The study of the English coursebooks for 4th graders being used in primary schools in terms of Turkish culture elements

Cultural values are one of the most important elements of nations which create their core, help them to live in the world and provide the continuation of new generations. One of the most important aims of the school is to transfer cultural values to new generations. And schools use different kinds of materials while carrying on this goal. Coursebooks are the most important elemet of these materials. Coursebooks are prepared according to the groving periods of students, their social environment and politics. The people who are raised to be a person of a specific culture via shools should be educated according to spiritual and concrete values of that culture. So, coursebooks should include moral and concrete elements of the Turkish culture. And they should have specific charecteristics to carry on cultural elements to new generations. Aim of this study is to examine English coursebooks which are being used in 4th grade classes in public schools; recommended by national education authorities, selected according to opinion of teachers, in terms of selected cultural values which are determined as: family, language, religion, benevolence and respect. In this study, examination of coursebooks has done according to cultural values and academic studies on culture examinations in coursebooks in scope of reached sources in terms of visuals and text contents. This study is a descriptive study which relies on qualitative study. Datas which are reached according to the determined values are examined in scope of descriptive study. Population of this study is the coursebooks for 4th graders being used in Turkey in primary public schools. Sampling of this study is English coursebooks: Time For English 4 and Spring 4 with their workbooks being used in Kahramanmaraş Dumlupınar Primary School which are recommended by education authorities and selected according to teacher opinions of teachers. Researches on coursebooks illustrate that these materials play an important role in transferring the culture to next generations. There are cultural examples of spiritual and cultural elements in liteature. Artworks, buildings, music instruments, cities, clothes, wearing styles, books, tools used in daily lifes, literature works can be shown as concrete elements of culture. Beliesfs and vital spiritual values created by a society which belongs to a nation can be shown as examples of spiritual values. Datas collected from the study are examined whether they reflect cultural values or not depending on the sub problems of the study. As a conclusion, 4th grade English lesson course books which are selected as samples of our research are not sufficient about Turkish culture's concrete spiritual elements and values and it is brought out that the boks are not organized visually and textually. Moreover, it is found out that the boks reflect popular glaobal culture's elements. Key Words: Culture, Coursebook, Value.