An Investigation of the Textbooks Used in Teaching Turkish to Foreigners with the Dimension of Instructional Design - Yeni Hitit, Yedi Iklim and Yeni Istanbul Examples

Oct 15, 2026

The study examines course materials for teaching Turkish to foreigners and identifies a lack of holistic consistency in instructional design across key dimensions. Using a qualitative case study, each textbook is treated as a document and analyzed through document analysis supported by an expert-informed evaluation form. The comparative review focuses on how grammar is handled, how vocabulary strategies are structured, the extent of cultural dimensions, assessment perspectives, and instructional language, revealing findings through content analysis.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages29

Reading Time1 h 13 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Turkish language teaching centers (TÖMER) and teaching context

Textbooks/teaching sets as core instructional materials

Conceptual framework: design, cognition, and textbook roles

Definitions of textbook quality and visual/formal considerations

An Investigation of the Textbooks Used in Teaching Turkish to Foreigners with the Dimension of Instructional Design: Yeni Hitit, Yedi Iklim and Yeni Istanbul Examples Hüseyin GÖÇMENLER1 Hacettepe University Abstract When the course materials prepared in the field of teaching Turkish to foreigners are carefully examined, there is no holistic consistency regarding the instructional design. Dimensions such as theme and unit starters, to what extent and how grammar is handled, to what extent and with what kind of design skills are included, what kind of strategy is followed in terms of vocabulary teaching, to what extent and with what road map cultural dimensions are included, what kind of perspective is taken on assessment and evaluation, instructional language, theme naming and sequencing are very important in terms of the instructional design of textbooks. In this study, the above-mentioned dimensions were analyzed comparatively in Yedi Iklim, Yeni Hitit and Yeni Istanbul textbooks. The study was based on a case study from qualitative research methods. Each textbook was accepted as a document and data were collected through document analysis. Inspired by McGrath's (2002) study, areview form was developed to examine the pedagogical design of textbooks. In this context, the researcher collected the data through document analysis by creating an evaluation form titled"Examination of Teaching Turkish to Foreigners Textbooks in terms of Pedagogical (instructional) Design" by taking expert opinion and revealed the findings through content analysis. Keywords: teaching Turkish to foreigners, textbook review, instructional design DOI: 10.29329/epasr.2023 .600.23 Submitted: 22 June 2023 Accepted: 01 September 2023 Published: 30 September 2023 1Dr., Turkish and Foreign Language Teaching, Application and Resaerch Center, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey ORCID: 0000-0003-2904-0383 [Correspondence](Correspondence: huseyingocmenler10@gmail.com)[: huseyingocmenler10@gmail.com](Correspondence: huseyingocmenler10@gmail.com) Introduction There have been significant advances and developments in the teaching of Turkish to foreigners in recent years. One of these developments is the opening of Turkish Language Learning Centers (TÖMER) in almost every university with the increasing number of international students. Turkish is used by millions of people as a second language or general foreign language. In addition to institutional Turkish teaching centers like those of the Ministry of National Education of Turkey, the Yunus Emre Institute, and centers operating under the umbrella of various universities that teach Turkish at home and abroad, private corporations also operate in this field (Nurlu, 2019) . While the growth in the institutional dimension and the increase in the number of instructors are considered as important developments, many course materials are being prepared in the field of teaching Turkish to foreigners. The most important of these are textbooks/teaching sets. The textbooks/sets fill an important gap in the field. However, studies conducted in the field in terms of quality reveal that there are significant problems and deficiencies. In this study, the sets used in teaching Turkish to foreigners were analyzed. When the literature is examined, there are many textbook review studies. The most important point that distinguishes this study from other studies is the examination of the instructional design, also known as pedagogical design, of the textbooks. The term design should not only refer to formal design elements, image selection and quality, typesetting and page dimensions. The design dimension focused on in the research is more on how the cognitive load in the teaching and learning process is programmed and presented in the textbook. In order to evaluate this design comprehensively, the place of textbooks in the teaching process must first be understood correctly. In this respect, Bamberger’s (1975,

FAQs

What instructional-design dimensions does the study compare across the textbooks?

It compares theme and unit starters, how grammar is handled, the vocabulary teaching strategy and roadmap, the inclusion of cultural dimensions, assessment and evaluation perspectives, instructional language, and theme naming and sequencing.

What research method and data collection approach is used?

The study uses a qualitative case study. Each textbook is treated as a document, and data are collected through document analysis using an evaluation form developed from expert opinion and McGrath’s (2002) approach.

Which textbooks are analyzed in the study?

The study comparatively analyzes Yedi Iklim, Yeni Hitit, and Yeni Istanbul textbooks, focusing on their pedagogical (instructional) design.

Oct 15, 2026

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