INVESTIGATION OF INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE ELEMENTS IN TURKISH COURSEBOOKS AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

When the historical background of Turkish is examined, it is known that the history of oral language dates back to the periods before Christ, and the written language history dates back to the 7th century (Çoyr/ Çoyren Inscription). Such a large historical process has allowed Turkish to enrich in terms of culture. This situation affects Turkish teaching as a foreign language, especially in the mother tongue. Because culture transfer, which is one of the important functions of language, is also effective in the language teaching process. One dimension of cultural transmission, is the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) elements. The aim of this study is to examine the intangible cultural heritage elements in Turkish coursebooks as a foreign language. In this study, document analysis was applied within the framework of qualitative research method. The study documents are prepared by Gazi University Turkish Language Learning, Research and Application Center. A1, A2, B1, B2 and C1 are the coursebooks for foreigners. The documents were analyzed by descriptive analysis technique. In all of the coursebooks examined, it was determined that ICH elements were included, but considering the number of reading texts, the ratio of ICH elements in all books was 20%. When the levels of the coursebooks are taken into consideration, 9 items are determined at the basic level (A1-A2), 10 levels at the intermediate level (B1-B2) and 7 at the advanced level (C1). From this point of view, it can be said that there is no obvious differentiation according to the levels of coursebooks in the number of ICH items. Only 13 of the 38 ICH sub- items were included in the Turkish coursebooks as a foreign language. According to the results, it is suggested that ICH elements should be included more in reading texts in Turkish coursebooks for foreigners.

Keywords

Intangible cultural heritage, Cultural heritage, Teaching Turkish as a foreign language, Course book, Document analysis.