Problems encountered in teaching Turkish in regions where Turkish is not spoken as a mother tongue and solution proposals based on the Delphi tecnique

This study aims to provide an in-depth examination of the challenges faced by primary school teachers in teaching Turkish in regions where it is not spoken as a mother tongue and to develop expert-based solutions to address these challenges. Adopting an explanatory mixed methods design, which integrates both qualitative and quantitative approaches, the research employed criterion sampling, a purposive sampling method, to select participants. In the first phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten primary school teachers working in the field, and the data obtained were analyzed through descriptive analysis, resulting in the identification of eight main problem themes. In the second phase, the Delphi technique was implemented with seven experts holding a doctoral degree in primary education and possessing academic experience in Turkish language teaching. During the first round, experts proposed solutions to the identified problems, which were subsequently evaluated in the second and third rounds using a 7-point Likert-type questionnaire to determine the level of consensus among the participants. By establishing a structured link between the problems reported by teachers and the solutions proposed by experts, the study presents applicable, holistic, and practice-oriented recommendations for teaching Turkish in bilingual contexts.