Examining the Fourth Grade Turkish Textbook and Classroom Teachers’ In-class Practices in Vocabulary Teaching

Abstract

This study was conducted to identify the activities aimed at improving vocabulary included in the fourth grade Turkish course and textbook, the opinions of classroom teachers in this regard, the strategies, practices and activities they used for this purpose, and the time they spent on this in the teaching-learning process. The research was carried out as a case study, one of the qualitative research designs. In the data collection process of this study, an activity identification table was used for examining the Turkish textbook, a structured observation form was used for classroom observations, and a semi-structured interview form was used for interviews with the participants. Descriptive analysis and content analysis techniques were used for data analysis. As a result of the study, it was determined that the distribution of activities in the textbook, which is acknowledged as one of the important tools for supporting the development of vocabulary, varied depending on basic language skills. It was concluded that in the Turkish course teaching process, teachers included 14 different activities related to vocabulary instruction, using 19 different methods, techniques and strategies, in line with the textbook. The results obtained from the observations and interviews revealed that teachers did not have adequate knowledge about the methods, techniques and strategies that they used to improve vocabulary, and that therefore, they were unable to appropriately use the implementation steps required for the strategies.