Evaluation of the textbooks used in teaching Turkish as a second language in terms of learner autonomy

This study aims to show whether textbooks used in teaching Turkish as a second language encourage learner autonomy or not. In this context, it has been investigated whether the principles of learner autonomy are applied in textbooks used in teaching Turkish as a foreign language. That is ,this study is designed in to order to find out if, and if so, how textbooks provide information and practice in the areas of whether textbooks materials give students opportunities to make their own choices about and how to learn within the book, whether there is a focus for learning styles and strategies and whether there are opportunities for awareness building about these topics. The aspect of the data analysis of the study was course book evaluation. Although various approaches to research are available for researchers to design the most effective research models that cater for their needs, this study was conducted using fenomenolgy method, which is within qualitative research paradigm. This study is about the evaluation of textbooks in used in teaching Turkish as a second language in terms of learner autonomy by using a framework. However, analyzing all of them wouldn't be possible, so most common used textbooks Ankara Üniversitesi Yabancılar için Türkçe Yeni Hitit, İstanbul Yabancılar İçin Türkçe Ders Kitabı ve Yunus Emre Enstitüsü Yedi İklim Türkçe were chosen as sample. In order to be able to get reliable information and compare the books, the books for the same levels namely A1/basic level were chosen as subject. It is important to evaluate the texbooks books used teaching Turkish as a foreign language in terms of learner autonomy. Although many teaching methods are being used, textbooks are seen as the main sources both by centers teaching Turkish and by students learning Turkish individually. In recent years, autonomy has become one of the most disputed and popular subject as access to information has been facilitated and our learning perspective has changed. On the other hand, the importance of learner autonomy in textbooks is far from being discussed. Although there are many studies on learner autonomy, the role of textbooks has been ignored in these studies. In this study, the books chosen were evaluated with a framework developed by Reinders (2010). This framework includes eight stages supporting each other. The selected books were evaluated in detail considering all the stages. A distinction was made between the cases where the books provided information about self-directed learning and where they provided opportunities to put them into practice. As a result of the detailed content analysis, it was concluded that these three books did not adequately contain any of these eight stages supporting learner autonomy. These results verify that teachers should be more careful while choosing a book for the lesson and the textbook writer shouldn't ignore the term "autonomy" in their books. This study suggests a set of guidelines about the incorporation of the principles of learner autonomy for writing and using textbooks. Key Words: Teaching Turkish as a second language, Coursebook Evaluation, Fenomenology, Learner autonomy, Language textbooks.