Impact of the visuals on improvement of verbal skills of the students in junior high schools

This study is intended to investigate the impact of the visuals on improvement of verbal skill gains specified in the curriculum of Turkish lessons. In order to identify the impact of the visuals on verbal skills, the study was designed as quasi-experimental study with pretest-posttest control group for quantitative method; and as action study for qualitative method. Qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques were used concurrently. While "Verbal Skill Evaluation Form" developed by the researcher based on the verbal skill gains was used for quantitative data, content analysis was used for qualitative data. The study was conducted in two 6th grade classes of a state school during first semester of 2013-2014 education year, using proportionate random sampling method. According to qualitative findings of the study; experimental group scored = 75,09 on posttest while control group has scored only = 48,68 ( t(31)=7,3 p>.05). Also, there is a positively significant difference in favor of female students. Some results suggest that 28.1% of the experimental group has begun their speech using appropriate expressions while 21.8% of them used titles, and 46.8% of the group used unnecessary sounds. For the control group, the results were; 3.1% of the group began with appropriate expressions, 6% of them used titles in their speech and 90.6% of the group just uttered unnecessary sounds. According to the qualitative findings of the study; average time of verbal skill for the students of experimental group was 3.2 seconds, while this figure was 1.3 seconds for control group. Students of experimental group generated 440 words, while this figures was 238 in control group. In this context, the natures of such 391 words used by experimental group were noun (58.5%), verb (19.9%), adjective (10.2%), adverb (3.3%), pronoun (3.5%), and preposition or conjunction (4.6%). For control group, of the 204 words used by the students; 55.8% were nouns, 20% of them were verbs, 8.3% of them were adjectives, 4.4% of them were pronouns, 3.9% of them were adverb, and 4.4% of them were either particles or conjunctions. In this context, it can be said that used visuals contributed in improvement of the verbal skill. Keywords: Elocution, Turkish lessons, verbal skill, visual elements, visual literacy