International Journal of Language Academy

1-11

Authors: Zekerya BATUR & Gülten ERKEK

Vocabulary teaching plays a significant role in developing the comprehension and expression skills and to help use them effectively. On this topic, Turkish language teachers have important responsibilities. The teachers must present the words to the students in an entertaining way. It can be said that the games are intensifier methods in teaching words. In this study, the contribution of the Taboo Game to the Turkish classes has been investigated. Experimental pattern has been used in this study and the study, took place in Secondary School which is centrally located in Uşak city. The attendees were students from 5/A and 5/B classes in which there were 37 students each (74 students in total). As the experimental group, the students in 5/B class were introduced to the taboo game; on the other hand, as the control group, the students in 5/A class practiced usual words exercises in ordinary Turkish classes. In Turkish classes of experimental group, the unknown vocabulary was written on taboo cards by students and the classroom was divided into 2 groups. During the first semester of 2016-2017 academic year, the students were observed regularly and at the end of semester, the vocabulary levels were examined and the results were interpreted. The findings proved that only successful students in control group made progress in learning new words; however, the taboo game in experimental group have much contributed to all students for learning new words regardless of their success level or gender. Thanks to the taboo game, the students became motivated and willing, acquired the knowledge of team work and cooperation, comprehended and well learned the meanings of the words during the game, therefore, developed their skills of comprehension and expression along with their selfconfidence.

23-30

Authors: Ahmet Zeki GÜVEN

Shyness, which is an important concept that influences the relationship between people in effective communication skills, is the hindrance and unrest that can occur in public in contact with others or, in other words, shyness is avoidance of socialization. Shy people prefer avoidance in society, especially because they think they will be ridiculed or be pitied by others due to their shyness and and not give any remarkable reaction. Especially shy children and adolescents have difficulty in communicating with their friends and teachers in the classroom environment. They even avoid either participating in any class activities such as answering questions or reading or answering questions because of the fear of making a mistake or they speak very quietly. The first phase in fighting shyness starts in the family. If the child is encouraged by the other family members in the conversation within the family, the child will develop selfconfidence and be able to convey his ideas comfortably as a result. However, children, who are always scolded by family members and cannot easily explain their thoughts, will develop a sense of shyness and shy away. The same situation applies to schools. If teachers in the school allow their students to express their thoughts comfortably within the framework of certain rules and pay attention to this in the classroomorder, the sense of self- confidence will develop in the students and the sense of shyness will not emerge. Especially, it is an important subject for teachers who educate and guide the society to have this feeling which needs to be handled seriously. In this regard, the problem of the study is shyness level Turkish Education Department of the Education Faculty. While the population of the study is formed by students of Turkish Education Department, the sample of the study is consisted of 204 students who are 1st,2nd,3rd, and 4th grade students studying in the department of Turkish Education, Social Sciences and Turkish Education Department of Faculty of Education in Akdeniz University. Shyness scale form, which was originally developed by Cheek(1990) as 13 items and examined in terms of validity and reliability and adopted to Turkish by Gungor (2001), was used in the study in order to determine the level of students' shyness. The shyness scale is a 5 point likert type consisting of 20 items. A total of 204 students studying in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th classes of Turkish Education Department in Education Faculty of Akdeniz University in 2016-2017 academic year participated in the study. First of all, the shyness scores of were calculated from shyness scale. Then, arithmetic means and standard deviations were determined. The standard deviation scores were added to the arithmetic and those above the obtained score were evaluated as shy. Standard deviation was subtracted from arithmetic mean and those below the obtained score were evaluated as being not shy. The remaining scores between the two obtained scores were evaluated as the average shyness level.

50-62

Authors: Fulya TOPÇUOĞLU ÜNAL & Halil TAYFA

One of the main purposes of using interactive boards in educational environments is to enable students to participate more actively in class by addressing more sensory organs and thus to create permanent learning and to ensure the students gain the knowledge and skills aimed during classes. From the viewpoint of Turkish lessons, it is expected that the students will participate more actively with auditory and visual stimuli so that they will have more emphaty and interest to the lessons and positive attitudes towards the lesson. An attitude scale is needed to measure how interactive boards are effective on students' interest, love and desire for Turkish lesson. For this reason, it was aimed to develop a scale which would determine the attitudes of secondary school students towards interactive board usage in Turkish lessons. The draft scale consisting of 20 items was formed by conducting a field survey and taking opinions of the experts. The validity and reliability studies of the 5-point Likert-type draft scale were conducted by applying 150 students from a public school in 2016-2017 academic year. The scope validiation of the study was provided by expert opinions. 4 items were subtracted from the factor analsis applied for the construct validity, and a 3 subscale scale consisting of 16 items explaining 54.679% of total variance between factor loadings of .816 - .519 was obtained. 10 of the scale items contain positive and 6 of them contain negative statements. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin score was obtained as (0.88), and the Barlett test significance value was gained as (χ2 = 1296,143, sd = 190, p <.000). Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated to determine the relationship between the sum of the items in the scale and the factors. The internal consistency coefficient of Cronbach-alpha was 0.871. Reliability and validity studies indicate that the scale has useable features. This scale of which validity and reliability studies are executed, is thought to make contribution to the field.

79-97

Authors: Ömer Faruk TAVŞANLI

The role of relevantly prepared instructional programs is very important for the students to use their writing skills effectively. When the writing education field curriculum, which is updated in Turkey in 2015, is examined, it is emphasized that the studies to be conducted will be carried out by considering the ProcessBased Writing Approach. The effect of process-based writing approach on students' written expression, writing attitudes and authorship identities were investigated in various countries of the world and this approach was centralized in the writing education field. In our country, writing education field teaching curriculum has been updated considering process-based writing approach. However, there is a need for studies involving the evaluation of the current program, because the program is implemented in our country recently and has not a rich learning environment yet. By this way, the incomplete aspects of a newly implemented curriculum will be identified and the studies to be conducted about the program will be guided. The aim of the present study in this context is to examine in depth the writing skills program applied to elementary school students in Turkey based on the teacher's views regarding how useful the program is in terms of teaching the students skills in writing. Descriptive phenomenology has been used in the study. The data in this study were collected with semi-structured interview questions and content analysis method was used for the analysis of the data. According to the results of the research, classroom teachers identified 294 discourses under five themes. These discourses include " teachers’ thoughts about the importance of writing", "teachers' thoughts about the current status of writing skills education", "teachers' thoughts about the reasons that minimize the writing skills success of the students", "teachers' thoughts about the reasons why the students do not like writing skills course" and "Teachers' thoughts about what needs to be done to improve the writing skills of students".

116-128

Authors: Yusuf TAŞKIN

One of the methods for listening is critical listening, in Turkish course curriculum. Critical listening is a student-centered method as it involves students to the process. The active role of students and the aim of finding their own truths are the main purposes of critical listening. The aim of this study is to develop a valid and reliable attitude scale consisting of Likert type scale items for measuring the attitude against critical listening. The study group includes 200 of Dumlupınar University Teaching Department students, studied in 2015-2016 academic year. The group consists of 120 female and 80 male students. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin(KMO) value of the scale was found as 793, and Bartlett’s test of sphericity value is found as (x2=957,551; sd=190 p<.,000). The students were asked for the answers of scale items which are applied as pre-trials and asked for experts’ opinions. Scale items were prepared by researcher by scanning the literature and taking experts’ opinions. 80 items of first scale was reduced to 39 according to the advices of experts. 32 of the items include positive judgments, while 7 of them include negative ones. The items which include negative judgments have given points inversely. Cronbach’s Alpha reliability which is used for calculating the internal consistency of the scale was found as 816. As the result of factor analysis, it is observed that the scale has divided into 3 sub-dimensions. The findings show that the scale is valid and reliable. The scale can be used for measuring the critical listening attitudes of teacher candidates.

141-151

Authors: Arzu ÇEVİK

Text is the main tool in the process of language teaching. Various types and structural texts are needed to develop and language skills. The studies are performed on the texts by selecting texts appropriate to objectives, themes and grade level prepared in the textbooks used in the process of Turkish teaching in middle schools. The principle of being appropriate to children should be taken basis for the texts used for the children and the terms of children literature should be preferred as much as possible. With this purpose, 7 Turkish textbooks prepared by the Ministry of National Education (MoNE) and private publishing house and approved by MoNE for the 4th grade and the 8th grade were evaluated in terms of selection of poetry from among the text types. Considering the age group, the texts in Turkish textbooks for secondary school children in childhood and early adolescence periods should match with the characteristics of the mentioned population, and qualified literature texts should be selected for children and young people. In the prepared Turkish textbooks, the examples of selected poems based on this purpose were examined. It has been determined that most of the selected poems are original texts and that a large part of them are examples of classical Turkish poetry. Selected poems were seen to be used more thematically in the themes of "Atatürk" and "Love" and "Emotion". Another noteworthy feature of poems is that they are poems bearing cultural and national values, and that children are often included in works that are overcome with homeland, flag, history and national love. It has been determined that there are repetitive poems in the books. Each literary text was a message and it was considered to be a value, and it was also examined in terms of values and transfer in poems. In order to have texts for children, it is necessary to reach more child poems

163-175

Authors: Kübra ŞENGÜL

Language Partnership is an activity whereby the learners get together with the other students who speak the same language as a mother language. The purpose of this system is to implement learners to learn the language and to perform culture transfer in a natural way. In this study, effects of Language Partnership (known as TANDEM in Europe) on speaking anxieties of learners who learn Turkish language as a foreign language have been researched. In this study which has been manipulated with real experimental design, foreigner students who are learning Turkish Language in Nevsehir Haci Bektas Veli University have come together with Turkish students for 6 weeks of time in accordance with Language partnership program. As a data collecting tool, the study which was prepared by Özdemir (2013) in the subject of availability and reliability and its name is “The sources of speaking anxieties of learners who learn Turkish language as foreign language”. It was also applied as a scale, for the analysis of those data, the frequency, percentage, average value, standard deviation, t test for related exemplifications are used. After the experimental process which took 6 weeks, it was observed that the students who were in the experiment group have improved positively in terms of Turkish language speaking anxieties comparing with those students who were in the control group. This research put forward that effectiveness of setting relationships and communications between Turkish language learners as foreign language and speakers of same language as mother language in reducing the speaking anxieties of the same Turkish language learners.

193-210

Authors: İlhan ERDEM & Dilek KIRNIK

In the elementary school which is the first step of the compulsory education, the ability to find the main theme of the text is being canalized to the students. Because, to be able to find the main theme of the text provides students, both to learn with meaning, and to gain the skill which will ensure them to learn any kind of knowledge that will be a corner-stone regarding any area in their life. It is not easy to find the main theme of the text. It requires high level of thinking. It is being thought that, attaining the outline of text strategy which contributes the students’ comprehension of the text, will contribute positively to the high level of thinking ability of the students. The general aim of this research is to identify the effect of the thirdgrade elementary students’ usage of attaining the outline of the text strategy to their ability on finding the main theme of the text. This research has been fulfilledduring 2015-2016 Academic Year fall seasonwith third-grade students in an elementary school which is located in the center of Malatya City. Because this research aims to research the effect ofattaining the outline of the textstrategy to the finding the main theme of the text with an integrated approach, and would like to examine thoroughly how the students get effected from the matter at hand, it has been fulfilled according to the action reacheach model which is one of the qualitative research methods. Descriptive andcontent analyses were used while analyzing the data. Narrative texts were usedin every phase of the research. As the result of the research it has been determined that, the students are slogged in comprehending the texts which were unfamiliar and contain many words. A correlation has been detected with identifying the cause and effect relationof the text and finding the main theme of the text skills. Within the context of these results, the implementation of the applications which devoted to this strategy in educational establishments and alike, and on the students which are facing with learning disorders, is recommended.

236-249

Authors: Sedat EROL & İlhan ERDEM

Critical reading which involves in reasoning, analysing, commenting, evaluating and making decisions can be assessed as a conscious preparation for life. Because the way of the individuals who are in tendency to reason, assess and deduce in their lives coincides with critical reading. In this context, the perceptions of critical reading of teachers who are one of the actors directing social development is too important. In this study, the perceptions of Turkish teacher candidates about critical reading were studied. Phenomenology design, one of the qualitative research methods was used in the study. The study group of the study consists of 39 students studying in the 3rd grade in Teaching Turkish in Adıyaman University. A semistructured interview form was used in the study to obtain data. A content analysis was conducted in the analysis of the data. At the result of the study, it was detected that Turkish teacher candidates had some information about the description of critical reading, but they didn’t form a view on positive criticism, they regarded the reader as the most crucial factor in learning critical reading, they stated objectivity principle as the most important feature within the characteristics of readers and they determined that in the development and teaching of critical reading, critical reading method should notably be taught. With the obtained results, it was recommended that positive criticism about which none of the Turkish teacher candidates stated should be given importance, a guide work should be performed about the method learning to improve critical reading, multi-disciplinary studies should be carried out about critical reading and since teacher candidates stated no opinion about the curriculum, some briefings should be given to these candidates about the position and importance of critical reading skills.

266-284

Authors: Ayfer SAYIN & Nazife Burcu TAKIL

The purpose of this study is to examine the change in the reading ability scores of the students in the 2003-2015 cycle according to PISA results. Within the scope of the research, Turkey's average scores on reading skills in the PISA cycles were compared with the OECD’s average scores. The order in which Turkey is involved and the changes in proficiency levels in reading skills have been examined. Subsequently, the variables affecting the reading skills of the students in the 15-year-old group, the reasons for their staying at sub-competency levels in reading skills and the solution recommendations were determined according to the opinions of the Turkish teacher candidates. Qualitative research method was used in the research. The PISA reports were analysed by document analysis and the change in the level of reading skills of students was determined. At it again, the opinions of Turkish teacher candidates were taken with the case study of qualitative research methods and they were categorized by content analysis. As a result of research, it was determined that there was a decrease in students' reading skills in the 2015 cycle and this fall was also seen in the areas of ranking and competence. It has been determined that the Turkish teacher candidates stated that the education level and attitude of the family, school education and teacher, interests and attitudes of students in reading a book are mostly effective on the reading ability of the students of 15 years age group. According to Turkish teacher candidates, the lack of understanding and interpretation in the students, the lack of attention, and the fact that the education system is based on memorization and the students have not encountered similar questions before caused the students to take place in the subcompetence areas in reading skills. It was found that the Turkish teacher candidates stated that the education system should be changed for high level skills and the reading skills of the students would increase with the reading habits. 66% of the students who participated in the survey stated that the reading skills of their students will be at a high level in the future, and 32% stated that as a teacher, it would be insufficient for them to raise their reading skills to the highest level only by their own efforts.

303-312

Authors: Abdulkadir KIRBAŞ

The aim of this study is to determine the realization levels of values education implementations in teaching Turkish by taking the opinions of Turkish teachers. The sample of this study conducted in the survey model comprises 108 Turkish teachers employed at different secondary schools in Erzurum, Bayburt, Gümüşhane and Trabzon in the Spring semester of 2015/2016 academic year. “Teachers’ opinions on the implementation of values education in teaching Turkish scale”, which consists of 21 questions in the form of a 5-point Likert-type scale allows responses of “always, often, sometimes, rarely, never”, and it was prepared by considering the “Values Education Yearly Plan” published jointly by Erzurum Governorship and Provincial Directorate for National Education in accordance with the aim of this study, and receiving opinions of Turkish educators, Turkish teachers and domain experts. The data were evaluated by performing frequency analysis in the SPSS 18 package program. Validity and reliability of the scale were found to be 0.81 as the Cronbach's Alpha value as a result of analysis, and 0.649 as the test statistic as a result of the KMO (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin) test. This result shows that the scale applied in the study is valid and reliable. As a result of the study, it was found that Turkish teachers implemented the cleaning value always; salutation and smile, tolerance, determination and stability, helpfulness, compassion and grace, friendship values often; love and respect, patience, apologizing and forgiveness, empathy, gift giving, and fidelity values sometimes; saving, responsibility, sacrifice, fairness, generosity, reliability values rarely in values education in teaching Turkish.