Examination of Metropol Yayınları TÖMER Turkish Teaching Set (A1-A2) textbook for foreigners in the context of cultural transfer in teaching Turkish to foreigners

Many issues play an important role in the process of teaching Turkish to foreigners, such as the place of teaching, the tools used, the transfer of four basic language skills and language knowledge, the transfer of culture. Since the language teaching process for the target culture, which is carried out away from the target culture, must be carried out in a different way than the process that will be carried out in the target culture, we can say that the materials that will be used in this process will also have an important role. The course material that is also used the most in the process of teaching Turkish is undoubtedly textbooks. The fact that it is economical, practical and easily accessible allows textbooks to be preferred more than other materials. With the texts that will be included in these books and the activities that will be created based on these texts, it is aimed to transfer the four basic language skills as well as the teaching of grammar to students. At this stage, the question of whether cultural elements are sufficiently included in textbooks comes to mind. For this reason, the subject of our thesis has been determined as the examination of the TÖMER Turkish Teaching Set for Foreigners (A1-A2) textbook prepared by Metropol Publications in the context of cultural transfer in teaching Turkish to foreigners. The aim of our research; To determine which cultural elements are included in the reading texts in the TÖMER Turkish for Foreigners (A1-A2) Textbook, which is one of the textbooks used in teaching Turkish as a foreign language, to contribute to the field of teaching Turkish as a foreign language, to prepare data for the new textbooks to be created through the determinations made are among the targets. In our research, in which descriptive qualitative research method was used, the cultural elements in the mentioned books were analyzed by using the document analysis technique. Cultural elements in the textbook were evaluated as classified in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. The cultural elements reflected in the reading texts during the book review were lettered sequentially according to seven items. The presence of seven main headings and subheadings in the reading texts was evaluated by examining. As a result of the research, it has been determined that the total number of cultural elements in the textbook is 99. Since the A1-A2 level, which is the beginner level, is given in a single book and they are not included as separate sections in the book, it was not possible to make a comparison between the levels for this reason, the book was evaluated together as a Basic Level (A1-A2) and the number of identified items was evaluated in this way. In addition, it has been determined that 71 of the cultural values determined in the book are values belonging to Turkish culture, and 28 of them are elements of Universal culture. In this aspect, it has been observed that he attaches importance to the elements of Turkish culture in the cultural transfer that is to be carried out in the book, but it has also been determined that these cultural elements are not distributed equally. The use of body language as a cultural element is not included. With our study, we tried to provide data for new materials that will be prepared for the purpose of using Turkish as a foreign language.