Determination of language errors hindering thinking in social sciences course books

Language is considered as the most important tool for thinking and a factor that improves the ability to think. Thus, correct use of Turkish ranks first among the skills that need to be gained by the Social Sciences Program. Therefore, social sciences educational programs must be structured in a way that will allow students to gain these skills. Course books, which constitute one of the most important tools that are used in social sciences education, should be prepared meticulously in a considerable amount of time and in such a way that will emphasize the program objectives in the best way. Books must not include errors that are contradictory to the program objectives since they act as an example for teachers and students and they are written and permanent resources. From this point of view, it is aimed in this qualitative study to determine the language and expression errors that exist in the course books which are accepted among written social sciences materials intended to be taught in primary schools by Turkish Education Board in the Ministry of National Education. In this respect, the data of the study comprises of social sciences course books prepared for 5th, 6th and 7th grade of second level of basic education accepted to be taught for five years by Turkish Education Board in the Ministry of National Education in 2016-2017 academic year. The books were chosen among those that were distributed in Aksaray province. Results of the study were obtained through document analysis performed on course books. The linguistic errors hindering thinking in the analysis of coursebooks are discussed under the headings of incomprehensibility (semantic and structural), contradiction to spelling rules and misuse of punctuation. Detailed investigations of three coursebooks revealed that they are problematic in language and expression and the terms are not used in the proper places. 100 errors were identified in the analysis of the coursebooks in total, the correct uses of misuses were presented and the misuses weree loborated. With the determination of plenty of linguistic errors in the analysis of sampling, it was observed that the authors were not attentive enough in revealing beauties of the language. In the study, a literature that would assist the following studies was aimed to reveal for the purpose of preventing misguided thinking and misinterpretation of deductions by clarifying the concepts over which there are conflicts of semantics and usage. Social Studies textbooks have been found to be more appropriate with recent examinations and clear from language mistakes that prevent thinking.