Evaluation of Turkish Education Programs

Introduction Language, which consists of listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, is a mirror of our thoughts, culture, more generally the society and more privately our personality. Seeming to be a mere basic means of communication, language is system also having social, spiritual, emotional, cultural implications since it forms a linguistic community (Koc, 1997:23). Language, which can also be defined as a verbal communication means, includes culture as well, due to its societal properties. That is to say, Whatever there is in the culture also is in the language. Everything in the language comes from the Culture lives, develops and accumulates in the language. Language is the treasure, consciousness, and soul of the culture. (Guvenc, 1992: 509). Language possesses emotional and psychological, in other words an intellectual aspect as well. We can think of the relation between language and thinking similar to the falling down of cooling vapor as drops, because language is the transfer of thoughts to sounds. Language has come to being from man's thoughts, and after its birth has become the creator of thinking and thoughts (Yildiz, 2008: 16). Every society's language is different. brings us to the concept of Mother tongue, which can be defined as the language that an individual learns through observing and listening from the environment s/he is born into and grows up in, Aksan expresses mother tongue as follows: is the language which is learned at first from the mother and close family members, and after that the environment that is interacted with, and which commands a place in one's subconscious and that forms the strongest link with the society. (Aksan, 1995: 81). The inability to use the mother tongue well or correctly causes communication problems in all domains of life. Right conveying of feelings and ideas depends on right use of the mother tongue. Only a clearly-stated opinion becomes understandable by others. The clearer and more useful the words are, the better can comprehension faculty operate, the ability to explain depends on the well-functioning of the ability to comprehend. One who can think clearly may also convey his thoughts clearly, and clear-thinking depends on having a free mind. One can only be able to have complete and free thinking if s/he is able to think his/her mother tongue or the one that s/he is brought up in. A complicated, an underdeveloped language in itself hinders thinking too, it imprisons it. (Akarsu, 1984:117). Karadag (1994: 33), stating that the mother tongue education starts in the family, and that it is directed by the environment and becomes systematized at school, maintains This systematization process begins in school. It is common knowledge that every student comes from different family structures and social surroundings. Undoubtedly, they also differ in their talent in language acquisition. However, the opportunities of our education system enable the application of a program of same level to all of the students. referring to the constructiveness of education institutions in mother tongue instruction (Yildiz, 2008: 50). Mother tongue education has fundamental objectives such as helping individuals acquire the necessary linguistic skills for right, clear and effective communication; developing and giving shape to their thinking abilities, and contributing to the process of their socialization. These objectives, joins together with other aims such as having individuals with sufficiently developed mother tongue awareness and consciousness acquire the ability to comprehend and evaluate actualities of their home country and the world (Sever, 1995: 12). Today, various problems are encountered in mother tongue education. In order to overcome these problems, it must first be understood what mother tongue instruction is. Mother tongue instruction programs must be structured with the intent of helping students acquire the skills involved in mother tongue learning (listening, speaking, reading and writing). …