Problems primary school 4th grade Syrian students face in Turkish lessons

The main purpose of this research is to determine the problems faced by 4th grade Syrian students studying in public primary schools in the Turkish lessons in line with the opinions of the teachers and to propose solutions to these problems by the teachers. In this research, the survey model was used. The universe of the study consisted of 4th grade classroom teachers working in public schools located in the central districts of Kayseri Province (Hacılar, İncesu, Kocasinan, Melikgazi and Talas) in the 2019-2020 academic year. By using the simple random sampling method, 57 primary schools were selected and 170 fourth grade teachers who had Syrian students in their classes formed the study sample. Throughout the research, a questionnaire developed by the researcher was used. Descriptive analysis techniques (frequency and percentage) and content analysis were used for the analysis of the collected data. Within the scope of the research, the conclusions reached regarding the problems experienced by 4th grade Syrian students in Turkish lessons shows that the knowledge of Turkish, academic success of the students, students' desire and effort to learn Turkish are at "agree" level. When it comes to language skills Students experience more difficulty in reading and writing while learning Turkish. However, while they experience less problems in listening and speaking skills using Turkish. Problems encountered by students in reading studies were such problems as slow reading, dropping letters while reading, not being able to pronounce the syllables correctly, and mixing vowels and consonants while reading. For listening, Students were able to pay attention to the text they listened to but they were not able to understand some words and long sentences in the texts. It is also important to recommended the problems encountered by Syrian students in writing studies, it were such problem as not being able to write uppercase or lowercase letters correctly, confusing uppercase and lowercase letters, not writing correct sentences, incomplete words, confusing vowels more than consonants, writing words as the way they pronounce them, wrong or incomplete use of punctuation marks and prefixes. However, for speaking, the students want to speak Turkish in the lessons, but they always use short sentences and answer the questions with a few words and sometimes they prefer to remain silent in classroom discussions. Finally, in line with the opinions of the participant teachers, orientation and Turkish preparatory classes should be planned and put into practice in order to facilitate Syrian student's education life. Keywords: Syrian students, Turkish lesson, primary school, language skills.