Investigation into the Vocabulary and their Origin of the Poems in the 3rd Grade Turkish Textbooks and Workbooks

Abstract

A good Turkish education is necessary in order to raise generations who can use their language correctly and effectively. This education is usually given from the Turkish textbooks of the Ministry of National Education, which are used in schools and considered as the primary source. However, the adequacy and comprehensiveness of the number of Turkish words in the textbooks is a controversial issue. In this study, it is aimed to determine the number of letters, syllables, words and different words in the poems calibrated in Turkish 3rd Grade Textbooks and workbooks by Private Publication (PP) and the Turkish 3rd Grade textbooks and workbooks prepared by Ministry of National Education Publications (MoNE) via using the document review method, which is one of the qualitative research methods, and to find the origins of the words in the poems. According to the findings obtained in the study, there are total of 719 words, 606 different words, 1770 syllables and 4278 letters in total in 13 poems in PP Turkish 3 coursebooks. 78.84% of these words are Turkish, 21.16% of which are words of foreign origin. There are 789 words, 649 different words, 1876 syllables and 4551 letters in total in 14 poems in MoNE1 Turkish 3 coursebooks. It is seen that 71.82% of these words are Turkish and 28.18% are foreign words. There are 281 words, 231 different words, 684 syllables and 1662 letters in total in 7 poems in MoNE2 Turkish 3 workbooks. It is seen that 78.76% of these words are Turkish and 21.24% are foreign words. It is assumed that the results of the research will give ideas to review the textbooks and to develop different techniques in vocabulary teaching.