An investigation on the primary 8th grade student level of acquisition of unknown words given in the 6th and 7th Turkish course books

This study aimed to investigate the primary 8th grade students? level ofacquisition of unknown words given in the 6th and 7th grade Turkish course books.Variables such as socio-economic status, possessing a computer, owning a study roomat home, living in a shanty house or a flat, renting or owning a house, gender, parents?professions, and an affect of other siblings in the school from the family to theacquisition of unknown words were taken fort the purposes of this research.Research sample for this study compose of 30 students currently studying at fiveschools representing three different socio-economic status; SEDY1: Halit ZiyaUsaklıgil, SEDY2: Besim Atalay, SEDO1: 23 Nisan, SEDO2 : Ömer Bedrettin Usaklıand SEDD: Malkoçoglu Primary Schools. Students representing the sample of thisstudy were selected from the 1st, 5th, 10th,15th, 20th and 25th from the class list.`Work Sheet Forms? were developed with consideration of the course books bythe researcher and they were applied by the researcher himself to the studentscomposing the study sample. Work Sheet Form were formed under 10 headings.Collected data were then analysed on the computer using SPSS Package.As for results, it was evident that the gender variable did not affect theacquisition of unknown words whereas variables such as socio-economic status,parents? professions and an affect of other siblings? in the school from the family didseem to affect the acquisition of unknown words. 158 words were known by 15 or morestudents out of 376 words applied to the sample of students. 218 words were describedunder average. Consequently, we could argue that the unknown words given in theTurkish course books were not acquired to a satisfying level.KEY WORDS: Primary School, Textbook, Word.