Experiences of Primary School Teachers Regarding to Teaching Turkish to Students who are not Native Turkish Speakers: A Phenomenology

Abstract

The study aims is to determine the experiences of primary school teachers in terms of teaching Turkish to the students who are not native Turkish speakers. In the study, phenomenology pattern, one of the qualitative research patterns, was used. Participants were determined by the criterion-based sampling method. The participants of the research consisted of 36 primary school teachers who had Syrian and Afghan refugees in their class. The research data were collected through a semi-structured interview form developed by the researchers. Content analysis technique was used in the analysis of the data. It was observed that most of the participants felt insufficient in teaching Turkish to students who had different native languages, had problems in applying, measuring and evaluating teaching methods and course activities, and had language problems with them. In the study, the difficulties experienced in teaching Turkish to Syrian and Afghan refugee students who were not native Turkish speakers were presented and the suggestions about what to do in the education process related to these difficulties were provided. It was concluded that in the education process of the teachers, students and families should take Turkish language courses. Moreover, in addition to the Turkish courses in teaching Turkish, it was reported that the primary school teachers stated that it would be helpful to do social activities with students who have language problems, to provide counseling services for them, and to prearrange distribution of the students to each classroom. It was concluded that special activities should be carried out in the verbal communication learning area.