Abstract:

It is a known fact that only language knowledge, translation and word-oriented approaches in foreign language teaching do not respond to the needs of students. Contemporary approaches aim to improve students’ communication skills. The European Joint Recommendations Framework for Languages, which is the main source of application for language teaching in Europe, claims that language functions based on real-life communication conditions should be taught rather than predefined language structures. Students must be taught on the basis of language functions in order to gain communication ability. In this context, foreign language students need curricula based on their language functions to be able to use their target language effectively. Foreign language teaching is usually carried out with the courses and the inclusion of different language functions in these books will prepare the ground for the student to communicate in the target language. In this context, the situation of placing the language functions in the curriculum in the field of Turkish teaching as a foreign language is facing us as an important research topic. In this study, the purpose of the Yunus Emre Institute is to study the reading texts in the "Turkish I Learn" curriculum, prepared for teaching children Turkish as a foreign language, in terms of language functions. In this research in the quality model, the method of document analysis was used. The "Turkish I Learn Curriculum 1, 2 and 3", prepared by Yunus Emre Institute, is the subject of the study. The data is collected according to the levels of quality content analysis; the language functions in the book are numerically presented and analyzed by achieving the codes, categories and themes. In the framework of language functions, the classbook set has six themes, twenty-nine categories and ninety-seven codes. The results achieved in the study can be summarized as follows: (i) The principle of graduality in the textbook set is weak in terms of language functions. (ii) Reading texts mostly carry the function of research and expression of information. (iii) the function of provision and compensation of communication has been neglected.

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