African Educational Research Journal - Comparative Analysis of Writing Skills Activities in Japanese and Turkish Textbooks - Full Length Research Paper

Oct 15, 2026

Writing is a key language skill linked to expressing feelings, thoughts, and dreams, and it increasingly operates beyond paper due to technology in education. Informed by PISA reading literacy outcomes, this study comparatively examines writing-skill activities in Turkish textbooks (grades 5-8) and Japanese textbooks (grades 7-9) using a qualitative case study design. Turkish textbooks show 20% (f=267) writing activities, while Japanese textbooks show 11% (f=36).

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African Educational Research Journal Vol. 10(4), pp. 410-418, November 2022 DOI: 10. 30918/AERJ.104.22.060 ISSN: 2354-2160 Full Length Research Paper A study on the comparative analysis of writing skills activities in Japanese and Turkish textbooks\# Özge Karakaş Yıldırım1* and Mehmet Özdemir2 1 Department of Social Sciences and Turkish Education, Faculty of Education, Afyon Kocatepe University, Turkey. 2 Department of Social Sciences and Turkish Education, Faculty of Education, Sakarya University, Turkey. Accepted 27 October, 2022 | ABSTRACT
Writing is the result of our desire to express our feelings, thoughts, dreams, and ourselves. In today's education, with the penetration of technology into our lives, what we express not only on paper but also on the screen is within the scope of writing skills. Writing is a language skill that requires high-level mental skills such as producing a new product, questioning, evaluating, and analyzing-synthesizing. A country's reading literacy success in PISA provides information about that country's native language education policy. Therefore, depending on the reading literacy learning outcome of Turkey and Japan in PISA and since writing is the last language skill to be acquired, it was aimed to comparatively examine the activities on writing skills in Turkish textbooks (fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grades) and the writing activities in the (seventh, eighth, and ninth grades) Japanese textbooks to reveal similarities and differences in these textbooks. Case study method one of the qualitative research methods was used in this study , and it was carried out with the limitation of writing skills in Turkish textbooks published in 2018 and Japanese textbooks published in 2015 and 2016. It was seen that writing activities in Turkish textbooks have a ratio of 20%(f = 267) , and writing activities in Japanese textbooks have an 11%(f = 36) ratio. Although there are too many repetitive activities in Turkish textbooks, it has been observed that some of the learning outcomes were not exemplified by any activity. On the contrary, content for writing skills, which was addressed with more general expressions, was reflected in every activity in Japanese textbooks.
Keywords: Language education, curriculum, PISA, textbooks, learning outcomes. | | --- | | *Corresponding author. E-mail: [ozgekarakas@aku.edu.tr](ozgekarakas@aku.edu.tr).
\#This study is an extended version of our paper presented at the 3rd International Conference on Innovative Studies of Contemporary Sciences. | INTRODUCTION Language is the only tool that enables us to understand and to be understood. People are social beings living in asocial environment. For this reason, they need a communication tool to survive and socialize in this social environment. Effective communication requires the effective, efficient, and correct use of this tool (Doğan, 2012; Coşkun, 2014) . This tool is language, and through language, we understand what is happening around us and express ourselves in the best way. We can transfer our feelings and thoughts in various ways. Language is the most frequently preferred way to express oneself. Without language, it is impossible to communicate and survive in society. Language, which has a significant place in processes such as communicating, expressing feelings and thoughts, interacting, integrating with the outside world, and transferring culture, contains the skills that enable us to maintain our lives and existence in society (Güneş, 2011) . The individual's communicative competence is related to the interconnected development of these skills because the improvement of one skill affects the improvement of the other skills (Mert, 2014) . These skills are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Listening and speaking are necessary actions in daily life. Although reading and writing are part of formal education, they have become a part of daily life, just like listening and speakin

FAQs

What was the study’s main purpose?

To comparatively examine writing-skill activities in Turkish and Japanese textbooks and identify similarities and differences.

Which textbooks and grade levels were included?

Turkish textbooks for grades 5-8 (published in 2018) and Japanese textbooks for grades 7-9 (published in 2015 and 2016).

What comparison results were reported for writing activities?

Turkish textbooks had a higher ratio of writing activities (20%, f=267) than Japanese textbooks (11%, f=36).

Oct 15, 2026

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