A Comparative Study on Polar Questions in Turkish and English: Realizing the Dichotomy While Teaching

Abstract

One of the common instruments in daily communication, questions are categorized into three major groups in most of the languages: polar questions, wh- questions, and alternative questions. When it is considered that the main purpose of teaching and learning a language is to communicate, it is expected for language learners to acquire good skills in exchanging information by asking and answering questions. In this context, polar questions should be paid close attention, as several studies revealed that the most frequently used question type in English spoken language is polar questions. However, it is argued that different answering systems for polar questions across languages cause language learners to have difficulties in learning how to answer polar questions appropriately, specifically, negative polar questions. Turkish and English languages employ different answering systems. Accordingly, Turkish learners of English must be aware of the differences and raise awareness on the issue to become proficient in the target language. Therefore, this study aims to explore the nature of the national coursebooks of English used in Turkey in terms of the activities they include related to polar questions. Contents of the coursebooks designed for the grades 5, 6, 7, and 8 were descriptively analyzed. As a result, it was found that the coursebooks do not sufficiently practice negative polar questions for learners to raise awareness. Based on the results, certain suggestions were proposed to enhance the quality of the coursebooks on the current topic.

Keywords

• polar questions,negative polar questions,teaching polar questions

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