Aspects of Mediation Embodied in the Productive Skills in Turkish Course Books for Foreigners

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate how speaking and writing activities in Turkish coursebooks, used at TÖMER of a state university in Türkiye, align with the mediation outcomes calibrated in the CEFR. To address this objective, a qualitative document analysis was conducted by scrutinizing the set of six Turkish coursebooks that correspond to CEFR levels A1 to C1. Each task in these coursebooks was analyzed by categorizing its mediative depth—such as mediating a text, mediating concept, and mediating communication. This categorization was carried out through iterative coding cycles, accompanied by peer debriefing to ensure reliability and validity. Findings reveal that speaking exercises and activities frequently integrate mediative functions. These include prompting learners to paraphrase peer contributions, clarify nuances, and negotiate interpretations. In contrast, writing tasks mainly focus on content production and linguistic accuracy. They offer limited structured opportunities for mediation, except in advanced modules that incorporate peer feedback and text summarization. This imbalance highlights a gap in instructional design. Curricula and materials appear to lack systematically embed mediative writing activities in order to foster comprehensive communicative competence. This will less prepare learners with crucial intercultural and information-management skills essential for the twenty-first century. The discrepancy between mediation in speaking and writing tasks further denotes the need for intentional design of curriculum and instructional materials. Findings reveal the importance of writing activities to involve collaborative text co-construction, purposeful summarization, and context-sensitive adaptations. Curriculum developers and textbook authors are encouraged to utilize CEFR mediation scales in order to design more balanced syllabi. Additionally, further research into Turkish as a Foreign Language (TFL) instructional materials is thought to contribute to the field since these support learners in acquiring vital 21st-century skills in intercultural communication and information management.

Keywords

• Teaching Turkish as a foreign language
• CEFR
• Mediation
• Writing
• Speaking

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