The Effect of Tales on the Development of Turkish Language Skills: A Meta-Analysis Study

Abstract

The purpose of the current study is to determine the effect of tales on the development of the Turkish language skills of students from different grade levels in Turkey. To this end, a meta-analysis of the studies investigating the effect of tales on the development of the Turkish language skills was conducted. 5 studies were included in the current meta-analysis study. The total sample size of the studies included in the meta-analysis is 256 students; 126 in the control groups and 130 in the experimental groups. The studies included in the meta-analysis are heterogonous. In addition to result of the funnel scatter plot related to publication bias, absence of the publication bias was confirmed with Orwin’s Safe N Analysis, Duval and Tweedie’s Trip and Fill and Egger’s regression analysis. Effect sizes were calculated according to the random effects model. In the calculations of the effect sizes, Cohen’s d coefficient was used. In the current study, moderator variable effect of the variables of grade level, type of publication and skill area on the effect sizes calculated according to the effect of tales on the development of the Turkish language skills was also examined. In the determination of the moderator variable effect, Q test and p significance coefficient were used. In the current study, tales was found to have a high level of effect on the development of the Turkish language skills. When the results of the moderator variable analysis were examined, it was found that for grade level, type of publication and skill area moderator variables, the between-studies variance is not significant in terms of the development of the Turkish language skills. In light of the current meta-analysis study, it was concluded that tales are an effective method to be used to develop students’ Turkish language skills. Thus, tales can be used to support the development of students’ language skills in mother tongue education. According to results, it can be argued that tales have a positive effect on the development of all the Turkish language skills in all the Turkish language skill areas. It has been observed that applied research on the use of tales as a learning tool in Turkish language education is quite limited. Therefore, the number of applied studies that examine the effects of tales on the development of Turkish language skills as well as on academic achievement, student motivation, and the retention of the learned information in Turkish language education can be increased.