The effect of "Coding as Another Language" curriculum on preschool children's early literacy skills

This research was conducted in order to examine the effects of "Coding as Another Language" Curriculum on early literacy skills of preschool children. In this study, "Pretest-Posttest-Control Group Quasi-Experimental Design", which is one of the quantitative research methods, was used. In this study, the dependent variable is the children's early literacy skills; the independent variable whose effect on early literacy skills is examined is the education program provided with the Coding as Another Language (CAL-ScratchJr) curriculum. The children in the study group of this research were determined by the criterion sampling method, which is one of the purposeful sampling methods. In the criterion sampling method, the study group is determined in accordance with the criterion/criteria determined by the researcher. The study group of the research consists of 45 children receiving education in an independent kindergarten affiliated to the Gaziantep Provincial Directorate of National Education. Of the children in the study group; 23 children are in the experimental group and 22 children are in the control group. The children in the study group are between 60-72 months old. In the study, the "Personal Information Form" prepared in order to access personal information about children and the "Early Literacy Test (EROT)" were used to measure children's early literacy skills as data collection tools. In this study, Coding As Another Language/CAL-ScratchJr curriculum adapted to Turkish was applied. The curriculum consists of 18 hours and 24 activities. ANCOVA and ANOVA were used in the data analysis of this study which was conducted in a quasi-experimental design. At the end of the study; while significant differences were observed between the groups in the scores of ALDİL (Receptive Language Vocabulary) and İSLEV (Functional Knowledge) from the upper dimensions of EROT; no significant differences were observed in the scores of İFDİL (Expressive Language Vocabulary), DİNAN (Listening Comprehension), GENIS (General Naming), SESTOP (Total Phonetic Awareness), HARFTOP (Total Letter Knowledge) and EROTTOP (Erot Total).