Written Expression Skills of Both Monoliterate, and Emergent Bilingual Primary School Students: A Comparison with Monolingual Students

Abstract

Many students learn Turkish as a second language in Turkey. These students, whose first language is Kurdish, learn Turkish at a certain level before starting school. As a result, these students become emergent bilinguals along with school life. On the other hand, some of these students almost do not use Kurdish in their lives and wholly turn to Turkish. Ultimately, all students whose first language is Kurdish continue their education in the same environment with students whose first language is Turkish. As a result, these children lag behind students whose first language is Turkish in many respects. They even lag behind students whose dominant language is Turkish and Kurdish as their first language. This research it is aimed to reveal the differences between the two student groups in the context of written expression skills. The effect of the dominant language difference, preschool education status and socioeconomic level on the written expression skills of primary school students were examined. The research group of 428 primary school fourth-grade students (girl: 201, boy:227) was determined by criterion sampling method. As a result of the research, it was revealed that the written expression skills of the students whose dominant language is Kurdish remained at a deficient level, and they made more spelling mistakes