Language acquisition level of 8th grade students differing from eachother to their socioeconomic levels in the city of Bolu

The purpose of this researh is to invetigate various socioeconomic levels and personal characteristics that are assumed to affect the level of Turkish language education of primary school students, particularly the effects of those in development of reading and grammar skills of students. For this purpose, 8th grade-students in Bolu from six schools, which were assumed to have different socioeconomic levels, were chosen for the investigation. A survey was made to understand their socioeconomic levels and personal characteristics, and a test was made to evaluate their Turkish reading and grammar skills. The test results evaluating reading, understanding and grammar skills were compared with the surveys giving details about socioeconomic levels for each student to understand the relationship between language skills and socioeconomic levels. Among the students included in this study, it has been found that there have been important differences in their parents? education levels, occupation, monthly salaries and the number of parents buying newspapers everyday, and the number of students that have their own bedroom at home. In respect of these differences, it was found that the students from two schools had socioeconomic advantages and students from four schools had socioeconomic disadvantages within six schools that were used in this research. It was also found that there were considerable differences among six schools when Turkish reading and grammar skills were evaluated. Moreover, it was concluded that the students who have a separate room of their own and whose parents are well-educated and buy a daily newspaper have a high level of reading and writing skills in Turkish. It is obviously seen from the results of this study that there is a need for making efforts to correct the factors adversely affecting the students whose families have lower socioeconomic level. According to these results, the fact that there may be some possible changes that can be a favor for the families with low socioeconomic level and the need for revision of curriculum and applications in Turkish classes should not be ignored.