değişmesi tek başına fırsat eşitliği anlamına gelmiyor: araştırmam sırasında incelediğim kaynaklarda, kırsal bölgelerdeki öğrencilerin ulaşım ve barınma sorunlarıyla karşılaştığı, taşımalı eğitimin ise her yerde aynı biçimde uygulanmadığı vurgulanıyordu. Note the two -DIk nominalisations reporting what the text says, the ancak that turns the argument, and the imperfect vurgulanıyordu marking what your sources emphasised.

  4. 04Check the paragraph against all three grids

    AO4: it names a researched aspect, kentsel ve kırsal bölgelerde eğitim imkânları, and makes an argument rather than listing. AO2: it uses the unseen text and does not merely restate it. AO3: it contains two nominalised reported clauses, a contrastive connective, a passive and a past continuous, which is range, and every suffix harmonises, which is accuracy. That is what a single 40-mark paragraph is meant to do — all three grids at once, not one at a time.

Result: Metinde ailelerin beklentilerinin değiştiği, kız çocuklarının üniversiteye gitmesinin artık doğal karşılandığı belirtiliyor. Ancak beklentinin değişmesi tek başına fırsat eşitliği anlamına gelmiyor: araştırmam sırasında incelediğim kaynaklarda, kırsal bölgelerdeki öğrencilerin ulaşım ve barınma sorunlarıyla karşılaştığı, taşımalı eğitimin ise her yerde aynı biçimde uygulanmadığı vurgulanıyordu.

Exam focus

  • The aspect is about attitudes, not only about behaviour. Discourse and expectation are examinable content.
  • Civil marriage before a registrar has been the only legally recognised form since 1926.
  • Boşanmak takes the ablative: eşinden boşandı, not eşini boşandı.
  • Name TÜİK as the publisher of the series rather than inventing a figure you cannot source.

Typical mistakes

  • Presenting a change in attitude as uniform across Turkey. Region, city size and generation all cut across it.
  • Confusing nikâh, the legal ceremony, with düğün, the celebration, or treating imam nikâhı as legally sufficient.
  • Inventing divorce or household-size percentages. An unsourced number cannot earn an AO4 mark.
  • Using dinî nikâh and resmî nikâh interchangeably. Only the second has civil effect.

Active revision

Write 200 words in Turkish on how attitudes to marriage and divorce in Turkey are described as having changed, in which every general claim carries an explicit attribution frame, at least three of the frames are different from one another, and no number appears that you cannot name a source for.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Turkish (9TU0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)

§ 03

İş dünyası I: the younger generation, employment, and vocational education#

●●○StandardLPPearson Edexcel 9TU0 1. Konu — İş dünyası: genç nesil ve istihdam; gençler için mesleki eğitim

The Turkish education ladder

Eğitim basamaklarıProbability tree, 10 paths, Data: Okul öncesi; İlkokul, 4 yıl; Ortaokul, 4 yıl; Lise, 4 yıl → Anadolu lisesi; Lise, 4 yıl → Fen lisesi; Lise, 4 yıl → Mesleki ve teknik; Lise, 4 yıl → İmam hatip lisesi; Yükseköğretim → Meslek yüksekokulu; Yükseköğretim → Lisans, 4 yıl; Yükseköğretim → LisansüstüLise, 4 yılYükseköğretimEğitim sistemiOkul öncesiİlkokul, 4 yılOrtaokul, 4 yılAnadolu lisesiFen lisesiMesleki ve teknikİmam hatip lisesiMeslek yüksekokuluLisans, 4 yılLisansüstü
Fig. 1The ladder makes two of the research subject's three aspects concrete at once. The compulsory span is twelve years, organised as four plus four plus four — ilkokul, ortaokul, lise — with okul öncesi eğitim beneath it, and the branch at lise level is where the vocational question lives: a pupil entering mesleki ve teknik Anadolu lisesi is on a different route from one entering fen lisesi or Anadolu lisesi, and the specification's aspect gençler için mesleki eğitim is about that branch. Above lise the ladder forks again between the two-year meslek yüksekokulu, which awards an ön lisans, and the four-year lisans, with lisansüstü study above both. The second research aspect, the difference between devlet okulları and özel okullar, cuts across every rung rather than sitting on one, which is why it does not appear as a branch here. Confirm current school names and stage boundaries from Turkish-language sources: the structure has been reorganised more than once and the names change with it.

Key points

Two of the three aspects of İş dünyası concern young people, and they are best handled together because the institutions overlap. The employment vocabulary is a small closed set and must be exact: istihdam is employment as a policy concept, iş gücü the labour force, işsizlik unemployment, genç işsizliği youth unemployment, iş gücüne katılım oranı the participation rate, kayıt dışı istihdam informal or unregistered employment, asgari ücret the minimum wage, sözleşmeli çalışma contract work, and staj an internship or work placement. The İŞKUR, Türkiye İş Kurumu, is the public employment agency and runs placement and training schemes; the SGK, Sosyal Güvenlik Kurumu, administers social security registration, which is why kayıt dışı, off the books, is defined against it.
Vocational education has a definite institutional shape that a candidate should be able to name. Secondary schooling in Turkey runs to four years of lise, and the vocational stream is the mesleki ve teknik Anadolu lisesi, whose graduates hold a diploma plus a trade qualification. Above it sit the meslek yüksekokulu, a two-year higher vocational school leading to an ön lisans degree, and above that the four-year lisans. The dual system of school-plus-workplace training is organised under the vocational-training law, and the term çıraklık eğitimi names apprenticeship. MEB, the Millî Eğitim Bakanlığı, is the ministry; YÖK, the Yükseköğretim Kurulu, governs higher education; and ÖSYM, the Ölçme, Seçme ve Yerleştirme Merkezi, runs the national examinations that allocate university places.
The examination that structures a Turkish teenager's life is worth naming precisely because it appears constantly in authentic sources. Entry to university is by a two-stage national examination administered by ÖSYM, currently the Yükseköğretim Kurumları Sınavı, universally abbreviated YKS, whose first stage is the TYT, Temel Yeterlilik Testi, and whose second is the AYT, Alan Yeterlilik Testleri. Entry to selective secondary schools is by the LGS, Liselere Geçiş Sınavı. Around them has grown the dershane, the private cramming school, and its successor institutions, together with özel ders, private tuition. Confirm the current names and structure from Turkish-language sources when you research, because examination systems are renamed frequently — that instability is itself a fact worth noting in an essay.
The argument that runs through this sub-theme, and the one an examiner will reward you for handling rather than repeating, concerns the fit between qualification and job. The Turkish phrase is nitelik uyuşmazlığı or eğitim-istihdam uyumsuzluğu, the mismatch between education and employment, and the discussion around it is genuinely contested: some commentators emphasise an oversupply of general university places relative to demand for graduate labour; others emphasise the low prestige of vocational schooling and the resulting shortage of technicians; others emphasise the informal sector, which absorbs young workers without registering them. My own view, offered as a view, is that an essay is stronger for presenting two of these explanations at their best and then saying which the evidence you found supports, rather than for asserting one.
Worked example

Paper 1 Section A: translating a passage on vocational schooling

Translate into English. Meslek liselerinin itibarı uzun yıllar düşük kaldı. Birçok aile, çocuğunun bir an önce diploma alıp üniversiteye girmesini istediği için genel liseleri tercih etti. Son dönemde ise sanayinin ara eleman ihtiyacı arttıkça mesleki eğitime yönelik ilgi yeniden canlanmaya başladı.

  1. 01Sentence one: a compound and a stative past

    Meslek liselerinin itibarı uzun yıllar düşük kaldı. Meslek liselerinin itibarı is a belirtili compound with the possessor in the genitive, the standing of the vocational schools. Uzun yıllar, for many years, is an adverbial with no case ending, which is normal for durations. Kalmak here means to remain, and düşük kaldı is remained low — not fell, which would be düştü. Render: The standing of vocational schools remained low for many years.

  2. 02Sentence two: a purpose clause built with için

    Birçok aile, çocuğunun bir an önce diploma alıp üniversiteye girmesini istediği için genel liseleri tercih etti. Birçok aile stays singular after the quantifier. Çocuğunun ... girmesini is a nominalisation with its subject in the genitive and the whole thing in the accusative as the object of istemek: wanted their child to enter. Alıp is the converb -(y)Ip linking two verbs with one subject, to take a diploma and enter. İstediği için is -DIk plus possessive plus için, the standard causal construction, because they wanted. Render: Many families chose general high schools because they wanted their child to take a diploma and enter university as soon as possible.

  3. 03Sentence three: ise, -DIkçA and an inceptive

    Son dönemde ise sanayinin ara eleman ihtiyacı arttıkça mesleki eğitime yönelik ilgi yeniden canlanmaya başladı. İse is contrastive: recently, by contrast. Sanayinin ara eleman ihtiyacı is a chained compound, industry's need for intermediate-level staff. Arttıkça is the converb -DIkçA, as it increases or the more it increases. Yönelik takes the dative, so mesleki eğitime yönelik, directed towards vocational education. Canlanmaya başladı is başlamak with the dative of a verbal noun, began to revive. Render: Recently, by contrast, as industry's need for skilled intermediate staff has grown, interest in vocational education has begun to revive.

  4. 04Sanity-check the English against the Turkish tenses

    Three different past-time relations appear here and they must survive: kaldı is a completed state over a long period, tercih etti a completed choice, and başladı an inception whose consequences continue. English handles the third with the present perfect, has begun, and a version writing began would still probably score the segment but would lose the sense that the revival is ongoing. Where the Turkish uses -DIkçA for a correlated change, English needs as or the more, not when.

Result: The standing of vocational schools remained low for many years. Many families chose general high schools because they wanted their child to take a diploma and enter university as soon as possible. Recently, by contrast, as industry's need for skilled intermediate staff has grown, interest in vocational education has begun to revive.

Exam focus

  • İŞKUR places and trains; SGK registers; MEB runs schools; YÖK governs universities; ÖSYM runs the examinations.
  • Kayıt dışı istihdam is defined against social-security registration, which is what makes it measurable.
  • The vocational stream is the mesleki ve teknik Anadolu lisesi, with the meslek yüksekokulu above it.
  • Nitelik uyuşmazlığı names the mismatch argument. Naming it is worth more than describing it.

Typical mistakes

  • Using işsizlik and istihdam as opposites. Istihdam is employment as a policy concept, not the state of having a job.
  • Confusing MEB, YÖK and ÖSYM. Their remits are distinct and authentic sources assume you know which is which.
  • Presenting the education-employment mismatch as a single agreed diagnosis when it is a live argument.
  • Quoting a youth-unemployment percentage from memory. Name TÜİK as the publisher instead.

Active revision

Write 200 words in Turkish explaining to a British reader how a Turkish student moves from ortaokul to a job, naming at least six institutions or examinations correctly, and closing with one sentence that presents the nitelik uyuşmazlığı argument as contested rather than settled.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Turkish (9TU0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)

§ 04

İş dünyası II: the place of women in working life#

●●○StandardLPPearson Edexcel 9TU0 1. Konu — İş dünyası: kadınların iş yaşamındaki yeri

Key points

This aspect belongs to Theme 1 and should not be confused with siyasette kadınlar, which belongs to Theme 4 and is handled in political-life-2. Here the subject is work: participation, occupation, pay, conditions and the obstacles that are argued to shape them. The legal frame can be stated flatly and with dates. The İş Kanunu of 2003 forbids discrimination on grounds of sex in employment. The constitutional article on equality was amended in 2004 to state that women and men have equal rights and that the state is obliged to ensure that this equality is realised in practice. Maternity leave, doğum izni, and the right to unpaid leave and to reduced hours after it are set out in the labour code and in the civil-service law. These are statutes and their content can be described without controversy.
The vocabulary is specific and worth drilling. İş gücüne katılım oranı is the labour-force participation rate; kayıt dışı çalışma is unregistered work; ücretsiz aile işçisi is the unpaid family worker, a category that matters greatly in Turkish agricultural statistics because much rural women's work falls into it; mevsimlik tarım işçisi is the seasonal agricultural worker; ev eksenli çalışma is home-based work; cam tavan is the glass ceiling; ücret farkı is the pay gap; kreş is a nursery and the obligation on larger employers to provide one is a recurring subject of debate; esnek çalışma is flexible working. Terfi is promotion, yönetici a manager, and üst düzey yönetici a senior manager.
Turkey's international commitments are datable facts and give an essay purchase. Turkey ratified the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, in Turkish Kadınlara Karşı Her Türlü Ayrımcılığın Önlenmesi Sözleşmesi, in 1985. It signed the Council of Europe convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, opened for signature in Istanbul on 11 May 2011 and known as the İstanbul Sözleşmesi, and was the first state to ratify it, in 2012. Turkey withdrew from that convention by a presidential decision published on 20 March 2021, with effect from 1 July 2021; the withdrawal was challenged before the Danıştay, the Council of State, which upheld it. Domestic law 6284 of 2012, on the protection of the family and the prevention of violence against women, remains in force. State those facts and their dates; the assessments of them belong to whoever makes them.
The argument in this aspect is about why participation is what it is, and it is genuinely contested. Some analysts emphasise care responsibilities and the availability of childcare; some emphasise the structure of the labour market and the size of the informal sector; some emphasise educational attainment and the transition from agricultural to urban employment, on the ground that women leaving agriculture lose an activity that counted as work without immediately gaining an urban job; some emphasise social expectation. These are not mutually exclusive and the strongest essays say so. If you use a figure, name the source — TÜİK publishes the labour-force series — and if you have not researched a figure, describe the direction and the disagreement instead.
Worked example

Paper 2 Section A: translating an English passage on women's employment into Turkish

Translate into Turkish. In many rural areas, women work on the family's land without being registered or paid. When the family moves to the city, that work disappears from the statistics, but a new job does not always appear. Researchers who have studied this transition argue that the fall in participation rates is partly a measurement effect.

  1. 01In many rural areas, women work on the family's land without being registered or paid

    Birçok kırsal bölgede kadınlar, kayıt altına alınmadan ve ücret almadan ailenin toprağında çalışıyor. Birçok keeps the following noun singular in principle, but bölgede is already singular here. Kayıt altına alınmadan uses the converb -mAdAn on a passive, without being taken into the record; ücret almadan repeats the construction, which is good Turkish rather than clumsy repetition. Ailenin toprağında is a belirtili compound: the family's land, a particular family, so the genitive is required.

  2. 02When the family moves to the city, that work disappears from the statistics

    Aile şehre taşındığında bu iş istatistiklerden kayboluyor. Taşındığında is the converb -DIğIndA, when it moves; taşınmak takes the dative for destination, hence şehre. Kaybolmak takes the ablative for the thing disappeared from, hence istatistiklerden. Note that Turkish uses the present continuous where English uses the simple present for a habitual or characteristic event; a Turkish geniş zaman, kaybolur, would also be acceptable and slightly more generalising.

  3. 03But a new job does not always appear

    Ancak yeni bir iş her zaman ortaya çıkmıyor. Yeni bir iş: the adjective precedes bir, which is the normal order, and the whole phrase is indefinite so it takes no accusative — and in any case it is the subject here, not the object. Her zaman with a negative verb gives not always rather than never; never would be hiçbir zaman. That distinction is a real translation trap and a points-based scheme will score it separately.

  4. 04Researchers who have studied this transition argue that the fall is partly a measurement effect

    Bu geçişi inceleyen araştırmacılar, katılım oranlarındaki düşüşün kısmen bir ölçüm etkisi olduğunu savunuyor. İnceleyen is the -(y)An participle: researchers who study, the head noun being the subject of the clause. Bu geçişi carries the accusative because it is a definite object. The reported clause is nominalised with -DIk plus possessive plus accusative — olduğunu — as the object of savunmak, which is the standard way Turkish reports an argued proposition. Katılım oranlarındaki is locative plus -ki, the fall in the participation rates.

Result: Birçok kırsal bölgede kadınlar, kayıt altına alınmadan ve ücret almadan ailenin toprağında çalışıyor. Aile şehre taşındığında bu iş istatistiklerden kayboluyor, ancak yeni bir iş her zaman ortaya çıkmıyor. Bu geçişi inceleyen araştırmacılar, katılım oranlarındaki düşüşün kısmen bir ölçüm etkisi olduğunu savunuyor.

Exam focus

  • This is Theme 1 and it is about work. Women in politics is Theme 4 and a different topic.
  • Ücretsiz aile işçisi is a real statistical category and explains a great deal about rural participation.
  • Datable commitments: CEDAW ratified 1985; İstanbul Sözleşmesi ratified 2012, withdrawal effective 1 July 2021; law 6284 of 2012 in force.
  • The explanation of low participation is contested. Present two accounts at their strongest before choosing.

Typical mistakes

  • Merging this aspect with siyasette kadınlar and writing half an essay on the wrong theme.
  • Treating Turkey as uniform. Participation, occupation and expectation differ sharply between regions and between city and countryside.
  • Stating that the İstanbul Sözleşmesi was annulled by a court. It was withdrawn from by presidential decision; the courts were then asked to review that decision.
  • Offering a single cause for a phenomenon that serious analysts explain in several ways at once.

Active revision

Write 250 words in Turkish on kadınların iş yaşamındaki yeri in which you state at least three legal or treaty facts with their dates, present two competing explanations of participation rates each attributed to those who hold it, and reach a conclusion that says which you find better supported and why.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Turkish (9TU0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)

§ 05

Araştırma Konusu: Türkiye’de eğitim fırsatları, and its three aspects#

●●●AdvancedLPPearson Edexcel 9TU0 1. Konu — Araştırma Konusu: Türkiye’de eğitim fırsatlarıLPPearson Edexcel 9TU0 Paper 1 Section C — Writing (research question)

Key points

This is one of the four subjects a candidate may choose for Paper 1 Section C, worth 40 marks and a fifth of the whole A-Level. Because it belongs to Theme 1 it must be researched on Turkey only, and all three aspects must be covered: eğitim sisteminde özel ve devlet okulları arasındaki farklar, the differences between private and state schools; zihinsel ve bedensel engellilerin eğitimi, the education of pupils with intellectual and physical disabilities; and kentsel ve kırsal bölgelerde eğitim imkânları, educational provision in urban and rural areas. The specification prints the last of these without the circumflex, as imkanları; the standard spelling given by the Türk Dil Kurumu is imkânları, and either will be understood, but be consistent within your own answer.
On the first aspect, the institutional distinctions are what an examiner can credit. Devlet okulları are state schools, free at the point of use and administered through the Millî Eğitim Bakanlığı and its provincial directorates, the il millî eğitim müdürlükleri. Özel okullar are fee-charging private schools, licensed and inspected by the same ministry under the private-education law; some are özel Türk okulu and some are milletlerarası okul serving foreign nationals. Between them sit categories worth knowing: the fen lisesi and the sosyal bilimler lisesi as selective state schools, the proje okulu designation, and the historically distinctive Anadolu lisesi. The debate concerns class sizes, teacher turnover, examination results and access, and the honest way to present it is to describe what each side claims and what evidence each side appeals to.
On the second aspect the terminology matters and using the wrong word is worse than using a vague one. The current preferred term in Turkish official usage is özel eğitim ihtiyacı olan bireyler, individuals with special educational needs, and engelli birey, disabled individual, rather than older words that are now avoided. Provision includes the özel eğitim okulu, the special school; the özel eğitim sınıfı, a special class within a mainstream school; and kaynaştırma eğitimi or bütünleştirme, inclusive education in a mainstream classroom with support. The rehabilitasyon merkezi provides therapy services, and RAM, the Rehberlik ve Araştırma Merkezi, assesses need and directs placement. Turkey ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2009, and domestic law 5378 of 2005 on persons with disabilities is the principal statute. Write about people rather than about a category.
On the third aspect the geography does the argumentative work. The relevant institutions are the taşımalı eğitim system, in which pupils from small settlements are bussed to a school in a larger one after their village school closed; the yatılı bölge ortaokulu, the regional boarding middle school; and the pansiyonlu okul, a school with a boarding annexe. Related vocabulary: köy okulu, the village school; birleştirilmiş sınıf, the multi-grade class in which one teacher takes several year groups together; okullaşma oranı, the schooling rate; devamsızlık, absence; ulaşım, transport. The argument here is not whether provision differs — it does, and the state's own programmes exist because it does — but which remedies work, and that is where an essay can take a position and defend it with what the research found.
Worked example

Paper 1 Section C: planning and opening a 40-mark answer

The statement is: Türkiye’de eğitim fırsatları büyük ölçüde yaşanılan yere bağlıdır. Plan the answer and draft its opening and one body paragraph.

  1. 01Read the statement for its hinge, then plan against the grids

    The hinge is yaşanılan yere bağlıdır, depends on where one lives. It invites the third aspect but the AO4 grid wants all three, so the plan must bring the other two in as evidence about the same question rather than as separate paragraphs. Plan: opening that reframes the statement; paragraph one on rural and urban provision, the aspect the statement names; paragraph two on private and state schools, arguing that these are also geographically distributed; paragraph three on special educational provision, where distance from a RAM or a special school is itself a form of geography; conclusion that gives a judgement. Four paragraphs, 300 to 350 words, roughly 80 words each.

  2. 02Draft an opening that takes a position rather than restating the statement

    Bu ifade büyük ölçüde doğrudur, ancak eksiktir: eğitim fırsatlarını belirleyen tek etken coğrafya değildir, coğrafya diğer etkenlerin de dağılımını belirlediği için bu kadar belirleyici görünmektedir. Araştırmam sırasında incelediğim kaynaklar, üç alanda da aynı örüntüyü gösteriyordu. Note what this does: it agrees partly, it names the limitation, it offers a mechanism rather than an opinion, and it announces a three-part structure. It also uses -DIk plus için for the causal clause and the formal -mAktAdIr, both of which count for AO3 range.

  3. 03Draft the body paragraph on the aspect the statement names

    Kırsal bölgelerde köy okullarının kapanmasından sonra taşımalı eğitim yaygınlaştı; öğrenciler her gün başka bir yerleşim yerindeki okula gidiyor. Bu sistem okullaşma oranını yükseltmiş olsa da, uzun yol süresi ve olumsuz hava koşulları devamsızlığı artırıyor. Yatılı bölge ortaokulları bir çözüm olarak sunuluyor, ancak küçük yaşta aileden ayrılmanın etkileri konusunda uzmanlar arasında görüş birliği yok. The paragraph names the institution, concedes what works, states the cost and then explicitly marks a disagreement as a disagreement rather than resolving it.

  4. 04Check the answer plan for the three things that lose AO4 marks

    First, country: every sentence is about Turkey, so no marks are wasted. Second, aspect coverage: the plan touches all three, and the two that the statement does not name are brought in as evidence rather than as digressions. Third, argument versus chronicle: each paragraph ends on a claim, not on a description. A candidate who writes three descriptive paragraphs about Turkish schools has demonstrated research and will still be capped, because the grid asks for critical analysis sustained across the answer.

Result: Opening: Bu ifade büyük ölçüde doğrudur, ancak eksiktir: eğitim fırsatlarını belirleyen tek etken coğrafya değildir, coğrafya diğer etkenlerin de dağılımını belirlediği için bu kadar belirleyici görünmektedir. Body: Kırsal bölgelerde köy okullarının kapanmasından sonra taşımalı eğitim yaygınlaştı; öğrenciler her gün başka bir yerleşim yerindeki okula gidiyor. Bu sistem okullaşma oranını yükseltmiş olsa da, uzun yol süresi ve olumsuz hava koşulları devamsızlığı artırıyor.

Exam focus

  • Theme 1, so Turkey only, and all three aspects must be covered. Two out of three caps the AO4 mark.
  • Name the institutions: MEB, il millî eğitim müdürlüğü, RAM, taşımalı eğitim, yatılı bölge ortaokulu.
  • Use current terminology for disability: özel eğitim ihtiyacı olan bireyler, kaynaştırma eğitimi.
  • Dated legal anchors: law 5378 of 2005, and ratification of the UN disability convention in 2009.

Typical mistakes

  • Covering the private-versus-state aspect thoroughly and mentioning the other two in a sentence each.
  • Using outdated or pejorative disability vocabulary picked up from older texts.
  • Treating rural provision as simply absent. The state's remedies exist and must be named and assessed.
  • Bringing in Cypriot or diaspora schooling. Theme 1 is Turkey only and the marks would be lost.

Active revision

Build a one-page research plan for Türkiye’de eğitim fırsatları in which each of the three aspects has at least two authentic Turkish-language sources, one named institution, one dated legal or policy fact, and one sentence stating what the disagreement about that aspect actually is. Then write the 300-word Section C answer to the statement Türkiye’de eğitim fırsatları herkes için eşittir.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Turkish (9TU0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)

Contents

Section -- / 05

    • 01Aile ve İlişkiler I: family life and the changing roles of its members○
    • 02Aile ve İlişkiler II: attitudes to marriage and divorce, and the size of the family◐
    • 03İş dünyası I: the younger generation, employment, and vocational education◐
    • 04İş dünyası II: the place of women in working life◐
    • 05Araştırma Konusu: Türkiye’de eğitim fırsatları, and its three aspects●

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From notes into training

1. Konu: Türk toplumunda değişim — family, relationships, the world of work, and eğitim fırsatları

Reinforce this topic with matching tasks from the question bank.

~34
min
4
Competencies
Practise

References & sources

Sources

Pearson Edexcel

  • Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Turkish (9TU0) specification

Next topic

3. Konu: Türkiye üzerinde görüşler — human geography, the environment, and Türkiye’de Turizm

EuraStudy·Notes T·01·MMXXVI

Carry on to the next topic — your learning path is kept.