Readability of primary school 3rd grade Turkish and Social Studies text-books

Authors : Özlem Kurtoğlu Zorlu

Pages : 807-813

Doi:10.24289/ijsser.279158

View : 12 | Download : 7

Publication Date : 2015-07-01

Article Type : Conference Paper

Abstract :Textbooks are among the most commonly used educational tools. Therefore, texts in textbooks should ease learning, be readable and comprehensible. Readability can be simply defined as the level of a text’s easiness/difficulty for its reader.  Some significant studies on the readability of Turkish textbooks are Zorbaz insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(2007);, Okur and Arı insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(2013);, Bağcı and Ünal insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(2013); and Baş and İnan-Yıldız insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(2015);. Studies on other textbooks include Kurnaz and Erdem insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(2012); insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(a study on language and expression textbooks);, Köse insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(2009); insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(on biology textbooks); and Geçit insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(2010); insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(on social studies textbooks);. The results of them reveal that some texts are not appropriate for students’ educational levels and the level of difficulty varies according to text type. The aim of this study is to determine the readability levels of texts in primary school 3 rd grade Turkish and Social Studies textbooks that are accepted to be used in 2015-2016 school year. The formula adapted to Turkish by Ateşman insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(1997); is used in this study. Only prose is analyzed and poetry is left out of the scope. The results show that the readability levels of both textbooks that are analyzed are easy. However, texts are not given in an order from easy to difficult.
Keywords : Readability, Turkish textbooks, Social Studies textbooks