Investigation of coursebooks for teaching Turkish as a foreign language to children prepared by the Turkish Maarif Foundation in terms of cultural interaction: Secondary school example

As a result of the widespread use of Turkey's cultural and eeducational diplomacy activities in recent years, the number of individuals from all age groups who want to learn Turkish has increased. In studies examining the teaching of Turkish as a foreign language, it is seen that studies in the field of teaching Turkish as a foreign language to children are extremely limited. In teaching language to children, culture should be taught as a skill in addition to the four basic language skills and grammar rules. Textbooks are among the most easily accessible and mostly used materials in the process of teaching Turkish as a foreign language to children. It is also an important issue how cultural elements are presented as well as visuals and activities prepared to teach the four basic language skills in textbooks. For this reason, the subject of this research was determined as determining the cultural interaction elements in the Maarif Turkish Secondary School A1-A2.1 textbooks used in teaching Turkish as a foreign language to children. In this study, qualitative research method was used and visual and verbal cultural elements in the textbooks were identified using the document analysis technique. Visual and verbal cultural elements in the textbooks were identified and evaluated using a scale consisting of seven main headings and sub-items. As a result of the review, there are 178 visual cultural elements and 276 verbal cultural elements in the A1 level textbook; In the A2.1 textbook, 134 visual cultural elements and 290 verbal cultural elements were identified. When the way of presenting cultural elements is evaluated, it is seen that both elements of Turkish culture and elements of source cultures are given in the book. Keywords: Teaching Turkish to Children as a Foreign Language, Cultural interaction, review, Maarif Turkish Teaching Set, Coursebook.