An analysis of productive language skills activities in Turkish as a foreign language textbooks according to action-oriented approach

With the Common European Framework of Reference, the approach adopted worldwide in foreign language teaching has been the "Action-Oriented Approach". Many countries have translated the text published by the Council of Europe into their own languages and put its principles into practice. The Action- Oriented Approach has also been adopted in teaching Turkish as a foreign language and has been accepted as the basic approach in the Teaching Turkish as a Foreign Language Programs prepared by the Maarif Foundation and MEB. In this study, New Istanbul Turkish for International Students Course Book (B1- B2) was examined and it was aimed to determine whether the course books carry the principles of the action-oriented approach. The research was designed with a qualitative design and a document analysis was conducted. The productive language skills (speaking, writing) activities in the books were analyzed according to the action-oriented language teaching approach. In the study, an eligibility form including the basic features of the action-oriented language teaching approach was developed based on the CEFR and the relevant literature. This form was also checked by different field experts, necessary arrangements were made after the feedback given and the form was finalized. Afterwards, a total of seventy-two activities, eighteen writing and eighteen speaking activities in both books, were analyzed according to the suitability form. After the analysis, the suitability of the activities to the action-oriented language teaching approach was evaluated and it was concluded that the activities were generally suitable for the real-life orientation, active use of language and applicability dimensions of the action-oriented approach, but not for the dimensions of being a social actor, being task-based and interculturalism. In this study, speaking skill and writing skill activities were also compared within themselves, and it was determined that the dimensions of the action-oriented approach such as being interaction- oriented, directing to group work, research, asking questions, discussion, discovery, etc. were more common in speaking skill activities. Keywords: Teaching Turkish as a foreign language, action-oriented approach, productive language skills, speaking, writing, activity, coursebook.