The use of structured educational games in teaching Turkish as a mother language

One of the main obectives of teaching Turkish as native language is to develop students cognitive, social and affective skills along with the basic language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. In this respect, active participation, Functional teaching techniques such as educational games are needed to ensure students multifaceted development in the language teaching process. In this context, this research aimed to determine the opinions of teachers and students regarding the use of educational games, one of the communication-based teaching techniques, in teaching Turkish as a native language. Phenomenology, a qualitative research design, was used in the research. The study group consisted of 60 studenst and 5 Turkish teachers studying in 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grades at state secondary school in the central district of Adıyaman province in the 2024-2025 academic year. During the research process, eight educational games focusing on learning outcomes for the four basic skills were identified and implemented for a total of four basic skills were identified and implemented for a total of four weeks, two educational games per week. Following implementations of two games at each grade level in grades 5, 6, 7 and 8 interviews were conducted with the students and teachers participating in the study and observations were also made of their learning environments. The study concluded that almost all of the students wanted to play educational games in their classes, felt comfortable in envirenments where educational games played, communicated more with their peers, socialized through collaboration and believed that educational games were effective even in overcoming some emotional problems. It was determined that none of the Turkısh teachers had received any training in educational games but they considered it necessary. They believed that the use of educational games in their classes fostered active participation and positive attitudes towards the the course supported permanent learning and improved students affective and creativity. Observations of the educational games revealed that socializing and engaging shy students in particular and improved students affective qualities and creativity. Observations of the educational games revealed that socializing and engaging shy students in particular and the joy of success experienced by students had positive effects on the learning process. It was recommended that structured games be designed to meet students interests, desires and expectations and these games be included in the textbooks.