Investigating the effect of adapting Santranc-i Urefa as an educational game on teaching vocabulary to 6th grade students and their attitudes towards turkish lesson (Sample of Siirt province)

In this study, the effect of the adaption of Satranc-ı Urefa as an educational game on the vocabulary teaching to the 6th grade students and their attitudes towards Turkish lesson was examined. The participants of the study consisted of a total of 48 students studying at two separate classes of Sehit Ogretmen Ismail Celik Secondary School during spring term of 2017-2018 academic year, which is affiliated to MoNE in the city center of Siirt province. The research was designed in embedded design pattern of the mixed research method in which quantitative and qualitative techniques are used together. The quantitative dimension of the study was designed according to the random pattern with pre-test and post-test control group, which is one of the true experimental models. There was an experimental and control group which was determined randomly. The experimental group (n=24) was taught vocabulary in accordance with the educational game applications while the educational process in the control group (n=24) was carried out within the scope of the traditional teaching. In both groups, all procedures were performed by the researcher. "Personal Information Form", for the measurement of the participants' vocabulary level, "Scale of Vocabulary Knowledge", developed by Wesche and Paribakht (1996) and adapted to Turkish by Ates and Sis (2016) through carrying out its reliability and validity, "Turkish Lesson Attitude Scale" developed by Unal and Kose (2014) were used as quantitative data collection tools in the research. "Student Interview Form" was used as a data collection tool in the qualitative dimension of the research. Document analysis technique was implemented during the process of the examination of Satranc-ı Urefa game and its modern adaptation to be used in teaching vocabulary. SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) for Windows 22.0 program for analysis of quantitative data and a descriptive analysis technique for the analysis of qualitative data were used. In the study, it was concluded that educational game method was more effective than the traditional instruction at the point of increasing 6th grade students' achievement and the permanence of the learned information, and positively changing their attitudes towards Turkish lesson. In addition, according to the findings obtained from the interview form applied to determine the opinions of the students in the experimental group related to the "Word Safari" game and game tools developed in line with teaching vocabulary based on educational game and Satranc-ı Urefa to examine its usability in teaching vocabulary, it was deduced that the "Word Safari" was applicable as an educational gaming tool, vocabulary teaching could be entertaining, constructive, permanent and instructional in an environment enriched with educational game. In line with the results obtained in the research, recommendations were made for the application process and the researchers who would carry out the related studies. Keywords: Language, vocabulary, vocabulary teaching, Satranc-ı Urefa, educational game