The Foreign Languages Department at İSTEK Schools is a large and highly skilled team. With its continuously developing and dynamic structure, our team examines modern educational systems and tools to provide the most effective foreign language teaching, participates in professional development programs, and creates teaching materials. The main goal behind all this research and dedicated work is to create classroom environments where students can learn a foreign language in the best possible way—environments that are meaningful, effective, engaging, and designed according to modern teaching methods and differentiated instructional models that take individual differences into account, fostering a love for the language they are learning.
These classrooms are also designed to reflect our institution’s international perspective and help students feel that they are part of today’s global village. Within this global understanding, we believe that the most effective language teaching system is based on collaboration between Turkish and foreign teachers and supports active student participation. Our academic planning is shaped accordingly.
Crossroads Program
İSTEK Schools has launched the Crossroads Program to ensure that students experience English not just as a subject but as a natural part of daily life, using it continuously throughout the day. To allow students to interact with English teachers and speak English in all settings, class schedules are designed to run simultaneously in both languages. In this way, students internalize English not as a subject to be learned like other disciplines, but as an essential communication tool.
The Crossroads Program is implemented for Kindergarten students aged 5 and 6, as well as Grade 1 in Primary School. Students spend 24 hours per week with both foreign and Turkish English teachers, learning English during every aspect of school life—including mealtimes, outdoor play, games, activities, and learning sessions. Through this program, students not only strengthen their foreign language acquisition but also learn to communicate effectively in environments with multiple languages, perspectives, and leadership styles, which will benefit their future professional lives.
While reading and writing instruction is delivered in Turkish by classroom teachers, English visual literacy is also included in the kindergarten program. In Grade 1, English teachers collaborate with classroom teachers during Life Skills, mathematics, play, and physical education lessons. In addition, children have opportunities to use English during daily routines such as breakfast, lunch, playtime, and outdoor activities.
