Which Cultural Aspects do the Textbooks of Teaching Turkish to Foreigners Transfer? - Article - Cultural Transfer Analysis

Oct 15, 2026

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Foreign language teaching aims not only to develop language skills but also to transfer the culture of the target language community. This study examines the place and importance of Turkish teaching textbooks used for foreigners and identifies which cultural items they convey. A1–A2 level textbooks from the Gazi Foreigners Turkish teaching set are analyzed through document analysis across daily life, interpersonal relations, values and education, literature-arts, traditions and folklore, social life, geography, and foreign cultural elements.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages7

Reading Time18 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Language and culture as inseparable concepts

Intercultural and multicultural perspectives

Cultural Elements and Analysis

Cultural elements framework (daily life, relations, values, arts, traditions)

Findings on distribution of cultural elements

Conclusion

Advances in Language and Literary Studies ISSN: 2203-4714 [www.alls.aiac.org.au](www.alls.aiac.org.au) | Which Cultural Aspects do the Textbooks of Teaching Turkish to Foreigners Transfer?
Sami BASKIN
University of Gaziosmapasa, TaşlıçiftlikKampüsü Tokat, Turkey
Corresponding Author: Sami BASKIN, E-mail: [samibaskin@gmail.com](samibaskin@gmail.com) | | | --- | --- | | ARTICLE INFO
Article history
Received: December 28, 2017
Accepted: March 11, 2018
Published: April 30, 2018
Volume: 9 Issue: 2
Advance access: March 2018 Conflicts of interest: None
Funding: None | ABSTRACT
Teaching a foreign language aims at not only teaching the language and language skills, but transferring the culture of the target language. The main reason for that is people learn the target language as a standby in addition to learning the language. It is important that the more individuals learn the cultural features of the country the more they understand the language better. It is an undeniable fact that language and culture are inseparable parts, so culture should be learned simultaneously while learning that language. Because of that relationship between language and culture, language teaching also means teaching culture. Foreign language textbooks reflect the characteristics of the language-speaking community and make it a cultural product of that language.
This study is to identify the place and importance of the textbooks used in teaching Turkish to foreigners in the target language teaching and to research which cultural items these books convey. | | Thus, A1-A2 level textbooks of the Turkish teaching set for Gazi Foreigners were selected as a
Key words: sample and done document analysis to identify what these sources include in terms of“daily life,
Cultural Element, interpersonal relations, values and education, literature-arts and music, traditions and folklore,
Cultural Transfer, social life, geography and space, foreign (universal) cultural elements”. It was observed that the
Teaching Turkish as a foreign language, elements of Turkish culture concentrated on the relation between daily life and interpersonal Textbooks
relations, and there was no balanced distribution among other cultural elements. Therefore, these books need to be reviewed so that they can raise cultural awareness of the students. | | INTRODUCTION Humanity has not lived alone up now; has lived as a society. He created culture as a member of a group called society. The most important role in transferring this culture to generations that have come after themselves is communication in the process of creating culture. Communication and culture are closely related issues in foreign language teaching. Especially nowadays, through the foreign language textbooks which are one of the most important means of transferring culture, communication skills are developed by creating intercultural awareness on students. As the phenomenon of intercultural and multiculturalism began to take place in language teaching programs with the influence of European Common Language Criteria, the concept of culture has attracted attention especially in the field of foreign language teaching. One should know the culture of the language they are learning to meet the European Common Language Criteria. In addition, individuals are faced with a culture other than their own cultures and realize the other cultures around them. They can also develop different perspectives on their own cultures by recognizing and comparing these two cultures (İşci, 2012: 33) . Kongar (1999: 19) describes culture as the whole created by human beings in addition to the things that nature or god creates. According to this view, all kinds of tools, machinery, clothing, beliefs, values, attitudes are elements of a culture. According to Peck (1998) culture is the total amount of the accepted and regulated behavior of individuals. By this definition, culture can be regarded

FAQs

What is the main purpose of teaching a foreign language according to the article?

To develop language and language skills while also transferring the culture of the target language community, since language and culture are inseparable.

What textbooks and level are selected for the study?

A1–A2 level Turkish teaching textbooks from the Gazi Foreigners Turkish teaching set are selected for analysis.

Which cultural elements does the study use to analyze the textbooks?

The analysis covers daily life, interpersonal relations, values and education, literature-arts and music, traditions and folklore, social life, geography and space, and foreign (universal) cultural elements.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Cipher