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 : 11 | Download : 7

Publication Date : 2015-07-01

Article Type : Other

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 (2007), Okur and Arı (2013), Bağcı and Ünal (2013) and Baş and İnan-Yıldız (2015). Studies on other textbooks include Kurnaz and Erdem (2012) (a study on language and expression textbooks), Köse (2009) (on biology textbooks) and Geçit (2010) (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 (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