An Investigation of the Quality of Grammar Instruction: Case of Education Informatics Network

Abstract

Teaching grammar topics is a difficult and complex process. This process needs to be structured with functional activities that are appropriate for the objectives of the instruction, be it face-to-face or distance education. This study aims to investigate and evaluate the quality of grammar instruction in the Turkish lessons on the Education Informatics Network (EBA) used by the Ministry of National Education as a distance education tool. For this purpose, the data of the research were obtained through the investigation of 29 Turkish lessons at the elementary school level (5th-8th grades) between the dates 23.03.2020 and 19.06.2020 during which formal education was in a three-month hiatus. In designating these lessons, the criterion sampling technique was used and all lessons that included grammar topics were investigated by taking grammar topics as the criterion. The research used the case study as one of the qualitative research designs. The data obtained after the investigation were analyzed through the content analysis method. In the research, the analysis category was determined to be “Grammar Teaching” while the sub-categories were coded as “The State of Using the Sense and Induction Methods in Grammar Teaching”, “Structure of the Examples Used in Grammar Teaching”, and “The State of Supporting Grammar Teaching Activities with Comprehension and Expression Skills”. It was found that induction and intuition methods that have a vital place in teaching grammar in elementary school Turkish lessons were seldom used. On top of this, it was revealed that grammar was taught in a way far from text-based grammar teaching and was not associated with receptive and productive skills.