© Kamla-Raj 2013 Anthropologist, 16(1-2): 337-349 (2013) A Comparative Study on Animal Visuals in Course Books Used for Mother Tongue Education Fulya Topcuoglu Unal School of Education, Dumlupinar University, Department of Turkish Language Education, Kutahya, 43100, Turkey E-mail: fulyatopcuoglu@hotmail.com 1 KEYWORDS Age Groups of 12-14. Child and Animal. Course Book. Native Language Education. Visual Literacy ABSTRACT The aim of this study is to make a comparison of the animal visuals used for mother tongue education in the course books for the age group of 12 and 14 in Turkey and England. Both wild and domestic animal visuals have been used in both countries’ education of mother tongue. The most frequently used skill in visual reading is the reading skill. However, for each of the 3 age groups, English books preferred to show animals alone in their natural environment while Turkish books preferred to use more than one animal of the same species in their natural environment for the purpose of reinforcement England is the country that uses the animal visuals best. Because the animal visuals prove to be meaningful and necessary where they are used, while this ratio is much lower in Turkey with no more than 50%. As a result, it can be concluded that England has acted with more care in use of animal visuals compared to Turkey. Address for correspondence: Asst. Prof. Dr. Fulya Topcuoglu Unal Directory School of Education, Department of Turkish Language, Dumlupinar University, Tavsanli Yolu, 10.km Evliya Celebi Yerleskesi, Kutahya, Turkey Telephone: +902742652031-Ext.4585 Cell: 00905053882755 E-mail: fulyatopcuoglu@gmail.com INTRODUCTION Globalisation, which has emerged with the spread and acceptance of social, cultural, eco- nomic values in international area, can also be explained by outreach of everything produced in a national area beyond national borders. As a result of globalisation, countries are required to develop, follow innovations and interact with each other constantly in order to survive. Due to its importance for the existence and survival of nations, education of mother tongue has a special place in education systems of near- ly all nations. Mother tongue education is a pre- requisite for success of education in other fields. This is because the child perceives and inter- prets its surroundings with this language. Effects of Animals on Children and Child Education Relationship between children and animals go a long way back. Beginning from the pre- school phase children are interested in the ani- mal pictures and other colored pictures they encounter with books. Furthermore, the pictures they draw are based on nature and animals, when they are required to draw pictures. Animals contribute to the mental, emotional, social, physical and lingual development of chil- dren. Further, animals have a nature that does not exist in any educational material and that simultaneously appeal to each developmental field of the children. In development of mental skills, children’s research on animals, analysis on their move- ments, categorization, establishment of relations, solutions to problems are benefited from. Where- in emotional and social development of children, observation of animals’ communication with each other; in physical development children’s imitation of animals are benefited from, it is known that in lingual development talking about animals are made use of. For these reasons, an- imal visuals are frequently benefited from in course books. Children like to talk about animals and re- search where and how they live and what they need. This interest and love are one of the im- portant reasons why the “animal” theme and visuals take their place in course books more often. Language and language rules can be learnt better with loving them. Experts who study on this subject put emphasis on the importance of animals for children. Bekoff (2011) depicted the children’s level of love for animals, how appreciative they are of