Interlingual interference and cultural adaptation: strategies for teaching Spanish to Turkish-speaking students

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of methodological strategies for teaching Spanish to Turkish-speaking students in conditions of interlingual interference and cultural incompatibility. Taking into account the typological distance between Turkish and Spanish, the authors examine the specific grammatical difficulties that arise in the process of learning Spanish, particularly in the areas of gender categorisation, article usage, word order, and the system of verb tenses and modes. The emphasis is on negative interlingual interference as a key factor in the formation of erroneous speech patterns. The author justifies the use of contrastive analysis as an effective didactic tool in predicting and overcoming typical errors. The article offers a comprehensive set of methodological solutions aimed at overcoming typical interference difficulties in the process of learning Spanish by Turkish speakers. In particular, the effectiveness of visualising grammatical structures as a means of cognitive simplification of complex morphosyntactic categories is substantiated. The principle of gradual complication of grammatical material is implemented through the gradual introduction of new structures based on those already learned, which corresponds to the concept of complexity gradation and avoids overloading the student's short-term memory. An important methodological component is the integration of authentic sources, which ensures the teaching of grammar in a real communicative context. The importance of communicatively oriented exercises that stimulate grammatical reflection is also emphasised. A separate methodological line is the intercultural component, which includes modelling communication situations with an emphasis on socially relevant formulas of politeness, variability of forms of address, as well as analysis of culturally marked non-verbal codes characteristic of Spanish and Turkish linguistic cultures. Within the framework of a comprehensive approach, the combination of structural awareness, interlinguistic sensitivity and sociocultural competence is considered a prerequisite for the effective acquisition of Spanish by Turkish-speaking learners. The theoretical provisions and practical recommendations presented have the potential for interdisciplinary application in the fields of linguistics, intercultural pedagogy and applied linguistics.