Turkish Language Teaching and Acquisition of Reading Culture in Our Schools

Abstract

At the bottom of our reading and conversation tradition, “oral” culture before the acceptance of Islam has great influence. For this reason, even our reading culture has been established on the logic of listening and conversation. Turkish people met with written works only after the Tanzimat (Edith of Reorganization). With the guidance of Tanzimat poets and writers, we see that a serious readership has formed especially in Istanbul since the 1890s. The Second Constitutional Period was when the press and reading culture were at their peak. In one of his writings, Yahya Kemal Beyatlı said that a children’s magazine sold 5,000 copies in Istanbul. The intellectuals who founded and kept the Republic alive were also raised in the productive environment of these years. Our reading habits continued after the establishment of the Republic. After the Alphabet Revolution in 1928, there was a short transition period. However, we see that the first generation of the Republic created a good audience when we look at the number, variety, and circulation of books published with new letters in the 1930s and later. The basis of this development is the importance given by the state to the reading culture, and the 1928 curriculum prepared with this understanding. The aims of this curriculum must have been well understood that a serious reading campaign began throughout the country, and schools, village chambers, and gathering places became reading halls. In order to meet the expectations of the readers in the villages and to gain new readers, the books were delivered to the readers in boxes (book borrowing crates) strapped to the backs of donkeys. After the 1980 coup d'état, our enthusiasm for reading, discussing, and thinking suddenly stopped. Today, we are at a point where we do not desire in terms of the culture of reading and discussion. We need to work quickly to build a society that reads and thinks again. Curriculums should be re-prepared with the spirit of the 1928 curriculum, and expert-certified people should prepare all materials and course tools produced according to this curriculum.