Mother Tongue Teaching at School Comparison of French and Turkish Models

Abstract

Like speaking, two other important aspects of language are reading and writing. Speaking is acquired unconsciously in public while other two skills are learned at school and contribute to life-long speaking skills. The present research is to analyze mother tongue teaching at school and compare two different models, one in France, a developed European country and the other in Turkey, a developing and still a candidate country to European Union. The research has been conducted by using document analysis and interview method. Mother tongue teaching textbooks are the samples of the study, those used as of primary school in Turkey and those used as of kindergarten in France. During interview, discussion-like interview has been conducted. Interview was conducted face-to-face with Turkish teachers in Turkey while it was through a questionnaire online that French teachers were interviewed. The data obtained were interpreted by descriptive method. In both countries, rather than similarities, differences were found in mother tongue teaching at schools. These differences result from both education systems and classroom activities. French teachers are more positive about mother tongue teaching activities in classroom compared to Turkish teachers and think more universally. Turkish teachers complain more about lack of physical equipment at this level.