Examination of speaking activities in secondary school Turkish textbooks within the framework of Turkish Course Curriculum

The main purpose of this research is to examine the speaking activities in Turkish textbooks within the framework of the Turkish Course Curriculum and to determine to what extent the activities overlap with the speaking outcomes in the curriculum and to what extent they are compatible with the determined criteria. Document review, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the research. The materials of the research consist of 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade Turkish textbooks from different publishing houses and MEB Publications recommended for the 2024-2025 academic year. The speaking activities in these books were examined in terms of number and theme, location, activity types, outcomes, methods, cognitive skills and workshops, and the content analysis method was used in the analysis of the obtained data. As a result of the research, most of the speaking activities are included in in-class applications, and evaluation-oriented activities are quite limited. Theme distributions vary according to the grade level and program goals. While sharing feelings and thoughts is dominant in activity types, it was determined that more complex academic speaking skills increase in later grades, but game-based activities are given less place. The free speaking method was widely used, but it was observed that methods such as critical, persuasive and creative speaking were given less space. In the distribution of achievements, the focus was on the ability to apply speaking strategies in all classes. In cognitive skills, lower-level skills (understanding, remembering, applying) are dominant, but as the grade progresses, the emphasis on application skills increases. Peer assessment is a common approach in speaking workshops in the 2024 Turkish Course Curriculum, and it was concluded that various learning experiences were offered across themes.