Culture is an issue that should not be neglected in language teaching. Language education that is not placed in a cultural context does not have a solid foundation and the comprehensiveness and depth of what is learned remains incomplete. Words contain a cultural treasure of meaning behind them, and the way to access this treasure is to know the culture of that language. For this reason, it is necessary to make culture a part of education in lessons and textbooks. For this, teachers and course resources have important responsibilities. Teachers should create the materials they will use in their lessons accordingly and should not use an artificial method of language teaching. Instead, they should see students as social actors and act accordingly in the lesson. Textbooks have a great influence on teachers' classroom choices and behaviors because textbooks are the most important factors that determine the course of lessons and influence the teacher. If textbooks allocate enough space to cultural elements and support this with visual and auditory elements, teaching will be more effective and permanent. Otherwise, it will be more difficult for students to establish a relationship with the context. For this reason, the aim of this study is to examine the cultural elements of Istanbul in the New Istanbul Turkish Textbooks for International Students and their function in the teaching and learning of the target language. For this reason, the aim of this study is to examine the cultural elements of Istanbul in Yeni İstanbul Turkish Textbooks for International Students and their function in the teaching and learning of the target language. In this direction, cultural elements reflecting Istanbul in A1, A2, B1, B2 and C1 level textbooks were scanned and their function in introducing the culture and the contribution of these elements to the learning processes of language learners were examined and interpreted. The study also problematized the fact that the intensity of the New Istanbul Textbooks' allocation of space for Istanbul culture differs according to the levels. The reason for limiting the study to Istanbul culture is that the analyzed textbook focuses on Istanbul and the socio-cultural elements of Istanbul are frequently used both visually and in writing.
Culture, Istanbul, language, Turkish, teaching Turkish to foreigners.