English Teaching in Turkey

English Language Teaching (İngilizce Öğretmenliği, ELT) is a four-year teacher-education bachelor's, taught in English, that combines advanced English, linguistics and literature with teaching methods and supervised practice in schools. For 2026/27 the options in our catalogue start at $5,000 a year (Okan and Biruni) and go up to $8,500 at Bahcesehir; TED University in Ankara lists $7,500.

If you are more interested in literature or translation than in classroom teaching, compare English Language and Literature and English Translation and Interpretation.

The first year is mostly about your own English: reading, writing, listening and pronunciation, and oral communication, each over two semesters, plus the structure of English. From the second year you study linguistics, English literature, language acquisition and English teaching approaches, then teaching foreign languages to children and teaching language skills.

The final year puts you in schools: Teaching Practice 1 and 2, course-content development and preparing exams in ELT. General education courses (educational psychology, classroom management, testing and evaluation, special education and inclusion) run alongside throughout.

ELT sets a higher bar than most English-taught degrees. Bahcesehir groups ELT with medicine and translation and asks for TOEFL iBT 96 or PTE Academic 78 (against 72 and 55 for most programmes); it does not accept IELTS, Duolingo, TOEFL Home Edition or PTE Academic Online. Okan's general exemption rule is TOEFL iBT 72, PTE 55 or Cambridge CAE/CPE grade C, and it also does not take IELTS.

If your score is below the threshold you start with a preparatory English year, which adds a year of fees: at TED, the preparatory year costs the same as a year of the degree.

ELT graduates teach in private schools and colleges, language schools, university preparatory programmes (often after a master's), corporate training and online platforms, and some move into materials writing and assessment. Teaching children is a strong market, and ELT plans cover it explicitly.

Permanent posts in Turkish state schools are civil-service jobs, and Civil Servants Law No. 657 (Article 48) lists Turkish citizenship as the first general condition. If you plan to teach at home, check your country's teacher-registration rules for foreign degrees before you apply.

Paying upfront lowers several fees: Biruni lists $4,500 for cash payment, Okan $4,750 in advance and Medipol $4,950. TED's published scholarships (25–100%) can bring its $7,500 fee to $1,875 at the 75% level. TED's English Language Education master's costs $8,000 for the whole programme over three to four terms.

A personal strategy, requirement checks, selection of agreed options, document preparation, applications, and support are provided under an agreement with StudyU. For ELT we check your English result against each university's threshold, look at scholarship options at TED and others, and prepare the application documents. Whether you are admitted, and on what scholarship, is decided by the university; the visa is the consulate's decision and the residence permit the migration authority's.