The Use of Mind Mapping Technique in Acquisition of Grammar Structures in Foreign Language Teaching

Purpose: As in other languages, Turkish also consists of words formed by the combination of sounds and sounds and meaningful integrity formed by the combination of words in a ruleful way. Therefore, it needs some rules for both the formation of sounds, the formation of words and the formation of sentences, which constitutes grammar. In order to learn a foreign language fully and properly, it is necessary to master the rules of grammar. Methods and techniques designed for learning something in the best and shortest time are important and necessary for teaching grammar in foreign language teaching. The aim of this study is to examine the effectiveness of mind mapping technique, which is a different and new technique, in teaching grammar structures in teaching Turkish as a foreign language. Design/Methodology/Approach: In the study, mind mapping diagrams were used to teach grammar structures in teaching Turkish as a foreign language. According to this diagram, language consists of three components: form, function and use. For this reason, all grammar structures to be explained in the lesson were organized according to these three components and diagrams were prepared. Grammar structures were taught through the diagrams whose instructor opinions were taken. “Interview technique”, one of the qualitative data collection tools, was used in the study. For this, a semi-structured interview form was used. At Sakarya University TÖMER, a total of 22 learners at the A2 level were taught with the mind mapping technique for 7 weeks, and then the learners were interviewed one by one with a semi-structured interview form. Content analysis was used to analyze the data. The data obtained through content analysis were divided into themes and sub-themes. Findings: When the mind mapping technique in teaching grammar structures in teaching Turkish as a foreign language was analyzed according to learner opinions, 5 themes and 23 sub-themes were identified. Highlights: According to the opinions of the learners, positive results such as the mind mapping technique being effective in grammar teaching, being useful, having a structure that offers ease of teaching as well as contributing to recall and developing a positive attitude towards the lesson were determined.