The importance of educational games in teaching Turkish to foreigners

Revealing and developing the abilities existing in the student is one of the most important functions of education. In the traditional education system, teachers have applied teacher-centered methods and techniques that do not actively involve the student in the process during teaching. Nowadays, in the education and training of our age, many new techniques and methods that take the student to the center and involve them in the lesson have started to be used. Foreign language teaching can only take place effectively when student-centered methods and techniques are used. According to recent research, it is stated that effective language teaching should be far from being boring. In order to achieve this, the student's interests, wishes and expectations must be taken into account. Because language learning requires a long-term effort. The inclusion of game in this long-term process that requires effort has been discussed in educational environment for some time. Educators think that the game takes the student and teacher away from the traditional learning environment and saves the teaching from the usual, boring rule chain and generalizations. In this study, the attitudes of international students studying at TÖMER and instructors teaching Turkish to foreigners at TÖMER on the effectiveness of using games for learning Turkish in teaching Turkish were examined. For this, a questionnaire with 25 items was applied. Participants are international students studying at Tokat Gaziosmanpaşa University and Karabük University TÖMER and instructors who teach Turkish to foreigners at TÖMER. This research tries to determine the willingness, attitudes and problems of international students studying at TÖMER and instructors teaching Turkish to foreigners in TÖMER towards teaching with games and the problems they encounter while applying games in the lesson and the effect of using games on reaching the target language according to the instructors and students, and games that will meet the needs of teachers and students have been designed. New game activities to be presented as a theoretical study and / or different uses of existing game activities; It will help to create learning processes that will attract and encourage learners, to prepare different textbooks or supplementary resources for learners, and to achieve more successful results in teaching Turkish as a foreign language. This study is a descriptive study that investigates students' and lecturers' willingness towards educational games to learn and teach Turkish as a foreign language, their attitudes towards their effectiveness, the problems they encounter while applying, and trying to find ways to improve and consolidate students' knowledge. In line with this purpose, quantitative data collection tools were used. Questionnaire technique was used to obtain data in the study. The research application was carried out on international students studying at Tokat Gaziosmanpaşa University and Karabük University TÖMER and instructors teaching Turkish as a foreign language. At the end of the study, it was concluded that instructors and students were willing to use games in Turkish classes as a foreign language. In addition, it was determined that in teaching Turkish as a foreign language, games facilitated the learning of instructors and students, the knowledge was permanent, students enjoyed this method, and participated in the lessons with love and willingness. Most of the instructors who participated in the survey stated that there is a lack of material for language games in the textbooks and that the students are embarrassed to speak Turkish while playing. Most of the students stated that they did not use language games in lessons.