Turkey’s Primary English-as-a-foreign Language (EFL) Coursebooks: An Investigation of Emergent Literacy Tasks

Öz

Turkey’s most recent primary English language curriculum, which highlights oral skills, mandates communicative English language teaching to young English language learners. Recent primary English curriculum comprises two hours per week of English-as-a-foreign language (EFL) instruction to include listening and speaking only for Grade 2 and very limited reading and writing for Grade 3 onward. While communicative skills are highly emphasized, literacy skills are kept on the back burner as reading and writing are incorporated gradually with minimal reading and writing at earlier grade levels and some literacy practices at upper grade levels. Successful emergent literacy development in English highly depends on young language learners’ phonological (e.g. alliteration, rhyme), phonemic (i.e. sound manipulation), and orthographic awareness (i.e. spelling conventions) in English. The present study investigates to what extent Turkey’s locally-designed primary EFL coursebooks—used in 2018-2021 academic period—cater to the early literacy needs of young learners at grades two, three, and four. The study explores early literacy content in coursebooks in a mixed-methods design: qualitatively with the descriptive content analysis and quantitatively with the frequency of early literacy constructs. The results of those analyses reveal primary English coursebooks do not promote a linguistically sound and pedagogically appropriate integration of literacy skills according to principles of second language (L2) literacy acquisition at primary levels. Turkey’s misaligned early English literacy curriculum, in its current state, sends alarming messages to foreign language policy-makers, material designers, and EFL educators.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Primary English
• English-as-a-foreign language
• EFL coursebook
• Emergent literacy
• Phonics
• Phonological and phonemic awareness
• Teaching English to young learners.

Türkiye’de İlkokul İngilizce Kitapları: Filizlenen Okuryazarlık Çalışmalarının İncelenmesi

Öz

Sözlü iletişim becerilerini ön planda tutan Türkiye’nin en yeni İngilizce öğretim müfredatı erken yaş İngilizcenin iletişime yönelik öğretilmesini öngörmektedir. İlkokul İngilizce programı haftada iki saatlik İngilizce saatlerinde 2. Sınıflar için dinleme ve konuşma ve 3. Sınıftan itibaren limitli miktarda okuma ve yazma çalışmalarından oluşmuştur. Sözlü iletişim becerileri vurgulanırken okuryazarlık becerileri ilkokulun alt düzeylerinde okuma ve yazmanın minimal düzeyde ve aşamalı olarak entegrasyonu ve üst kademelerde okuryazarlık pekiştirilmesi şeklinde arka plana alınmıştır. Başarılı bir İngilizce filizlenen okuryazarlık geliştirme erken yaş öğrenenlerin o dilde fonolojik (örn., aliterasyon, uyak), fonemik (örn., ses manipülasyonu), ve ortografik farkındalıklarına (örn., imla kuralları) bağlıdır. Mevcut çalışma Türkiye’nin yerel bağlamda oluşturmuş olduğu ve 2018-2021 akademik dönemlerinde okutulmuş İngilizce ders kitaplarının 2., 3., ve 4. Sınıflardaki erken yaş yabancı dil öğrenenlerin İngilizce okuryazarlık ihtiyaçlarına ne derece cevap verebildiğini incelemektedir. Çalışma ilkokul İngilizce ders kitaplarındaki erken yaş okuryazarlık farkındalığı içeriğini içerik analizine bağlı nitel ve betimleyici istatistiksel işlemleri içeren nicel analizlerle karma araştırma yöntemiyle incelemiştir. Analiz sonuçları incelenen ilkokul İngilizce kitaplarının dilbilimsel olarak ve pedagojik açıdan ikinci dil edinimi ve yabancı dil olarak İngilizce’de okuryazarlık geliştirilmesini sağlayamamaktadır. Türkiye’nin yanlış ayarlanmış erken yaş İngilizce okuryazarlık programı, hâlihazırdaki durumuyla, yabancı dil politikacılarına, materyal tasarımcılarına ve İngilizce öğretmenlerine ikaz mesajları iletmektedir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• İlkokulda İngilizce
• Yabancıdilolarakİngilizce
• İngilizcederskitabı
• Filizlenenokuryazarlık
• Ses-temelliyabancıdilöğretimi
• Fonolojikvefonemikfarkındalık
• Çocuklaraİngilizceöğretimi.

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