The use of travel journals in foreign language education
Gezi Defterlerinin Yabancı Dil Eğitiminde Kullanımı

Author : Buket ALTINBÜKEN KARSLI
Number of pages : 33-45

Abstract

The aim of this work is to reveal how travel journals can be useful in foreign language education classes. The travel journals (carnets de voyage, Fr.) form a genre of literature containing textual and visual signs, in which the work is comprised of notes and illustrations by a traveller writer. The practice of using linguistic and visual signs in combination offers big help in understanding and expression for foreign language learners in almost all skill levels. The aim of contemporary approaches in foreign language education, besides providing linguistic competency, is also about offering familiarity with the culture surrounding that language. The perception of differences between the source and target cultures is also part of foreign language education. The travel journals provide a view of the city from the traveller’s perspective. As depicted in The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, the language education has to be given inside a cultural context. The base for the teaching activity is to introduce the student both to the language and to the relevant culture. In the classical method, this base is established through course books. In the meantime, the best way to know the “other” may be to look at one’s own self through the eyes of the “other”. In this sense, travel literature texts are highly relevant sources for language education classes. Groups having various language skills can easily perceive or write texts thanks to their familiarity with subjects, people and places. The students are suggested to make comprehension, conversation and writing exercises using these sources. In sense of text genres, travel journals offer a variety of examples in descriptive and narrative techniques. By using them, it is possible to work on topics such as perspective strategies, the use of five senses in descriptions, the grammatical structures forming objective and subjective discourse, and the types of narrator. The aesthetical use of the language can be improved through these studies which are highly efficient in both grammatical and literary sense.

Keywords

Travel journals, description, narration, discourse, foreign language education.

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