Investigation of Pre-Service Turkish Language Teachers’ Levels of Perception of Values Presented in Resource Works of Turkish

Abstract

The first Turkish manuscript where the name of Turk is mentioned is Orkhon Inscriptions and the first great work of Islam Turkish literature is Kutadgu Bilig. These works serve as a resource of Turkish language and are of great importance for Turkish culture and civilization. These works can be defined as the corner stones of our literature and history as they reflect Turkish culture, history and the linguistic and societal characteristics of the period when they were written. The purpose of the current study is to determine the pre-service Turkish language teachers’ levels of perception of the values included in Orkhon Inscriptions and Kutadgu Bilig serving as resource works of Turkish language and to draw attention to the fact that these works can contribute to not only the vocabulary repertoire of the students but also to their training about national and universal values. The study group of the current research is comprised of 94 first and fourth year students from the Department of Turkish Language Teaching at the Education Faculty of Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University in 2014-2015 academic year. The sections thought to be suitable for value transfer were selected from Orkhon Inscriptions and Kutadgu Bilig by the researchers with the help of expert opinions. Then the pre-service teachers were asked to analyze the selected sections and detect the values presented in these sections. The collected data were subjected to statistical analyses. In light of the findings of the study, some suggestions were made.