Elementary teachers' views on the reading-writing teaching

The purpose of the present study is to determine the views of elementary school teachers about reading-writing teaching. Mixed method was used in the study. Sample of the study consisted of 151 first grade teachers who worked at state elementary schools located in the central districts of Eskisehir in 2017-2018 academic year and who were selected with criterion sampling method. The data obtained from the questionnaire were analyzed through SPSS statistical program and the data obtained from the interviews were analyzed with content analysis. The results of the study indicated that elementary school teachers had problems arising from their own competencies, curriculum and implementation of curriculum, students, parents, school administration and colleagues in reading-writing teaching. The problems that elementary school teachers stated to face most frequently in reading-writing teaching were listed as inadequacy of students' pre-requisite learning, perception and adaptation problems of under-age students, parents' leading to mislearning in teaching process due to being not familiar with sound-based sentence method, limitations of the sound-based sentence method, overcrowded classrooms, inadequacy of measurement and evaluation tools to serve for the purpose, and inadequacy of pre-service and in-service training on reading-writing teaching. Teachers provided some recommendations for the solution of those problems such as encouraging preschool education, organizing seminars for informing parents, providing alternative reading-writing teaching methods in the curriculum, and emphasizing the practical dimension of the trainings on reading-writing teaching. Keywords: reading-writing teaching, elementary school teacher, elementary school.