INFORMATION STRUCTURE VİEW OF LEARNERS OF TURKISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

This paper focuses on information packaging in Turkish. In the realization of information packing, language may employ distinct components of language which are of themselves operative in the structuring of information structure. Information packaging is the structuring of a sentence by syntactic, prosodic, or morphological means that arise from the need to meet the communative demands of a particular contex or discourse. Syntax and phonology, by means of word order and prosody, are both responsible for the realization of the information structure units. In particular information packaging indicates how information conveyed by linguistic means fits into the contex or discourse. This research is based on 80 students who were learning Turkish as a second language at TÖMER. The article examines the students’ awareness of information packaging in different levels of Turkish. Datawas gathered through a survey that tested the students’ knowledge of scope in –mI and wh-questions.