Teacher Perspectives on the Challenges Faced by Immigrant Students in the Initial Literacy Learning Process
Authors: KIRMIZI Fatma , BOZOVALI Hilal , CİNGÖZ Emre , HİRA Mihriban 
Published: November 2023

Due to adverse living conditions, healthcare system issues, natural disasters, wars, famine, etc., people migrate to different countries every day to start a new life as immigrants. Recently, Türkiye has received migration flows due to wars in Syria and Ukraine. Additionally, there have been migrations from countries with low living standards, such as Afghanistan and Pakistan. It can be said that children are the most affected group by these migrations. Educational support programs have been implemented for students coming through migration. Especially during the initial stages of learning to read and write, immigrant children have faced significant challenges. The aim of this study is to identify and evaluate the problems encountered in the process of teaching initial reading and writing to immigrant students, according to the views of teachers. As the focus is on identifying the problems encountered in the initial reading and writing instruction of immigrant students, a qualitative research method has been employed in the study. Among the qualitative research designs, "case study" has been preferred. The study was conducted in the spring semester of the 2022-2023 academic year in Denizli and Şanlıurfa. Participants are primary school teachers working in state schools affiliated with the Ministry of National Education. The "criterion sampling method" was used in selecting participants, considering the criterion of "teachers with immigrant students in their classes." These students are refugees or have refugee status and have a foreign background. A total of 49 (34 female, 15 male) primary school teachers were reached in the research. Teachers participated in the study on a voluntary basis. A researcher-developed personal information form and an open-ended question form were used to obtain research data. The open-ended question form was developed with expert opinions. Participants in the sample were reached through Google Forms or directly. Content analysis was employed in data analysis. The data were transferred to the computer, and codes were identified. Related codes were grouped together to reach sub-themes. Sub-themes were combined to form themes. When explaining themes and sub-themes, direct quotations were included. According to the results obtained from the research, parents cannot assist their children's studies at home adequately because they do not know Turkish well enough. The majority of immigrant students, due to not having received preschool education, have readiness levels below what is expected. These students experience difficulties in pronouncing certain letters, writing from left to right, speaking and understanding Turkish, and communicating with their peers. According to teachers' views, even if immigrant students somehow learn to read, they struggle to comprehend what they read. These students cannot read sentences meaningfully because they are not familiar with the stress and intonation of Turkish. They also face difficulties in writing letters of the Latin alphabet because they are not familiar enough with them.