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Can Local Coursebooks in Turkey be an Alternative to their Global Counterparts for the Teaching of Speaking?

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) seeks mutually comprehensible social interaction in spoken discourse. To serve this purpose, coursebooks undoubtedly play a key role as to how speaking practice takes place. In Turkey, local coursebooks are prescribed by the Ministry of National Education (MoNE); however, many practitioners seem to opt for the international alternatives. Considering the debate over qualitative adequacy, the current study compares two coursebooks in terms of the ground given to speaking skills. The method involves two 9th grade English language coursebooks, Teenwise (local) and Talent 1 (international), being analysed via Taxonomy for Identification of Coursebook Speaking Activities (TICSA). Findings indicate that the international coursebook allocates slightly more space to speaking than the local book. TICSAwise, the local coursebook is two times more structural than the international coursebook. Whilst half the local coursebook is classified as quasi-communicative, the international one demonstrates an increase for these activities. Although both books ignore social interaction, the international coursebook has an edge over the local one in functional communication. These findings suggest that the local coursebook falls behind of the international counterpart for the teaching of speaking. Consequently, the adoption of a genuinely communicative mindset is discussed when developing language teaching materials so as to catch up with global publications and meet the pedagogical demands of CLT.

Türkiye’deki Yerel Ders Kitapları Konuşma Becerisinin Öğretilmesinde Küresel Emsallerine Bir Alternatif Olabilir Mi?

CLT sözlü söylemde karşılıklı anlaşılabilir sosyal etkileşimin peşindedir. Bu amaca hizmet etmek için, konuşma becerisi uygulamalarına fırsat sağlamada ders kitapları önemli bir rol oynar. Türkiye’de kullanılacak yerel ders kitapları Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı’nca bildirilir, mamafih görünen odur ki birçok öğretmen uluslararası alternatiflere yönelmektedir. Bahsi geçen niteliksel yeterlik tartışmasına istinaden, bu çalışma iki ders kitabını konuşma becerilerinin geliştirilmesine sağladıkları yer bakımından karşılaştırmadır. Yöntem Teenwise (yerel) ve Talent 1 (uluslararası) iki 9. sınıf İngilizce ders kitabının Taxonomy for Identification of Coursebook Speaking Activities (TICSA) dâhilinde incelenmesini içerir. Sonuçlar uluslararası kitabın konuşma becerilerine yerel kitaptan biraz daha fazla yer verdiğini işaret etmektedir. TICSA bazında, yerel ders kitabı uluslararası ders kitabından iki kat daha fazla ‘yapısaldır’. ‘Yarı iletişimsel’ aktiveteler yerel ders kitabının yarısını kaplarken, uluslararası ders kitabında bir artış göstermektedir. ‘Sosyal etkileşim’ iki kitapta da göz ardı edilmesine karşın, uluslararası kitap ‘işlevsel iletişim’ aktivitelerinde yerel ders kitabının önüne geçmektedir. Bu bulgular yerel kitabının konuşma becerilerinin öğretiminde uluslararası muadilinin gerisinde kaldığını önermektedir. Sonuç olarak, küresel yayınları yakalamak ve CLT’nin eğitsel gereklerini karşılamak amacıyla yabancı dil öğretimi materyallerini geliştirirken gerçek bir iletişimsel anlayışın benimsenmesi gerektiği tartışılmaktadır.

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