An Analysis of The Persuasion Strategies Used by Turkish Language Teachers to Persuade Their Students

“Persuasion” has been a key concept for human communication throughout history. Humans constantly try to persuade or are persuaded since they are in a continuous state of communication and interaction. The aim of this study is to determine the persuasion strategies related to understanding and explaining skills used by the teachers of Turkish language in creating learning environments. For this purpose, a semi-structured interview form was created with the Google Docs and 46 Turkish teachers volunteered to answer the questions. Examination of the Turkish language teachers’ opinions revealed that they developed positive and negative persuasion strategies. The positive persuasion strategies by frequency are rewarding, experience transfer, arousing interest, establishing condition-and-effect relationships, giving responsibility, conversing, trusting, motivating, caring, empathizing, performing needs assessment, building cause-and-effect relationships, establishing positive style, creating environment, developing a culture of reconciliation, giving feedback, establishing rules, building aimand-effect relationships, body language, creating consciousness, using the question-answer method, listening, providing feedback, being respectful, presenting alternative sources, making a difference, getting to know the student, going from the known towards the unknown, being student-oriented, guidance, going from simple to complex, working together, drawing attention, creating awareness, cooperative learning, perseverance, the separation into small groups, being patient, and association with real life. The negative persuasion strategies by frequency are punishment, competition, verbal warning, using grading as a threat, admonition, singling students out, doing nothing, comparison, negative style, conscientious pressure and necessity. Preservice or in-service teachers may be given training on persuasion strategies so that they can become aware of these strategies and apply them more effectively.


Introduction
Language skills are based on comprehension and expression skills. Especially in speech and writing skills, the sender aims "making changes on the receiver" (Akkaya, 2008, p. 68). Making these changes are based on persuasion. According to J. O'shaughnessy and N. J. O'shaughnessy (2004), persuasion is the process in which one attempts to change, transfigure or regulate the values, desires, beliefs and actions of others (cited in Akyol, 2019, p. 5). The American Heritage Dictionary (Morris, 1969, p. 926, cited by Hynd, 2001) defines persuasion as the act of causing "[someone] to do something by means of argument, reasoning, or entreaty; to win over [someone] to action by reasoning or inducement of a course; how to make [someone] believe something; convince". Indeed, given that typical definition, persuasion is inherent to the teaching process. If we accept that the object of teaching is to change students' knowledge, interests, and beliefs, then we must also accept that the object of teaching is persuasion. As teachers, however, we are often unsettled by the notion that we are persuading (Hynd, 2001, p. 270-271). However, teachers' persuasive speaking skills include conversations aimed at collaborating or benefiting both sides. The opinions put forward in persuasive speech should be acceptable. Persuasive speech doesn't mean tricking the other person. Because there is no cooperation in deception talks. It's about controlling the other person (Güneş, 2014, p. 123).
The first realistic classification of persuasion was proposed by Aristotle: Ethos, pathos and logos. Ethos is having knowledge of traditions and virtues. Pathos, on the other hand, is knowing ways to evoke various enthusiasms or emotions in the interlocutor. Logos refers to the ability to make arguments; that is, having the power of rational thought (Durhan, 2018, p. 752). According to Aristoteles, there are three types of persuasion styles that an utterance has. The first depends on the personal character of the speaker (ethos), the second depends on putting the listener into a certain mood (pathos), while the third depends on the proof or pseudo-proof (logos) of the words of the speaker himself (Aristotle, 2006, p. 38). Cialdini (2001) groups persuasion strategies into six categories: "1. Reciprocity: People by their nature feel obliged to return a favor and to pay back others.
Thus when a persuasive request is made by a person the receiver feels indebted to, the receiver is more inclined to adhere to the request.

Commitment and Consistency:
People by their nature strive to be consistent with previous or reported behavior to avoid cognitive dissonance.

Liking:
People can be easily influenced or persuaded by someone they like. Factors such as: similarity, praise, and attractiveness can reliably increase the effectiveness of the liking strategy.

Consensus:
We often observe the behaviors of others to help us make decisions. This is because "a large majority of individuals are imitators rather than initiators, and therefore make decisions only after observing the behaviors and consequences on those around them." (Cited in Orji, Mandryk & Vassileva, 2015, p. 148-149).
According to Luecke (2011, p. 70), persuasion can be applied in an almost unlimited number of ways. Within these, the applications used by teachers, especially in the field of language, are important because language learning or teaching is based on language skills. Persuasion is important in the language skills that are based on expression (speaking, writing, visual presentation). In other words, language teachers in general and teachers of Turkish in particular try to persuade students.
Persuasion is often applied in the fields such as politics, communication, media, psychology, or economics. However, while there has been some extensive research on the use of persuasion skills in language education, especially related to the structure of persuasive texts (Hyland, 1998;Forget et al., 2008;Kurudayioglu, 2014), and speaking skills related to persuasion (Miller et al, 1976;Blankenship and Craig, 2007) no studies exist on the persuasion strategies applied by foreign language teachers.

Purpose of the Study
The aim of this study is to determine the strategies employed by teachers of Turkish language to persuade their students. In line with this aim, answers to the following questions were sought:

Research Design
In this study, the case study design, which is one of the qualitative research designs, was used.
The case study requires an in-depth and holistic perspective on a current event. In the case study, the data must be carefully collected and analyzed deeply in the context of the real world. The case study is empirical, looking for answers to questions of why and how, and requires an in-depth inquiry into how individuals see themselves based on their experiences, their perceptions, and their feelings, and what reasons underlie them (Akar, 2016, p. 113 121). By employing the case study design, this study aimed to find out Turkish language teachers' strategies for persuading their students. For this purpose, the data collected from a group of preservice Turkish language teachers regarding their experiences, perceptions, feelings and thoughts on their persuasion strategies was subjected to an in-depth analysis.

Participants
The participants of this study were 46 Turkish teachers who filled out the online survey form via Google Docs. The Turkish teachers' age, gender and year of seniority distributions are as follows: When Table 1 is examined, it is clear that the most of the Turkish teachers who participated in the study were 29 to 33 years old and the majority had been teaching for 1 to 5 years. However, the number of men and women involved in the study is almost equal.

Data Collection and Analysis
The content analysis technique was used to analyze the data obtained in this qualitative study because content analysis helps combine similar data into specific concepts and themes, and organize them in a form that can be easily interpreted by the reader (Creswell, 2012 Teacher 1) in reporting the findings, thus ensuring the anonymity of the participant identities. At the end of the analysis process, two experts, as external reviewers, were asked to individually examine the codes and statements of the participants. The two experts were in agreement about the codes.

Results
The codes and frequencies of the answers given by Turkish teachers to the question "Can you give an example for an experience in persuading your students?" are as follows: by sacrificing (f:2), by establishing empathy (f:2), by collaborating with the student, (f:1), by using positive body language such as ensuring eye contact with the students (f:1), by giving them responsibility (f:1), and by drawing their attention (f:1). A punishment reported by one of the participant teachers, in the form of preventing students from participating in school activities (f:1) is one of the negative persuasion practices. Some examples of positive persuasion strategies are as follows, respectively: "I gave an example from my own student life. In my high school years, I thought I couldn't succeed in geometry because I was afraid of geometry, but I gradually increased my self-confidence, first by starting with an easy book, and then I realized that I could solve geometry problems. So I realized that I shouldn't be afraid of geometry. If we really put our mind to it, it's all in our hands.
Starting from the easier ones, I moved step by step towards more difficult ones, and I made it." (P11) "When the weather is nice, students like to do the classes outdoors. On a day when I had a two-hour class, my students insisted on going out. So, I told them that if everyone actively participated in the class in the first hour, we could read a book outside in the second hour, and that was what I did. To get something that they really wanted, the students became very engaged during that first hour and they got what they wanted. That's how I persuaded them." "One day, I was teaching the 'Adjectives' subject. When I first explained how adjectives would help them, I found that my students participated more actively in the class. In most cases, when people understand the reasons for doing something really well, it is much easier for them to do it, that is, they are persuaded." (P7) "My students were persuaded to work daily when I set a schedule for the daily course work for everyone in the class, including myself." (P6) "I'm using reinforcements to persuade them. We had a new student in our class. She didn't want to leave her father. So, she didn't want to go into class and she was crying. First, I got down to her height and made eye contact with her. I spoke to her for a few minutes. I took her by the hand and took her to the class. I told her to go in front of the class and introduce herself.
I told her friends to welcome her. I told her that she would have a lot of friends in this class and we would have a great time together. I finally persuaded her and sat her in her desk." (P8) Educational Policy Analysis and Strategic Research, V 15, N 2, 2020 © 2020 INASED 357 "When I was working in a village, the students agreed to come to the course when I personally drove them from their village to my course. I persuaded the students and their families to come to the course." (P4) "I had a student who was struggling with his studies. I looked into why he was struggling. I tried to put myself in his shoes. I realized that the reason he was failing was his family. Then I talked to him about his situation. And we kept the problems to a minimum. If you understand your students, you can persuade them." (P18) "There are times when I observe that students never participate in the activities. I had a student The teacher experiences with negative persuasion strategies are as follows: "I banned a student who kept tearing up his notebook from participating in the class activities and made him sit in the classroom and watch the others, and told him that he could not participate because he kept tearing his notebook. Now we have no problem." (P16) The codes and frequencies of the answers given by Turkish teachers to the question "How do you persuade your students to get involved in the class?" are as follows: Educational Policy Analysis and Strategic Research, V 15, N 2, 2020 © 2020 INASED When Table 3 was examined, it can be seen that the teachers persuade their students with games, various materials or music (f:17) to get their students to participate in the class. Teachers have also persuaded them by giving students symbolic or material rewards (f:8). Creating a supportive environment (f:7) based on tolerance and valuing differences is another common strategy that teachers generally use to persuade their students. The environment emerges as the general, process-oriented method of persuasion by teachers, while concepts such as raising interest and awareness, or giving rewards are the result-oriented methods of instant persuasion. Motivating students (f:4), using a heartfelt sincere style (f:4), determining or meeting the needs of students (f:4), using the question-andanswer method (f:2) or going from simple to complex (f:1), to narrating personal experiences (f:2), teaching by considering students' cognitive, affective and psychomotor traits (f:2), using condition- "I will explain the benefits the student will enjoy if she understands the subject of learning." (P22).
"I raise awareness to the point where the subject is easy for the students. My students become eager to understand more complex subjects after grasping simple subjects, so they become persuaded."(P17) Teachers do not always use positive persuasion strategies, but sometimes use negative persuasion. Some teacher statements for negative persuasion strategies, presented in the order given in the table, are as follows: "Creating a competitive environment has always worked. In a competitive environment, even the most passive student in the class tries hard, even if they may make some mistakes" (P7) "I try to make sure to address them individually by using the 'you' language. So, the students do as they are told." (P24) "By telling them that if they don't listen, they will get a low score on the exam..." (P27) "To be realistic, for example, in the early hours of a cold day, I tell them that we leave our warm bed for a purpose, their parents, perhaps, work outside in this cold and try to meet their needs, etc. by example, leading them to a conscientious responsibility." (P31) The code and frequency values of the answers given by Turkish teachers to question "What do you do to persuade your students to do the course-related tasks?" are as follows: Educational Policy Analysis and Strategic Research, V 15, N 2, 2020 © 2020 INASED As can be seen in Table 4, the participants reported that they get their students to perform the course-related tasks in a result-oriented way by giving them symbolic or tangible rewards (f:11), giving them feedback (f:4), basing their performing their duties on the condition and consequence (f:2), or aim-and-effect (f:1) relationships, while they persuaded students in a process-oriented way by giving responsibility (f:9), creating consciousness (f:5), motivating (f:3), creating awareness and building trust (f:2), creating a cooperative learning environment (f:1), engaging families to cooperate on tasks (f:1), and by transferring their experiences (f:1). Whereas these result-and process-oriented persuasion practices affect students positively, strategies such as advising students (f:2), creating a competitive environment (f:1), forcing them to do tasks (f:1) and intimidating students with low grades (f:1) affect them negatively. Some teacher statements on how they get their students to perform their course-related tasks are as follows: "By giving the student small prizes." (P3) "By stressing that everyone has a particular responsibility ... by giving small responsibilities to students, especially during the classroom activities..." P1) "I create awareness." (P8) "When I assign a task, I always give feedback, which gives them the sense of responsibility to do their job, and so I do not have any problems with that." (P10) "I can persuade my students by motivating them to engage with the lesson." (P11) "By making it clear that I trust the student..." (P16)) Educational Policy Analysis and Strategic Research, V 15, N 2, 2020 © 2020 INASED "I will tell them about the positive changes that will happen in their lives if they understand the subject at hand." (P10) "By teamwork. By putting the students with similar personalities into the same group." (P6) "I set targets by working with the student and pursue them." (P9) "To persuade my students academically, socially and culturally, I give concrete examples of my own and others' school experiences in the middle school, high school, and college." (P26) "I create a purpose in my students. They participate in my classes to achieve these purposes." Some teacher statements regarding their negative persuasion practices are as follows: "I persuade my students by giving them advice." (P15) "It can be effective when I say that I will pick the best from among them." (P17) "I give them assignments and tasks that they can do, and sometimes I persuade them by threatening to grade them on an oral examination." (P24) The code and frequency values of the answers given by Turkish teachers to question "How do you persuade your students to solve classroom problems?" are as follows:   The code and frequency values of the answers given by Turkish teachers to question "How do you persuade your students to study?" are as follows: Looking at Table 6, it is evident that the teachers try to persuade their students to study by establishing a condition-consequence relationship, and pointing out that the courses will benefit them (f:14). Clearly, the teachers use the condition-consequence relationship as a means of persuading their students with abstract situations such as benefit-based hope. It was also found that the teachers persuaded their students to study by giving them rewards with direct or indirect reinforcements (f:10), using positive language with them and having one-on-one conversations (f:6). Persuading students by giving examples from their own lives or from others' lives, and thus transferring experience, is another code (f:5). Checking what students do and giving them feedback (f:5); providing alternative resources related to the lessons like extra books or activities (f:3); cooperating with parents or with different units like the school counseling services (f:2); reminding students that they are responsible for the courses or homework assignments or giving them responsibility (f:2); providing students with information about the objectives and outcomes of the courses or activities (f:2), and associating the courses with life (f:1) are the important persuasion strategies. Some statements regarding how the teachers persuade students to study are as follows: "I hand out activities to my students, and I tell them that if they do these activities, they will succeed." (P26) "When hard-working students are rewarded, the rest is easy." (P10) "I offer books other than textbooks." (P9) "I cooperate with the family. I pay a visit to the parents." (P8) "I persuade them to study by explaining that it is their duty." (P18) "I make the goals clearer and share these goals with my students." (P7) "By making the lesson enjoyable, associating it with their daily lives..." (P10) Table 6 shows that the teachers did not only persuade their students through positive persuasion but they also tried to persuade their students by comparing them (f:1), creating competition between students (f:1) and discriminating among their students (f:1). Some statements made by the participants regarding their negative persuasion strategies they utilize to persuade their students to study, from the most frequent to the least, are as follows: "I compared my slower students with the faster learners, pointing at their example." (P5) "Competition has always worked." (P6) "I persuade those who do not work by putting the hardworking and lazy students into different environments." (P19) The code and frequency values of the answers given by Turkish teachers to the question "How do you persuade your students to communicate?" are as follows:  Table 7 shows that the communication strategies most frequently used by the participants are building trust with students (f:6), making students feel valued (F:6), and conveying their own or others' experiences (F:6). Some other persuasion strategies adopted by the participants are having oneon-one conversations with the students (f:4), applying the question-answer method (f:3), cooperating with the family-peer-counseling services (f:2), using positive body language such as making eye contact with the students (f:2), trying to get students to talk on subjects in which they are interested or they know (f:2), drawing the interest of the students (f:2), listening to them (f:2), dividing students into small groups (f:1), determining their needs (f:1), giving them responsibility (f:1), giving rewards (f:1), using a positive language style with them (f:1), establishing a condition-consequence relationship (f:1) and being patient (f:1). It was also found that the teachers did not use any negative persuasion strategies to persuade students about communication. Some participant opinions on persuading students to communicate are as follows: "Building an environment of trust is one of the most important requirements for students to "I usually try to persuade them with reinforcements." (P6) "I use body language and sometimes I personally participate in it myself so that the student can feel more confident and trust the teacher." (P30) "By explaining that they will be more successful and healthy individuals when they communicate..." (P27)) "By being patient and caring…" (P19) The code and frequency values of the answers given by the Turkish teachers to the question "What are the key elements you value in persuading your students?" are as follows:

A general overview of the results
The Turkish teachers participating in this study were observed use many different positive and negative persuasion strategies. The table below provides a summary of all the persuasion strategies adopted by the Turkish teachers.  Table 9 shows that Turkish teachers implement many positive and negative persuasion strategies.

Conclusion, Discussion and Suggestions
Turkish language teachers create learning environments related to language skills based on understanding and explanation and try to develop these skills of their students. One of the aims of language skills, especially those based on narration, is to persuade the person/persons with whom one is communicating. A primary purpose of narration is persuasion, so the persuasion practices used by teachers of Turkish is important. It was found that to persuade their students Turkish teachers use both positive strategies, such as reward or experience transfer, and negative strategies, such as creating a competitive environment. These codes, created from the answers given by the Turkish language teachers participating in this study, are directly related to the ethos, pathos and logos postulated by Aristotle (2006). This is because codes such as experience transfer, respect, and trust are related to Ethos; the codes such as motivation, valuing, or making students feel valued are related to Pathos; and codes such as using evidence, creating awareness, or giving feedback are related to Logos. However, Educational Policy Analysis and Strategic Research, V 15, N 2, 2020© 2020 given that teachers are the organizers of the learning-teaching environment and the guide of the students, all their persuasion strategies involve ethos; and students' emotional attachment to their teacher involves pathos. However, regarding the codes determined by the views of Turkish language teachers, it was found that they persuade their students more with logos than ethos and pathos. This can be explained as the value given to reasoning and logic in the Turkish labguage learning and teaching environments.
Of the ways of persuasion listed by Cialdani (2001, cited in Orji, Mandryk & Vassileva, 2015, Reciprocity corresponds to the Rewarding and Valuing codes discussed in the current study; Commitment and Consistency corresponds to Being respectful and One-on-one conversation codes; Consensus corresponds to collaborating and cooperative learning codes; Liking corresponds to the Valuing and Trust codes; Authority corresponds to the Establishing rules and Assigning responsibility codes; and the Scarcity corresponds to the Identifying the Needs code in the current study. However, it is also observed that Turkish language teachers use the teaching principles such as moving from simple to complex, having students speak about what they know then move on to topics they do not know about, and individualizing instruction for the student as a way of persuading their students. According to Akkaya (2017, p. 489), it can be said that the Turkish code of persuasion refers not to the individual but rather to a state of harmony with the tradition, which reflects the rules of collective social life. The codes of co-operation, collaborative learning, or creating a culture of reconciliation in this study are directly related to collective life, and thus critical in persuasion.
However, Akkaya (2017, p. 488), notes that rhetoric and dialogues are important in persuasion, which supports the findings of the present study about using positive stylistic features and one-on-one conversation.
According to Yangil and Topçuoğlu Ünal (2019, p. 334), "teacher candidates should make maximum use of activities that improve their speaking skills because persuasive communication depends more on this skill in the educational environment." In this study, the fact that the general codes about what Turkish language teachers do to persuade their students (experience transfer, interest, etc.) are related to the speaking skill is also supported by Yangil and Topçuoğlu Ünal.
However, the codes of cooperative learning and collaboration in this study coincide with the emphasis placed by Yangil and Topçuoğlu (2019, p. 333) on the importance of collaborative work in persuasion.
Turkish teachers used not only positive persuasion strategies, but also negative persuasion strategies Negative persuasion strategies may force students to do the task, but they will fail to ensure learning retention and will inflict deleterious effects on the students. According to Schunk and Pajares (2010, p. 669); negative persuasion can undermine beliefs in self-efficacy. Abelson and Miller (1967, p. 322) describe negative persuasion as the "negative" reaction of the listener not only in terms of her Educational Policy Analysis and Strategic Research, V 15, N 2, 2020 © 2020 INASED feelings towards the speaker, but also in terms of the change in attitude. Therefore, teachers should not use negative persuasion strategies. To make sure that teachers pay more attention to positive persuasion strategies and use them, preservice teachers can be taught these strategies during their undergraduate education, and inservice teachers can be given in-service trainings on effective persuasion strategy use.