Abstract:

Abstract The aim of this research is to determine the level of 8th grade students' ability to use correctly the most commonly used punctuationmarks.. The research is aimed at presenting detailed results on the usage of seven punctuation marks(full stop, colon, triple dot, semi colon, comma, question mark, exclamation mark). The research is limited to 208 8th grade students attending a school in Aksaray in 2011-2012 academic year, seven punctuation marks and 20 rules concerning these seven punctuation. In this research, screening method was used. Four different tests were applied to determine the success level of 8th grade students' ability to use punctuation. The data gathered from this research was analyzed with descriptive statistics and independent tests by using SPSS 15.0. According to the results of those four different tests, the test that students succeed most is multiple choice and the test they succeed least is dictation. Girls showed a better usage of punctuation rules rather than boys. The students attending a course are more successful than those who do not attend. The punctuation that students succeed in using most is the question mark, and the one they succeed least is the semi colon. Whether students learn how to use punctuation correctly or not should be checked with different techniques and the function of punctuation should be taught with appropriate techniques. Key Words: Teaching Turkish, punctuation rules, punctuation.

Keywords: