The Routledge Intermediate Turkish Reader (Routledge Modern Language Readers)

I assigned this text when it first came out in a third-year Turkish course. To begin, the texts are at an advanced, 5th year level. The logic of text selection is unclear and the cultural information that is conveyed is very narrow. A broader variety of sources would have helped. The exercises are inadequate. The current events topics are already dated. I don't fault the author as much as the Routledge editorial team. Why publish a volume that will have such a short shelf-life when the need for such a reader is so great?

If you had trouble following the book, it means you are way too far from the intermediate level-upper intermediate level, and rather close to the upper-beginner level. I found most texts included in the book relevant, plus the info provided in English is very useful, as all of it has been actually written by experts on the matters discussed. Some people pointed out the information is date, which of course it is, but it also delves on the recent past of Turkey, which makes it relevant as a basis to understand some of the current issues the country is going through. Back when I purchased it (I did not buy in online, but after seeing it only got negative reviews here I felt an urge to publish my own review), I had trouble understanding the more tricky parts of the texts mainly due to the vocabulary used, but definitely after finishing the book I felt I had made a real improvement when it came to read academic articles and books. I agree sometimes there are too many questions about the texts, but those are there to make sure the students have actually understood the pieces of text provided. I did not bother to writen all of them down, but when I came across a question of which I was not sure about the answer, I would make sure I read the text again and broke down the relevant sentences. While definitely the book gives the feel that it is classroom-oriented and something should be done about it in coming re-editions, nowadays using internet it is possible to ask native speakers or more advanced learners the meaning of the words which are not understood and the grammar points we are not getting the gist of. Also, are many online dictionaries than can even be checked using our mobile devices. However, the book is too pricey given that individual students will have to put much effort on using online resources or asking native friends, and thus I understand that it has not met the expectations of self-learners. I agree with other reviews there should be more grammar points as well as a more comprehensive glossary for each lesson in order to solve this particular problem. I would recommend the book to students who do really have an intermediate knowledge of the language and that are willing to face a challenge in order to improve their comprehension and writing skills. To those who felt it was too difficult, my advice is to improve their Turkish and revisit the book later, because they will undoubtely find it stimulating when they can read the texts more fluently. Last but not least, remember that no book will automatically teach you anything, but that you must struggle to get through it. Don't rely excessively on textbooks and try to find native-speakers to whom you can ask all kind of questions related to the language and the culture of its speakers. Also, learners should make sure they make an exhaustive use of online resources such as online newspapers, youtube videos, songs, online dictionaries and so on. In particular, Turks are heavy internet users and it is possible to find native speakers willing to help in social media or apps made for this specific purpose.

Several Turkish language teachers agree that this book is not at the "intermediate level" which means a second year college level text. This text is considerably harder than a second year level text. It is arguably more suitable for the third year level. But this is not the reason why I think it deserves one star. Considering the difficulty level of the text, the reader would expect at least an adequate general glossary and extensive explanations on difficult grammatical points and idiomatic usages. There is a glossary after each selection, but simply too brief, and there are in average two notes after each selection, explaining difficult grammatical and idiomatic points. In contrast, the author exerts a lot effort on giving background knowledge in English each selection, as useful as it is, I personally find it much less relevant for language learning per se. And there are way more after-reading activities than needed after each selection, which I find annoying, because I think a reader as such should have helping learner to understand the selections as the first and foremost goal, and it is precisely where this book fails to do. Turkish language textbooks in the market fall into two extremes: too elementary or too advanced, there is such a lack of real intermediate texts, unfortunately this book does not fill the gap.

I did not like the reading texts in this book because they were too much difficult. Did not like the tone of the texts either.