Furthermore, in Circular No. 2010/30 published by the General Directorate of Secondary Education on 06.05.2010, the “Conversion of General High Schools to Anatolian High Schools” was brought to the agenda (MEB Circular, 2010). All public high schools were gradually converted to Anatolian high schools from that date. With the conversion of public high schools into Anatolian high schools, it is aimed that the quality of education will increase, the quality of public high schools will reach the level of Anatolian high schools, and when the project is completed, and all public high schools will provide education at Anatolian high school standards.

 

As a result of these conversion endeavours, Regulation No. 28758 was published in the Official Gazette on September 7, 2013 (MEB Regulation, 2013) It was stated within the scope of Article 7(1) of this Regulation, regarding foreign language education in high schools, that “the ability of students to learn a foreign language at a level where they can follow the developments and changes in the world” was targeted. In other articles of the Regulation related to foreign language education, the primary purpose is to provide students with listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills and enable them to express themselves both in writing and orally in the language they have learned. Consequently, with the extension of general high school education to 4 years, the preparatory class was removed, and the weekly class hours of primary foreign language English courses were increased. While determining today’s education policies, the decisions taken regarding foreign language education are affected to a large extent by the scientific, economic, political, social, and cultural needs of countries (Haznedar, 2015). When Turkish-French relations are investigated, it is seen that the first mutual interaction began with commercial agreements, followed by activities in the fields of education, culture, and the military. Through the established strong relations, the first foreign language learned in this geographical area was French, and it continued to dominate in later periods. Indeed, as quoted by Gökmen (2011) from Kreiser (1986), Ottoman Turkey was interested in Germany’s technical and military equipment from the second half of the 20th century onwards. Still, to follow the developments in this field, the German sources were translated directly into Turkish via French. This reveals how strong the position of the French was at that time and that Germany was far from being able to compete with the French. On the other hand, it is stated that  after  the First  World  War,  as  the  political-economic balances began to change and due to the rise of the United States on the world stage, the French and German languages gradually lost their influence in every field. Furthermore, since the balance of power in Europe and the world completely changed after the Second World War (Uçarol, 1985), the first foreign language taught in our country now became English, whose influence and the currency continue up to the present day.

 

When the literature was reviewed, it was seen that many descriptive studies chronologically present how French has lost its privileged place and importance in Turkey (Özpekcan, 1993; Güven, 2001; Gökmen, 1999a, 1999b, 2011, 2017; Örmeci, 2016; Akçay, 2016; Çakmak, 2017). Additionally, it was observed that postgraduate theses examined the anxiety and professional motivation of students studying in French language education faculties of universities (Atmaca, 2019; Sar?l?y?ld?z, 2021). Among these, the master thesis of Özpekcan (1993) deals with the political relations of the Ottoman Empire with France between the years 1525 to 1921; Akçay (2016)’s article is about France’s Turkish-French relations during the Sarkozy period and Turkey’s membership process to the European Union. In his article Güven (2001) handled the contribution of mutual interaction and relations with France during the Ottoman Empire to the education system and the modernization process. This study was limited to the military, technical and medical schools established in the Ottoman period. The researches of Örmeci (2016) and Çakmak (2017) appear as studies that evaluate the relations between the two countries with their political, economic, commercial, social, and cultural dimensions.

 

Gökmen (1999a, 1999b, 2011, 2017) evaluated the situation of the French in the light of historical information. However, unlike the studies above-mentioned, her studies present the numerical data of students and educational institutions studying French in secondary and high schools from 1950 to 2005, revealing the decline of French compared to English and German. Sar?l?y?ld?z (2021) prepared a master thesis to determine French teacher candidates’ future concerns at education faculties in Turkey. To base her research on a certain foundation, she presented the place of French teaching in primary and secondary education in Turkish education system from 1950 to 2018 in a chronological order with numerical data.

 

It can be suggested that the studies reached in the literature are concentrated around the phenomenon of “France-Turkey relations” in the general framework. As France is one of the countries with which Turkey has historically had the most political relations in Europe since the Ottoman Empire, it seems inevitable that it will be the subject of many studies. However, it is observed that the problems that have been going on for years between the two countries may have negative consequences in the political, economic, and commercial fields and education. Moreover, from the above studies, it is understood that French has lost its feature of being the first foreign language in Turkey. It lags behind German as a second foreign language in secondary education institutions, and students studying French teaching graduate with the anxiety of not being able to find a job.

 

However, the absence of research in the literature revealing the situation of French as a second foreign language in secondary education institutions as of 2019 necessitated the preparation of this study. This research has gained importance in dealing with the latest situation of French as a second foreign language in secondary education institutions in Turkey with current and numerical data to reveal the existing problems in the field of second foreign language education and offer solutions. In order to conduct a comparative study, it was concluded that it would be appropriate to evaluate it with German, which is taught as another foreign language in secondary education institutions. In determining the current status of French as a second foreign language, compared to that of German, the analysis of the French and German teaching departments of universities in Turkey is of great importance because the teachers who are to be appointed to secondary education institutions graduate from these programmes.

 

In this context, this study aims to make a quantitative analysis of French as a second foreign language in secondary education institutions in Turkey between 2019 and 2020 and 2020 and 2021 academic years. To carry out a comparative study in this area and better show the situation of French as a second foreign language, German, which is taught as another second foreign language in secondary education institutions, will be evaluated based on the same variables.

In line with the purpose mentioned above, answers to the following research questions will be sought:

 

1) From 2010 to 2021, what is the distribution of French and German teaching programmes in Turkey in terms of the general quota, the number of placements, and the highest and lowest placements scores?

2) What are the institutions providing education in French and German as a second foreign language in Turkey between 2019 to 2020 and 2020-2021 academic years, and what is the distribution of these institutions according to school types?

3) What is the distribution of French and German teachers working in secondary education institutions between 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 academic years according to their number, gender, and employment status?

4) What is the number and gender distribution of students studying French and German as a second foreign language in secondary education institutions between  2019 to 2020 and 2020 to 2021 academic years?

 

It is anticipated that the study will be critical in drawing attention to the current situation of French as a second foreign  language in secondary education institutions, emphasizing its differences compared to German, and revealing the problems identified in the field of French as a language. It sheds light on second foreign language teaching and possible studies in the coming years.

Research model

 

The research is a survey study that aims to describe the current situation of French as a second foreign language in secondary education institutions in Turkey. The survey method is conducted to examine a wide field of issues, populations, programmes to measure or describe any generalized features (Cohen et al., 2007). The descriptive survey is beneficial to gathering data on a one-shot basis, representing a broad target population, generating numerical data and making generalizable comments (Morrison, 1993). Since French as a second foreign language is tried to be analysed quantitatively compared to that of German within the scope of schools where they are taught, teachers working, and students studying, descriptive survey model, one of the survey models, was deemed to be appropriate for this research.

 

Study group

 

Students who entered the Higher Education Institutions Examination (YKS) and Foreign Language Test (YDT) and were placed in the French and German teaching programmes in the language score type constitute the research study group. As the aim is to reach all of the students in these programmes, no additional sample was taken. In this context, the Guidelines for the Higher Education Programmes and Quotas and the Guidelines for Higher Education Undergraduate Programmes Accepting Students with Central Placement published by the Student Selection and Placement Centre (ÖSYM) between 2010 to 2021 were subjected to deep scrutiny in terms of Universities with the French and German teaching programmes, the special conditions of these programmes, and the general quota and the number of placements. Since this research is to reveal the current situation of French essentially as a second foreign language in secondary education institutions in Turkey, based on quantitative data, compared to that of German, the documents in the archive of the Ministry of National Education General Directorate of Secondary Education Strategy Development Unit, which is the source where the data can be directly obtained, were examined within the scope of research questions. Thus, information about the schools whose second foreign language is French, the types of these schools, their teachers working and their students studying was reached.

 

Data collection and analysis

 

In this research, the data on French and German programmes of the universities were obtained by surveying the guidelines available on the official website of ÖSYM, in line with the specified variables. The surveying process was started by entering the keyword “French Teaching”. First of all, it was determined that one year of compulsory preparatory  education  is  applied  in  both  programmes,  and  thus the academic year is five years in total. Table 1 shows that French teaching programmes are included in 13 universities. On the other hand, due to the closure of relevant programmes by Dicle, Erzincan Binali Y?ld?r?m and Hakkari Universities, it was determined that French teaching programmes are currently open in a total of 10 universities in Turkey. It was observed that these programmes are mostly and equally found in the cities Marmara Region (?stanbul and Bursa) and Central Anatolia Region (Ankara and Eski?ehir).

 

 

Moreover, only ?stanbul University stipulate the requirement to enter the foreign language exam in French, while others leave this optional. In other words, students can take the exam in one of German, French, Arabic, Russian, English languages. Finally, it was seen that the universities with the medium of instruction in French were Bursa Uluda?, Dokuz Eylül, Gazi, Hacettepe and Marmara Universities (Table 1).

 

From Table 2, it was determined that German teaching programmes are found in 19 universities in Turkey. However, due to the closure of the programmes in Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart, Erciyes and Selçuk Universities, this number is currently 16. German teaching programmes are primarily  located  in  the  cities  of  the Central Anatolia Region, such  as  Ankara,  Eski?ehir,  Kayseri,  Konya  and Nev?ehir. In addition, Dokuz Eylül, ?stanbul, Hacettepe and Marmara Universities stated that the students must be take an entrance exam in German, while the others explained that it could be entered with one of the languages specified within the scope of Article 163 of German, French, Arabic, Russian, English languages. Finally, it was seen that the medium of instruction of 6 German teaching programmes (Dokuz Eylül, Hacettepe, ?stanbul, Marmara, Mu?la S?tk? Koçman and Trakya) was German. As for Nev?ehir Hac? Bekta? Veli University, it was determined that the medium of instruction was at least 30% German.

 

The numerical data for evaluating the position of French as a second foreign language compared to that of German were obtained as a result of scanning the archives in the Strategy Development Unit of the General Directorate of Secondary Education. Archives, which are the unit where documents such as unpublished records, decisions, reports, letters, petitions and memoirs are stored, are not directly open to the public or researchers; there is an obligation to obtain special permission (Karasar, 2012). For this reason, during the preparation process of the study, the relevant unit was contacted and was obtained information about how the procedure to be applied for sharing the requested data. At the request of the institution, the researcher was asked to write a petition describing the work to be done and send it.   The permission petition prepared by the researcher and the questions regarding the requested data were sent via e-mail. The data collected by survey model from the guidelines accessed from the official site of ÖSYM and the documents in the archive of the Strategy Development Unit, were analysed by descriptive analysis technic and presented with Tables and interpreted with statistical evaluations.

The distribution of the quota and the number of placements in the French teaching departments of universities in Turkey from 2010 to 2021 are presented in Table 3. From the data obtained, it was seen that the number of quotas has been in a decreasing trend over the years.

 

It was observed that the secondary education programme did not open as of 2011, the quotas opened for TRNC students covered the years 2014-2020, and the number of allocations for the first graders gradually decreased.

 

 

 

 

In Table 4, it was found that the number of quotas for German teaching departments was about twice as much as for French teaching. As in French teaching departments, it was observed the quota and the number of placements decreased over the years. Despite this the occupancy rate reached an average of 95%.

 

The lowest and the highest placement scores for the departments of French and German teaching between the years 2010-2021 are shown in Table 5. It was indicated that the lowest scores of French teaching programmes are primarily in Istanbul University, while the highest ones belong to Marmara University. Schools providing second foreign language education in French and German in Turkey in the 2019 to 2020 and 2020 to 2021 academic years are classified under two categories, namely public and private education institutions. Their numerical distributions are presented in Table 6.

 

 

When Table 6 was reviewed, it was recorded that the number of institutions whose second foreign language is German in the 2019-2020 academic year was more than twice that of French. It was also found that the total number of institutions whose second foreign language is French in the 2020 to 2021 academic year increased by 32.8% compared to the previous year, and the difference between institutions whose second foreign language is German slightly decreased.

 

According to the current Turkish education system, secondary education encompasses Anatolian, Science, Fine Arts, Sports, and Social Sciences high schools; vocational and technical secondary education schools and institutions that conduct Vocational and Technical programmes; and Anatolian Imam Hatip high schools (Turkish Education System, 2017). The types and quantitative distributions of public institutions are presented in Table 7, while those of private institutions are shown in Table 8.

 

Although it was seen that German as a second foreign language is preferred in all high schools in the 2019 to 2020 academic year, it was noted that high schools with French as a second foreign language achieved a higher increase than German with 34.4% in the 2020 to 2021 academic year, it was also determined that the number of high schools whose second foreign language was German increased by only 4.9% compared to the previous year and thus followed a low rate compared to French. However, according to the available total, the number of high schools whose second foreign language is German is nearly twice as high as French.

 

The first finding obtained in Table 8 is that second foreign language instruction was not provided in Anatolian  Imam   Hatip high schools, where religious education is given. On the other hand, the second finding is that the number of private schools whose second foreign language is German was twice as high as French in the 2019 to 2020 academic year. In the 2020 to 2021 academic year, the number of schools with French as a second foreign language increased by 29.4 percent and reached 1,677, while the number of private schools with German as a second foreign language decreased by 0.9 compared to the previous year, from 2,808 to 2,460. However, the available total indicates that the number of private schools whose second foreign language is German is approximately one and a half times higher than private schools with French.

 

The latest regulation regarding contracted teacher positions in Turkey was prepared in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Servants Law No. 657, the Decree Law No. 652 of the Ministry of National Education on Organization and Duties dated 25/08/2011, and the Principles Regarding the Employment of Contracted Personnel, which came into force with the Decision of the Council of Ministers numbered 7/15754 and dated 06/06/1978 (MEB Regulation, 2016) For the appointment of contracted teachers, the teacher candidates must have obtained a minimum score or above from the Public Personnel Selection Examination (KPSS) and the Teaching Field Knowledge Test (ÖABT), should not have received a penalty that requires dismissal from the civil service or teaching, and should score 60 or more in the oral exam. Those who are successful in the candidacy process by completing the four-year working period as required by the contract are appointed to the permanent teaching staff in the educational institution where they work, upon their request. This being the case, in the study,  the  employment  type of second foreign language teachers is grouped into two classes as tenured and contracted.

 

 

In Table 9, it was determined that 98.6% of French teachers as a second foreign language were tenured, and 1.4% were contracted teachers in the 2019 to 2020 academic year. Furthermore, it was observed that out of 776 tenured teachers working as French teachers, 525 were female, and 251 were male, that 4 of the 11 contracted teachers were female, and 7 were male. In this case, it was inferred that approximately 3 out of every five tenured French teachers were women, and 2 out of every three contracted teachers were men. On the other hand, it was found that the number of German teachers as a second foreign language was approximately nine times more than that of French teachers. It was also seen that the number of tenured German teachers, consisting of four digits, is 7.9 times higher than that of tenured French teachers and 63.2 times greater than that of contracted teachers.

 

In the 2020 to 2021 academic year, it was found that the number of contracted German teachers increased by 16.8% compared to the previous year to 812, while that of contracted French teachers did not change. Finally, it was determined that 3 out of 5 tenured French teachers were women, similar to the previous year, and 2 out of 3 contracted teachers were male teachers in 2020 to 2021. As for the German teachers, 2/3 of the  teachers  working in both categories were female.

 

In Table 10, it was determined that there was a difference of more than four times between the students who learn French as a second foreign language (378,220) and those who learn German as a second foreign language (1,527,306) in the 2019 to 2020 academic year. However, it was seen that the difference slightly decreased in the 2020 to 2021 academic year. Namely, the number of French learners reached 482,020,   increasing 27.4%, but that of German learners decreased by 22.6%. Even so, the number of German learners (1,181,435) is relatively high compared to French learners (482,020). Moreover, the fact that the total number of French learners (860,240) is 3.1 times behind those who learn German (2,708,741) confirms this situation. When evaluated in terms of the gender variable, it was determined that there were more girls than boys and that approximately 1 out of every two students was female.

In this study, prepared to show the situation of French as a second foreign language in secondary education institutions in Turkey, the data were interpreted with statistical evaluations within the framework of research questions. In this context, the data related to the first question of the research are presented as follows: The number of French teaching programmes that are currently open and accepting students in Turkey is 10, whereas that of German teaching programmes is 16. According to the data obtained from the Higher Education Information Management System, the total number of universities in our country is 207, of which 129 states, 74 are foundation and 4 are foundation vocational schools (Higher Education Information Management System, 2021). In this period when learning a second or even a third language gained importance, it can be stated that French teaching programmes, which represent only 4.8% of universities in Turkey, are inadequate compared to the number of all universities and that of German teaching (7.7%).

 

It was found that the number of French teaching quotas in universities is more diminutive than in German. Although it was observed that the number of placements for the two programmes is gradually decreasing, it was seen that the quotas for German teaching programmes are twice as high as for French teaching programmes, and the occupancy rate of these programmes is relatively high. On the other hand, before selecting French and German teaching programmes, it is necessary to consider the conditions specified for them. For instance, only Istanbul University requires taking the foreign language exam in French for a French teaching programme. Similarly, Dokuz Eylül, Hacettepe, ?stanbul, and Marmara Universities require candidates to take the exam in German for German teaching programmes. Apart from these universities, students can enter the university and programme they want with English, German, French, and other languages specified. This being the case, it is possible to point out that students primarily consider job opportunities and assignment status when selecting one of these programmes. Indeed, Lafçi (2018), in his research on the difficulties students face in choosing a profession, revealed that the young leave their interests and desires aside and choose with the concern of getting a job quickly and being appointed. In this case, the number of placements in French teaching programmes is clearly behind German can be explained by the fact that students make choices depending on country they lived and economic conditions.

 

In addition, it was determined that the universities that accept students with the highest score for the French teaching program are Marmara (Istanbul), Hacettepe (Ankara), and Dokuz Eylül (Izmir). The preference for universities in big cities can be explained by the fact that there are more job opportunities in French. This being the case, these preferences directly affects the increase in the scores of the universities in question. On the other hand, Istanbul (Istanbul), Dicle (Diyarbak?r), and Atatürk (Erzurum) are the universities that accept students with the lowest scores. As stated above, the placement with the lowest score in Istanbul University may be related to the fact that students take the foreign language exam in French. Moreover, the score of the student who is accepted in last place in the previous year affects determining the base scores of universities in Turkey. The student who entered the latest program is taken  as the base score of the following year. Therefore, the students’ preferences explain the fact that the scores of universities in the Anatolian region are lower than those of the Marmara and Aegean. Atatürk University, whose French teaching program was closed between 2011 and 2018, accepted students with the lowest scores in 2019 and 2021, which may be due to such a reason. Significantly of the universities in Anatolia, it was seen that there are universities that did not open a quota for a while or closed the programme entirely. As Kartal (2017) emphasized in his research, the reason for this situation is that the programmes are randomly opened without prior planning and insufficient instructors. Finally, it was determined that students were admitted to the German teaching programmes of universities with lower scores compared to French. This difference can be stated that the number of quotas for German teaching programs is higher than for French teaching. As the number of students applying to these programs increases, the score scale changes accordingly.

 

The findings for the second question of the study showed that German as a second foreign language was outnumbered in both public and private schools. Nevertheless, within the years, the number of public and private schools with French as a second foreign language has increased higher than German. There has even been a decrease in private schools with German as a second foreign language. Therefore, it can be concluded that there has been a steady increase in the number of schools where French is the second foreign language compared to German. The reason why German as a second foreign language is more common in secondary education can be explained by the fact that there are hardly any appointments to the French in line with the norm staff situation of the schools and the policies adopted by the Ministry. When the contracted teacher appointment lists published from February 2016 to September 2021 by the Ministry of National Education are examined (MEB Archive, 2021), it has been determined that 27 quotas for French and 1525 quotas for German have been opened. These data prove that there are significant differences between the two branches.

 

The findings regarding the third question of the study, in which French and German teachers working in secondary education institutions were examined in terms of various variables, show that the number of contracted teachers remained the same in 2019 to 2020 and 2020 to 2021 academic years, which once again confirms that there is no appointment in French. Moreover, it is understood from the available data that this difference will increase over the years. Because while there was an 8.5-fold difference between the number of French and German teachers in the 2019 to 2020 academic year, it was determined that this difference increased to 9.5 times in the next academic year (2020 to 2021).

 

The data on the last question of the study, in which the learners of French and German as a second foreign language were evaluated in terms of different variables, support the data for the second and third research questions to some extent. Namely, it has been concluded that there is a difference of more than four times between the students who learn French as a second foreign language (378,220) and those of German (1,527,306) in the 2019 to 2020 academic year, but the difference between them decreases slightly in the 2020 to 2021 academic year. In addition, it was determined that the number of students learning French increased significantly compared to the previous year, while the number of students studying German decreased. However, when the total is taken into account, it is seen that the number of German learners is considerably higher than that of French learners.

French as a second foreign language is still in demand and is preferred considerably in secondary education institutions, training and employment of second foreign language French teachers is vital. In this direction, it is necessary to establish a committee in which representatives of the Ministry of National Education, school stakeholders, and faculty members working at universities will work in cooperation, especially for the solution of the appointment of the French teachers as a second foreign language and for other problems identified in the field.

 

Based on the study’ findings of the situation of second foreign language French teachers, it has been determined that scarcely any appointments are far from meeting the needs in the field. In this case, it has been concluded that either teacher from different branches or teachers who work for course fees are called “Paid Teachers” take charge. In this context, it is recommended to conduct studies with different cities and sample groups to determine the problems of paid second foreign language French teachers working in public and private schools affiliated with the Ministry of National Education.

 

Finally, it is thought that students’ demands should be considered when choosing a second foreign language in secondary education institutions. Moreover, it is known that a similar implementation has already been put into practice for visual arts and music lessons. In the article on the Weekly Course Schedule for Secondary Education Institutions published by the Board of Education and Discipline with the Decision No. 56 dated 19.02.2018, it was announced that visual arts and music courses, which act as joint courses, could also be taken as elective courses in line with the interests and wishes of the students and the facilities of the school. For instance, in a class with 40 students, some students will be able to choose visual arts, while others will select music. In this implementation, not the number of students but the course hours is taken into  account;  therefore,  the  norm remains constant. The performance of such a practice for French and German could be beneficial both to meet the demands of students and to solve the current appointment problem.

The author has not declared any conflicts of interests.