Positioning of German as a foreign language according to different occupational groups in Turkey

Abstract There may not always be an overlap between foreign language teaching policies and the foreign language needs of people in real life. As a matter of fact, when this situation is examined specifically in the context of German, Germany's recent demand for manpower from Turkey across different professional groups has brought the society's need and desire to learn German back to the agenda. These developments have made German a necessary language. The desire of people to practice their professions abroad is one of the important reasons for this need. All these developments necessitate the investigation of whether German is a preferred language by individuals at the society level, the attitudes towards German, and the determination of whether there is a harmony between the foreign language policies adopted by the country and the language preferences of individuals, and how German is positioned in Turkey. In this context, this research aims to determine how German is positioned according to different occupational groups in Turkey. In this study, phenomenology method, which is one of the qualitative research methods, was used. In determining the participants' views on the positioning of German, a semi-structured interview technique was used as a data collection technique. Within the scope of the research, data were obtained from a total of 70 people who studied at the faculties of engineering, health sciences, medicine, nursing, technology and education and who graduated and practiced their professions. The obtained data were analyzed using descriptive analysis method. From the data obtained, it was understood that the participants (61) representing different professional groups wanted to learn German. It has been determined that Turkey only prioritizes teaching English and does not implement a multilingual foreign language policy, and foreign language policies are not developed according to the needs and expectations of its citizens. It has been concluded that the Turkish education system does not offer different foreign language options to its citizens, considering their educational and professional needs.