Abstract:

The purpose of the study is to determine the issues first grade students whose mother tongue is not Turkish face in elementary literacy teaching. General screening model among quantitative research models was used as the research methodology. The proportional cluster sample of the research consisted of 705 first-grade teachers who worked in Diyarbakır city centre, provincial centres, towns, and villages in the 2012-2013 academic year. The data of the research was collected using “Issues Faced in Elementary Literacy Teaching to Students whose Mother Tongue is not Turkish Scale (EWTSMTS)” developed by the researcher. Descriptive statistics techniques were used to analyze the data. The most important issue according to the mean score of the views of the first grade teachers in teaching elementary literacy preparation dimension in the scale is: “Students have difficulty understanding what is being said due to a language barrier”. The most important issue according to the mean score of the views of the first grade teachers when forming syllables from sounds, words, sentences and text sub dimension in the scale is: “Students whose mother tongue is not Turkish have difficulties forming sentences due to insufficient vocabulary knowledge”. The most important issue according to the mean score of the views of the first grade teachers in reaching literacy dimension in the scale is:” Students whose mother tongue is not Turkish write slowly due to not being able to make sense out of words”

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