Elementary Azerbaijani: Overview

Elementary Azerbaijani

Elementary Azerbaijani is the first Azerbaijani textbook in Latin script for English-speaking learners published in the US. The book is based on the new Latin script for Azerbaijani, the official alphabet of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

This textbook has resulted from the teaching of Azerbaijani for several years at UCLA. To prepare this textbook, ideas from various similar teaching materials have been utilized. Learners of a new language are usually interested in developing all four basic language skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing. Depending upon their interest in the new language and their purpose in learning it, one or more of these skills may be emphasized. To address this, a method that is somewhat eclectic, one incorporating different aspects of various language teaching methodologies has been developed.

Intended Audience

Elementary Azerbaijani can be used as a self-study aid as well as a textbook in a classroom under the direction and supervision of a qualified instructor. It is intended to correspond to a year of semi-intensive study, with four to five hours of classroom instruction per week. The variety of Azerbaijani presented in this textbook corresponds to standard Azerbaijani, the official language of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the language spoken by educated Azerbaijani speakers.

About the author

Dr. Kurtuluş Öztopçu is currently retired from teaching. For many years, he taught various courses related to Turkic languages at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, UCLA and UC Berkeley. He is the author of several scholarly books and articles all relating to Turkic languages, including Dictionary of the Turkic Languages and Elementary Turkish.