Proverbs and idioms are the products of our national culture that have been experienced many times depending on life. In this context proverbs were decribed as ‘an advisory word that was spoken based on long trials and observations and became popular, parable, assertion, darbımesel’ in Turkish Dictionary and idioms were described as ‘stereotypes of phrases with attractive meanings, many of which have a meaning apart from their true meaning (Aksoy, 1989, s. 49)’. Proverbs and idioms, which are the products of national genius, constitute an important branch of Turkish folklore as well as their organizations, structures, aesthetic and meaning-based features.
The acquisition of proverbs and idioms through socio-cultural life is one of the functions of folkloreproducts (Bascom, 2019: 78-81). Especially in past societies where the literacy rate was very low, folklore products enabled the learning and transfer of proverbs and idioms. Today, for a person to be aware of the richness of the language spoken and to communicate effectively accordingly, gaining the ability to use these language products that guide him/her more systematically through formal education.
Considering that the teaching of proverbs and idioms is carried out in schools, it will be seen that the texts in Turkish coursebooks have an important place in cultural transfer (Güftâ; Kan, 2011: 240). It has been stated by many field experts that the primary material used by teachers in educational activities is coursebooks and it has been revealed by some researches (Ceyhan ve Yiğit, 2004; Özbay, 2003; Ülper, 2014; Yalçın, 1996). From this point of view, in Turkish coursebooks, which are the basic equipment of Turkish lessons, even in the theme titled National Culture, which is among the compulsory themes according to the Turkish Course (Grades 1-8) Turkish Lesson Curriculum updated by the Ministry of National Education in 2019, it is expected that more coverage of these items to be included. No research has been found to examine the existence of idioms and proverbs in the theme texts titled National Culture of the 5th, 6th, 7th or 8th grade Turkish coursebooks decided to be used by the Presidency of the Board of Education for the 2018-2019 academic year when scanning with the keywords "Turkish coursebook", "national culture theme", "idiom", "proverb" in Council of Higher Education Thesis Center, DergiPark Academic, TR Directory and Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) databases. However, there are studies that reveal the existence of idioms or proverbs in Turkish coursebooks of other years directly (Ceran ve Çoban, 2017; İnan, 2016; Mangır, 2012; Türkben, 2019) or indirectly (Arslan Kutlu, 2006; Baysal, 2007; Erkul, 2008; Güftâ ve Kan, 2011; Günay, 2007; Lüle Mert, 2013; Yalçın, 2005) through vocabulary scanning. With this research, it is aimed to examine the theme texts titled National Culture in Turkish coursebooks to be used in the 2018-2019 academic year, which have not been researched in terms of the existence of idioms and proverbs.
In this research conducted in accordance with the basic qualitative pattern based on the qualitative model in order to achieve the determined goal, the Turkish coursebooks at the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th
grade levels decided to be used by the Board of Education for the 2018-2019 academic year were
analyzed through document analysis. According to the examination, the following findings were
obtained: While a total of 26 idioms were encountered in the texts on the theme of National Culture in the 5th grade coursebook, this number was 37 and 20 in the 6th grade, 53, 69 and 56 in the 7th grade, respectively; it was found to be 71 in the 8th grade. These numbers are higher than those determined in the studies of Türkben (2019), Lüle Mert (2013) and Yalçın (2005). Based on this information, it can be
said that the theme texts of Turkish coursebooks used in the 2018-2019 academic year are better than the texts of the previous years.
Although there are exceptions in some classes, it is observed that there is a gradual increase in the number of idioms depending on the grade level. This situation is different from the findings of Türkben (2019), which only found an increase between 5th and 6th grade. However, it should be noted that the number of idioms in the theme texts titled National Culture of different books for the same class level is not evenly distributed and these idioms differ from each other. This means that students at the same grade level who are studying with different coursebooks encounter more or less different idioms from each other.
It seems that the gradual increase in the number of idioms is not present in proverbs. The situation in the proverbs is similar to the findings of Yalçın (2005), Arslan Kutlu (2006), Erkul (2008), Güftâ and Kan (2011), Lüle Mert (2013), İnan (2016), Ceran and Çoban (2017). However, according to some coursebooks published in 2006 and 2013, there was an increase in the number of proverbs in favor of the coursebooks analyzed by this research. It should be emphasized that the number of proverbs in the theme texts titled National Culture of different books for the same class level is not evenly distributed, and these proverbs differ from each other. Therefore, students at the same grade level who are studying with different coursebooks will encounter more or lessdifferent proverbs than each other.
The distribution of idioms and proverbs according to text types was also examined, and it was determined that almost all of the coursebooks - except for the 6th grade Turkish Coursebook of the MEB Publishing House - were not evenly distributed. The uneven distribution of expressions according to text types coincides with the findings of Mangır (2012) and Türkben (2019). In addition, it has been determined that the presence of idioms among text types is mostly seen in narrative texts (183 idioms in total), and this situation is parallel to the findings of Mangır (2012) and Türkben (2019). Proverbs are not evenly distributed according to text types. When the idioms and proverbs are examined in terms of dependent or independent morphology usage, it is determined that most of the idioms and proverbs in the coursebooks have dependent morphemes different from their equivalents in the TDK Proverbs and Idioms Dictionary, regardless of the grade level. Considering the total number of idioms in the coursebooks, it is seen that the number of repetitions detected in all coursebooks is remarkably low. It is observed that this situation is similar to the findings of Mangır (2012) and Lüle Mert (2013), but the number of repetitions found to be repeated in this study is more than the numbers given in the studies of the aforementioned authors. It is observed that the number and rate of not repeating idioms other than the mentioned theme texts and in other books are higher than the number and rate of repetition, except for the 5th grade Turkish Coursebook of MEB Publishing House. Regardless of the coursebook, most of the remaining idioms (53-86%) do not repeat in parts other than the texts belonging to the National Culture theme. The situation in proverbs is not different from idioms and resembles the findings of Lüle Mert (2013), who stated that both the number of proverbs were low and they were not repeated in the coursebooks she examined.
According to the above information, these can be suggested that idioms and proverbs to be taught according to grade levels should be determined, more proverbs should be included in coursebooks, idioms and proverbs should be repeated more in the books, students should be able to see both the usage of these expressions in the TDK Proverbs and Idioms Dictionary and the different uses created
by using different morphemes, all idioms and proverbs should be repeated frequently, both in the same coursebook and in coursebooks of different grade levels, in order to see the current situation and the change between periods in more detail, studies should be made to examine and compare the existence of idioms and proverbs in Turkish coursebooks of primary schools and different educational years.
Deyim ve atasözleri bir milletin kültür hayatına dair ipuçları sunan ve nesiller arasında bağlantı kuran kodlardır. Eğitim ve öğretim faaliyetleri aracılığıyla bu kodlar, çocuklara aktarılmaya çalışılır. Örgün eğitim kurumlarında birincil ders gereci olarak kullanılan ders kitaplarının söz konusu kültürel kodları da içermesi beklenir. Bu çalışma ile ortaokullarda okutulan Türkçe ders kitaplarında kültür mirasını öğrencilere diğer temalara nazaran daha yoğun şekilde tanıtması gerektiği beklenen “Millî Kültür” başlıklı tema metinlerinde
deyim ve atasözü varlığı tespit edilmeye çalışılmaktadır. Nitel modeldeki araştırmada 2018-2019 eğitim öğretim yılı için Talim ve Terbiye Kurulu Başkanlığınca okutulmasına karar verilen 5, 6, 7 ve 8. sınıf Türkçe ders kitapları doküman analizi yoluyla incelenmiştir. Çalışmanın sonunda ders kitabı yazarları ve alan araştırmacılarına yönelik öneriler de sunulmuştur.
