Teachers and Students’ Evaluation of Listening Texts in Turkish Textbooks

Mustafa Kaya,Ömer Çiftçi

doi:10.7575/aiac.ijels.v.8n.1p.84

Abstract

The aim of this study is to evaluate the listening texts in terms of the suitability for student level. In order to achieve this goal, the opinions of Turkish teachers and the secondary school students who have been taught by these teachers were studied. The research was carried out in January 2018 with 5 Turkish teachers and 20 secondary school students at different schools in Van city center. Four Turkish textbooks (5th to 8th grade) were used as the data source in this study, which aims to reveal the quality of listening texts, having multiple units required us to use the nested case study model, a qualitative research model. Semi-structured and structured interview forms developed by the researchers for teachers and students were used for data collection. Expert opinions were taken during the development of the interview protocols. After interviews with teachers and students, inductive thematic analysis method was used to analyze the interviews. The opinions of both students and teachers about listening texts can be summarized as follows; there are many unknown words, texts are not appropriate to students' level, texts are long, text types should be based on events, there is much description in texts, texts are out of date, texts are not at the desired level in terms of language and expression, and activities in the texts are quantitatively too many but qualitatively not on a desired level.

Highlights

Teaching Turkish consists of four basic skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing
Four Turkish textbooks (5th to 8th grade) were used as the data source in this study, which aims to reveal the quality of listening texts, having multiple units required us to use the nested case study model, a qualitative research model
After interviews with teachers and students, inductive thematic analysis method was used to analyze the interviews. The opinions of both students and teachers about listening texts can be summarized as follows; there are many unknown words, texts are not appropriate to students’ level, texts are long, text types should be based on events, there is much description in texts, texts are out of date, texts are not at the desired level in terms of language and expression, and activities in the texts are quantitatively too many but qualitatively not on a desired level

Summary

Introduction

Teaching Turkish consists of four basic skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Listening skill is recognized as the first of these four basic skills. According to Özbay (2016), listening skill is the first skill that human uses. In this sense, it can be said that listening skill has a special place and importance. The habit of listening has an important share in terms of the individual’s correct perception of his/ her environment and the world, and adapting to the social environment in which the individual is involved. Listening is an important skill that enables an individual to use his/ her communication skills which he/she learns both in school life and after school life correctly and to interpret what s/he listens to (Çiftçi, 2007)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion