The Ankara office of the American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT) recently facilitated the distribution of new Turkish-English/English-Turkish dictionaries to support English language study and training in Turkey. Two programs collaborated with ARIT to distribute the volumes.

One batch of 200 dictionaries went to students in Ankara who will use them in a new program to offer English lessons to those who can't afford enrolling in private English language courses. This is significant because often in Turkey only children who attend expensive private academies have access to English language study. The host institution for the lessons is the Turkish American Association in Ankara (TAA), a non-governmental organization (NGO) that supports Turkish-American exchanges and collaborates annually with ARIT to offer cultural events.

A second batch of 400 dictionaries was distributed in coordination with the ACCESS program, a new U.S. Department of State initiative to enhance access to English language training in predominantly Muslim communities around the world. The English Language Officer, Tom Miller, and Martha Oral, Senior English Language Fellow and program coordinator at the Turkish American Association compiled a list of over 100 institutions in Turkey that are developing their programs to teach English and/or train English language teachers.