Views of students about visuals used in Turkish language course and workbooks

Abstract

Turkish course books and workbooks delivered to the second grade primary students are the most important course materials. The visual factors in these materials help the students know and understand the elements such as main theme, plot, scene, setting, characters and existence in a text. They help students develop their thoughts about the texts they have read or listened to. The visual elements integrated into the text and question that complement each other have great effect on understanding. In addition to those, visuality evokes the students’ imagination and association. This study aims to show how the visual elements in the 6th, 7th and 8th grade primary Turkish course books and workbooks are assessed by the students. The study is carried out on 414 students (210 girls and 204 boys) from 6th, 7th and 8th grade. Students are asked 10 questions prepared on the basis of triad scale about the visual elements in the texts in the course books and in the activities in the workbooks. In this study, based on the views of students, several suggestions are made about the visual elements in the books. Besides, the effect of gender difference and Turkish course marks in terms of the views of students is searched. Key words: Turkish Language course and workbooks, visuals, Turkish course marks, influence of gender difference.