Vocabulary in Turkish textbooks for foreigners: The New Istanbul example

Words form the fundamental building blocks of a language, and accurate, effective, and aesthetically pleasing language use relies on word choice. In the process of learning a language, learners acquire language skills by acquiring the words used in communication environments and instructional materials. Language teaching research often emphasizes the importance of prioritizing commonly used words, and word frequency studies are conducted for this purpose. These studies support focusing on vocabulary instruction to develop an effective language teaching strategy. Research on word frequency serves as a valuable source of information for language teaching. Such studies typically focus on fundamental resources like coursebooks. The aim of these studies is to determine the words used in the language teaching process, identify which words should be taught at which levels, and use this information in the preparation of instructional materials. These studies are of great importance in ensuring an effective teaching process in the field of language teaching. This research aims to identify the elements of vocabulary, such as words, idioms, idiomatic expressions, proverbs, riddles, and tongue-twisters, found in coursebooks used in the teaching of Turkish as a foreign language. The data source for the research consists of the New Istanbul Turkish language teaching set (Yeni İstanbul Yabancılar İçin Türkçe Öğretim Seti), which is prepared for foreigners learning Turkish. The study was conducted using a qualitative research design, specifically a case study, and data were collected through document analysis. Content and descriptive analysis methods were used for data analysis. When the vocabulary elements in coursebooks were examined based on the data obtained in the study, it was found that nouns and verbs were the most frequently encountered word types in coursebooks. Following words, idiomatic expressions were the most common elements, followed by idioms, proverbs, and tongue-twisters. However, riddles were not found in the examined coursebooks. In coursebooks, nouns and verbs were included at the highest level (C1) and the lowest level (A1); idiomatic expressions were included at the highest level (C1) and the lowest level (A1); idioms were included at the highest level (C1) and the lowest level (A1); proverbs were included at the highest level (C1) and the lowest level (B1); and tongue-twisters were included at the highest level (B1) and the lowest level (A2). Proverbs were not included in coursebooks at levels A1, A2, and B2; tongue-twisters were not included in coursebooks at levels A1, B2, and C1. As a result of the study, it was determined that the coursebooks in the examined teaching set contained the most words and the fewest tongue-twisters.